What’s inspiring me right now

Inspiration is everywhere this week. Here’s where I’ve found it.

• Aldi flowers. A person with fresh cut flowers on display in her home at all times is something so far removed from anything I’ve ever aspired to be that I’d hardly put a single thought into it. Fresh flowers are expensive, and also die, making their existence seem rather inexcusable. Then, on a whim one day, I examined the flowers at the Aldi checkout line, and they were $3.99. Not $20. $3.99. So I bought some. And I have continued to buy them every time I go, so now I have officially become a person with fresh cut flowers on display in her home at all times, and GUESS WHAT? It’s a goddam delight.

• Alisa’s new wedding invitation collection. It’s so easy to get caught up in the minutia of our own incremental journeys that a) we can hardly tell we’re getting anywhere and b) we lose track of others. When someone super accomplishes something exciting, however, it serves as a solution to both. Not only is appreciating their progress warm and fuzzy and fun, but it also reminds us that from the outside, our own momentum doesn’t seem as slow. Everyone in the world is just focused on their own stuff, chugging along, and out pops something to celebrate, sometimes from you, sometimes from someone else.

So today, let’s celebrate Alisa Bobzien‘s new wedding invitation gallery. She has been working like a honey badger on this for months. Like, lots of months. And it looks amazing and beautiful and all the superlatives. Congrats to Alisa for being inspiring this week, as she tends to be.

• Terry Lynn Land. No, really. Prior to last week, I walked around the world with the naive view that more women in government, regardless of their politics was a good thing. I thought it meant more women’s issues will be represented. Thanks to Terri’s ad for her congressional campaign, which not only makes fun of the importance of women’s policy issues, but also attempts to score points with the ladies just because she’s a lady, even though she has supported efforts that make women’s lives more difficult, I have been enlightened. Now I know my views need to be more nuanced. While, in general, more women in government will mean better representation for women, some specific women will not contribute to the benefit. Specifically, those who think having a vagina makes up for actively working against policies that help women. So thank you, Terri, for inspiring us all to see that very fine line.

• B.J. Novak’s One More Thing I wouldn’t say I actively avoid male authors, but I do actively choose to read female authors, fairly exclusively. The world is just full, full, full of literary praise of and influence from men; I’m just trying to balance things out a bit. Somehow, I accidentally stumbled onto reading this book though (I think it’s because of how deferential he seems in his ambiguous relationship with Mindy Kaling), and it is a delight. Deeply funny. Clever. Well written. It’s the kind of book that makes a writer want to stop everything and work on her own projects. Well done, male person.