Are You Certain?

In one of my latest morning meditations, an idea just dawned on me. This happens to me often. I'll be doing something unrelated to a huge realization about something in my life that crashes on my like a tsunami. Because of my lifetime love of the arts they are my main muses. I have written volumes describing my journey through lifetime behavioral patterns seemingly revealed during a very popular television show.

I am constantly reminded that I'm highly receptive to energies and information right now. I see it in my voracious appetite for learning. In reflection, I see that I daily seek something out to expand myself. I've started blogs, pulled up tutorials on knife skills, research organization ideas, or just kicked back to watch a show because like I said above I insight comes in a variety of situations.

The idea of certainty was undermined during a morning meditation, again like a wave out of nowhere. I see in my mind a montage of moments in my life that verified my shaky ground with certainty, and the lack of it. On one end, the need for certainty can cause rigidity and a need to hold on to things with an iron grip. That certainty is required to move confidently through life. On the other end, being afraid of uncertainty has left many deeply important words unsaid and a preference for the safety of a certain situation even if it's not the best one for me. It's a story you've heard over and over, "I stayed because I didn't know any better" and I've definitely felt that.

My relationship with uncertainty has changed such that I'm able to finally see my previous one clearly. It's so comforting too, because I love knowing something about myself as a way to make a choice of what's next. Slowly, my grip on life so tightly has been loosening starting deeply internal on self esteem spreading outward to how I relate to and see others. My need for certainty and comfort with uncertainty is very different than ever in my life. I am still human, therefore not perfect in our sense of the word, but that's what is the most beautiful thing learning this information about ourselves. It's so powerful and can release you from thinking that you'll always be one way or have never changed. If you have even a moment to be aware of where you've been in relation to where you are I think you'll be awed.

Curated Playlist: Summer '21 ☀️

Making playlists is a love language for me. Because my brain is constantly thinking in terms of music I've heard before (and sometimes music I haven't) I am constantly cataloguing music based on how it makes me feel. That's how these seasonal playlists started. A collection of all my favorite songs from a season that I then go back to listen to and attempt to hear the story that's told about that season.

Without further ado, I present: Summer ☀️

For my Spotify friends, you can launch Summer ☀️ in Spotify here !

Introducing...The Analytical Vegan

Blogging has turned out to be a very therapeutic tool for me over there past few years.

I have a deep need to feel heard and have struggled over my life to find ways to get to that place. I started Honor Thy Henry specifically for this reason: to open up in a new way to see if that fire inside I'm looking for was lit. It worked. Thinking about my posts, writing them and sometimes not posting them has helped me to be more open and communicative offline. As a bonus, my thoughts on how I communicate continue to shift and evolve.

I found myself talking about food, cooking, vegan lifestyle, and all the things that I keep seeing that I don't notice anyone else talking about. This is something I feel often in my life; the seeing of events and ideas that aren't heard elsewhere. I have just started leaning into this noticing as a power of mine and, when I did, I noticed that I really loved cooking. It was surprising thinking of just a few years ago how I would do anything I could not to cook. I had microwavable meals delivered, ordered out constantly, went out to dinner, and struggled doing basic kitchen tasks. I feel compassion for me then and it shows me just how far I've come.

I possess deep analytical talents cultivated over years of technical work and scanning the world for how to best move through it. In The Analytical Vegan, I use these talents to read between the lines of cooking and recipes to reveal new (to me at the very least) insights. I'll share the recipes, but this is more about what I've learned from cooking these recipes, how I am learning to change them to my liking, and some tips that I see between the lines that I don't hear others sharing.

So why another blog? My analytical brain loves the topical nature of each:

HonorThyHenry is my original baby. A place for me to share the revelatory thoughts and moments that are impactful to me. An intimate peek into how I think, how I see the world, and how that's changing constantly.

The Analytical Vegan is my cooking diary as a new vegan and new cook. Here I'll share all the tips and tricks I see between the steps of recipes I've found online, in cookbooks, and through friends and family.

As I learn how to be a more evolved cook and vegan, I'll share that with you so you can apply it to your own journey (even if you're not vegan). The Analytical Vegan is your spot if you're a new cook, new vegan, vegan-curious, or just Henry curious.

I really hope you're join me on this parallel journey. Now you can get two different flavored doses of Henry. What could be better?