June is quite possibly one of my favorite months. There’s Pride, a riotous celebration of love and being who you are. The sunlight lasts until 8:30 at night, and it makes time for so much more time outside – and the garden has surprises yet to be told. Then, the temperatures in my state aren’t yet stiflingly hot, and you can sit outside at night around a campfire and still need a light layer. I will entertain other seasons, but summer will always have my heart. 

I turned 35 this past weekend. I have been reflecting on a lot of things, but primarily what a privilege it is to be getting older. There are so many people I care about who are no longer here, and the aches and pains that come with another year feel trivial in comparison. I expected to be in a much different place in my life by the time I was 35, but I truly have not been happier than I feel right now. Not because my life is perfect, but because I know myself better than ever before, and I can confidently say I am very clear about what is worth worrying about and what is not.

I have to admit, March is one of my least favorite months. Here in New Jersey, March is a fickle thing. It is prone to fits of rain and wind, but also capable of brilliant sunshine and the promise of spring as we spring our clocks forward with Daylight Savings time.

Happy February, y’all! We did it: we made it through January, which felt like it was 45 days long. The jokes do not change year to year, and they are always right year to year.

January means new planners for some, resolutions for others, the sign of another year conquered and lived through. It is a fresh, clean page… with a caveat. The word January comes from the Roman god Janus, who had two faces: one looking forward, the other looking back. Janus was the god of doorways, transitions, and probably the mythical place of young adult cancer survivorship.

After Tropical Storm Ophelia whipped through the East Coast last weekend, it’s been one soupy mess outside here in New Jersey. But the temperature has dropped, to my surprise enjoyment. (I’m a true summer fan at heart.) I’ve gotten away with having my air conditioning units off and with wearing my favorite clothing combination: shorts and a sweatshirt. In a true effort to lean into fall, I even lit a fall-scented candle and pulled out my sweatshirt. Creature comforts, at their finest.

Has anyone else been inundated with way too much stuff to do recently? I make a plan, have a to-do list, and then bam – something else demands my attention and I’m able to accomplish a tenth of what I originally set out to do. It’s immensely frustrating, because like a million other people, I used to measure my worth by the amount of stuff I got done in a day. People would really ask me where I found the time and the energy and usually, it came easy to me. But it doesn’t, anymore. This life – and this chronic illness, post-cancer diagnosis identity – require me to reframe the question of what is it, really, that’s necessary to complete during a day.

There are some weeks that I struggle to offer you what I think are novel suggestions, and then there are others that seem rife with crowd-pleasers. It would be easy for me to stick to my standard role call of favorites, but I don’t want this to be just a list of predictable items that would make Miranda Priestly mutter “florals for spring? Groundbreaking.” The following suggestions are for sure rooted in things I love and have recommended before: vegetarian food, a musical, and engaging with other humans on a personal level. But it’s my hope that this week’s suggestions will translate into your life easily.

This is Christina’s Corner: the What A Week edition. Life has thrown a lot of us some curveballs recently, and I’m not here to excuse it, though I am here to blame mercury in retrograde. (Whether you believe it or not, it’s great to have a scapegoat that doesn’t actually hurt anyone.) I believe that when you are experiencing Just One Of Those Weeks, it’s time to pull out all the stops to care for yourself.