Amy Lu's View

Wednesday is often my night to blog. Not the only time I blog, but as it’s usually Chad’s Geek Night, it’s a nice routine…he plays online D&D and I blog.

I’ve been planning for a while now to use this Wednesday to blog about “Small Wins” since COVID, continuing to seek inspiration from Live Wire Radio and their audience question, “Tell us about a small win that felt really good.”

And then our country experienced an attempted coup today (unfortunately not completely unexpected) and writing about my Small Wins seems ludicrous.

I’m going to do it anyway. There’s no way I can helpfully blog about today’s event (I will say “WTF?!!” and express deep gratitude for everyone who is preserving our democracy). And maybe keeping up our little traditions and daily life in some way preserves order (it’s probably not hurting anything, I hope).

So, small wins that have made me feel really good–in no particular order. Some of these are actually “big” wins on the Amy scale, though small in the grand scheme of things:

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• Making the TBTL podcast online Talent Show with my “Pandrumic” drum solo
• Completing a 210 Day Running Streak and getting a PR on the “virtual” Women Run the Cities 10 Mile
• Singing in front of tens of people at the Landmark Center and feeling really good about my performance (socially distanced performance–we were on the balcony)
• Writing postcards and letters for the “UU the Vote” voter drive
• Figuring out how to use Instacart for delivery and pickup
• All my online MSUS coffee house performances and supporting Chad (i.e. staying out of his way) as he keeps the coffee house going
• Finishing three latch hook projects (one started pre-COVID)
• Participating in a six-week online course on “Transgender Inclusion in Congregations” with other members from our church
• Visiting several locals parks I’ve never or rarely been to, and NOT getting lost in the parks
• Acting in and to a small extent helping with creation of online productions with Applause Community Theater: A Collection of One-Acts (Chad and I did “Post-It Notes On a Marriage”), a new play reading, and Uh-Oh: Here Comes Christmas (a BIG win).
• Watching–and getting inspired by–most of the Democratic National Convention
• Giving away boxes of old clothes from high school and young adulthood and toys (“collectibles”) from our earlier Chamy years
• Participating in a spiritually small group with our church that involved a lot of stillness and deep listening
• Only gaining 4 pounds through alcohol and chip consumption (hey, it could have been worse)
• Keeping this blog going

None of these wins saved Democracy, but none of them could have happened without it (or at the very least they would have felt less victorious).