Britt Flores is a freelance journalist for The Daily Courier. You can follow her advice on self-care on Twitter @bfloreswrites.

Happy New Year Quad Cities!

Greetings Quad Cities! I hope it was a beautiful Christmas and you had an opportunity to find joy and most importantly smile, laugh, and take some deep breaths.

My dear readers, we are in the thick of it now. It’s our first Christmas and Hanukkah in a pandemic. Can I get a socially distanced high-five?

The holidays are officially here and I am writing this the day before Thanksgiving.

One important philosophy I’ve learned during this pandemic, amidst the social chaos, it is that being grateful is a choice and a habit to be formed; with a little personal training and effort, negative thinking and reactions can indeed be brought to heal, in both literal senses of the word.

Happy Halloween weekend! It is a full moon weekend and very, very cold.

A well-curated life creates happiness free from personal chaos. “To curate” according to the dictionary, is to “take charge of, or organize” Lately, I have been inspired to take advantage of the time I have while still not being out in the world, to “curate” my life, and the results have been not only enjoyable, but had a trickle effect to other areas of my life, which I did not expect.

Happy “Back-to-School” week, sort of. Technically we have been back to school for a few weeks now, and this year I want to give a HUGE “thank you” to our PUSD for diligently communicating to all of the parents everything from school safety procedures to school supply lists to resources for parents, and the creation of amazing and exciting online classrooms.

Seems like just last year I was writing about the stress of kids starting school and being subjected to the early holiday marketing of Halloween decorations and costumes at Costco … now here we are again, our school districts doing a stellar job of communicating with parents, Halloween still jumping the gun, and we are all stressed now because of COVID-19.

The word “Meditation” makes me think of the word “Hawaii.” When I hear the word “Hawaii,” I think of an island paradise full of tranquil sunsets, fruity adult beverages, relaxing in crystal blue, warm waters ... ahhhhhh ... I want to be there; I want my family to be there, I want everyone I love to be there.