Sunday Candy Issue #12

Thoughts & Feelings, A Totally Reasonable Response, Essential Advice

Welcome to Sunday Candy! This is a biweekly newsletter sprinkled with whatever I feel like sharing with you.

If you’re a new friend, you can catch up with my previous issues here.

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Thoughts & Feelings

Confession:

I’ve held onto this card since I was 8 years old.

In third grade, my school was experiencing tons of issues that were explained to me simply as “politics.” It was a mess. Everyone was unhappy. Teachers were either being let go, or quitting. And I was going to have to attend a new school.

I loved my school and my teachers.

I was devastated.

And I thought the way it all affected the teachers was unfair.

So I wrote a letter about how I felt, and despite being afraid of public speaking, I agreed to read it at the next school board meeting.

I think my need to express myself and be heard outweighed my fear.

I remember an intense feeling of butterflies fluttering inside me that day. I didn’t want to do it anymore. But I did. I still showed up, and stood up in front of that room full of adults and read.

Because thoughts and feelings demand to be expressed.

Between all the grown up eyes on me, my sadness and frustration, I became so overwhelmed with emotion that I started to cry in the middle of reading.

But with my mom’s help, I made it to the end of my letter. With a trembling voice and tears pouring out of me, but I did it.

This card reminds me that I not only had courage at 8, but that I still have courage in me, and that I’ll always have it.

Courage is always available to me.

And I think that’s true for you, too.

I think we all have things available to us that we sometimes can’t recognize, or don’t know how to access.

Maybe we forget. But it’s all there. Maybe we don’t even need to try that hard to access any of it.

What do you think?

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C’mon C’mon (2021)

Something I watched recently was C’mon C’mon, a beautiful black and white movie with a whole lotta heart.

Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) is a radio journalist that travels around interviewing kids about their perspective on life and the future. (side note: the interviews in the film are actually real with kids who aren’t actors and I love that)

When Johnny’s sister needs to take off to support her estranged husband who is struggling with a mental health crisis, he offers to take care of his nephew, Jesse. The two develop a strong bond with plenty of highs and lows.

Here’s a clip from one of my favorite moments. It’s earnest and very sweet. Jesse is struggling with his dad’s situation and having to soon leave his uncle to go back home, and Johnny validates his emotions, reminding us that it’s okay to not feel okay.

“I’m not fine and that’s a totally reasonable response!”

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Essential Advice from Recent Middle-School Graduates

This week I’m sending you off with an episode from The Best Advice Show. 

“In every (very short) episode of the show, a different contributor offers their own personal take on what they do to make their life better, healthier, saner and more livable.”

This one is under 12 minutes and offers: a perspective on navigating difficult experiences, the one thing everyone should have, and what you should ALWAYS carry with you. All from a group of some very thoughtful, funny, and wise kids.

Listen. What resonates? What makes you laugh or smile? Let me know.

That’s all for issue #12 of Sunday Candy!

Thanks for reading, friend.

Until next time,

Sandra

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