monthly intentions

🌱from evy's garden 🌱

I promise myself to hold myself to these intentions only if they are helpful to me.

I use these intentions as ways to set focus for each month towards the things that matter to me.

I share them here for accountability and also as an example of what intention-setting can look like.

This page was inspired by a friend, and the styling is heavily based off of his beautiful version.

july 2023

learn about poetry

I want to feel more competent when I write poetry. I want to read Mary Oliver's book on writing poetry, and do some reading and writing of poems over the month.
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limited sugar

No sugary drinks or juice. No desserts like candy, ice cream, or donuts. Exceptions made for Canadian delicacies with nostalgic qualities (once per delicacy).
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listen more to the Revolutions podcast

There's no concrete goal, I just have been enjoying the learning I've been doing listening to it, and want to make time to get back into listening regularly again. This sets an intention to spend time on walks or before bed listening to the story fo the Russian revolution.

crochet

There's no concrete goal. I want to set an intention to learning some crochet skills, and for doing crochet in moments where I feel fidgety.

may and june 2023

send a newsletter

it's been a little while! and i like telling my friends about what i've been up to and thinking about
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write four community housing posts

I like writing these posts and this project feels like an important thing I have going on right now. I'd like to add a bit of incentive to keep it going
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make a new zine

i have a bunch of ideas and have been feeling some fear of making, so i wanna just go for it!
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get supplies for making earrings and make some

i did this at a workshop recently and it was fun and easy! i want to make some and try selling them alongside my zines to help my profits :)
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(& sold some!)

run a community event at the house

i would love for our house to feel more connected to external community. i ran a kid-focused pancake party and it was very cute.
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eat dinner at other community homes

i would love for our house to feel more connected to external community
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february 2023

put up shelves in my room above my desk

My new speakers take up too much space on my desk, so I'd like to put them on shelves on either side of my desk. I want to add a handful of shelves that can also hold books and plants! I got this partially done in February and completed it in March -- and I love them!
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scan three envelopes of letters my mom received in her life

My mom kept letters sent to her over her life, and I've been wanting to transcribe them since she died. My sibling is planning to do some research on her life soon, so now's a good time to scan them to help with transcription.
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write 10 notebook posts

It's been a while since I wrote regular notebook posts, and I have a buildup of things I'd like to write about! I've been focusing a lot of my writing energy towards communal-housing-related things, and I want to intentionally direct my energy elsewhere for a bit.
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attend a fusion dance event

I miss partner dance, and I've heard good things about fusion <3
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january 2023

visit the japanese tea gardens in the rain

a sheltered outside place to watch the rain fall onto water while drinking a hot cup of tea, and maybe even some miso soup. and it's free for sf residents! sounds dreamy <3
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sell 10 more copies of my zine

If you want a copy, you can fill out this form! I want to sell more directly to individuals but I'll also allow this to include sales to stores.
Completed 7/10 but also have 3 orders not paid yet, and 24 copies ordered by a bookstore, and a publishing deal!
✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ 🔵 🔵 🔵

attend friday's food not bombs x2

I show up, I make PB&J sandwiches for an hour, then I walk around with the group and give them out and say hi to people who are resting on the streets. It's easy, it's impactful, and it helps me reduce biases. I want to go more often.
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attend RCV phone banking x2

I think that ranked choice voting will improve voter turnout and make it easier to gradually increase support for more left-leaning candidates. I like this issue because it seems to make politics better and also supporters of any party could get on board. CalRCV hosts weekly phone-banking sessions, and I want to show up twice to see what it's like.
I ended up attending a meeting and learning that they're not doing much phone banking this month.
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set up talk about community-supported goals for with five friends

I really like doing things to help my friends achieve their goals, and I'm wondering if other people would also like helping their friends in similar ways if they were asked or knew what to do. I want to try setting this up in a somewhat similarly formated way for some people and see what I learn.
So far I'm learning it's a lot easier to ask people about their goals and offer my own help than to try to get other people involved, though I'm not surprised about that.
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exercise more

Since my nerve injury, I've had trouble exercising because a lot of exercise flares my injury. This goal is to do any kind of exercise that could feel fine -- plank, hike, balance on one leg. Do it until I feel tired, or until it feels bad for my nerves, or until I really don't want to. But do it, and do it 40 times this month.
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december 2022

get some proper speakers for my room

After years of not caring about if my music was playing on a phone or laptop speaker, I think I finally care about sound quality. I've been noticing I feel less drawn to music for sad lyrics and more for other things, and that's probably related. I ended up buying the Micca PB42X.
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more lighting for my room

I want to be able to make my room brighter, and also want to be able to better distribute non-overhead lighting when I'm going for a softer-lit vibe. I got an LED strip that I attached to the top and side edge of my closet -- I can't see the lights directly, but I see the light they give off.
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pretty up the house

I want to get more art up on our walls (a housemate apparently has some in storage) and make the tea room more cozy and more actually containing tea. I made some progress: I made a doc suggesting several changes, I put up a piece of art I made, and brought more pillows into the roomm. But I didn't get the art from storage or set up tea in the room.
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focus on reading again

For the last several months, I've mostly only been reading for the book club I'm in, and I wanted to actively get myself to read some books. I set a goal to read Unmasking Autism, The Montessori Toddler, and a book of fiction.
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sell my zine to friends and mail it to people who bought it!

I sold 20 copies and sent most of them in the mail! I wanted to put some copies in little libraries, but ended up not doing that. (Maybe that was for the best, considering recent rain.)
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write a blog post for supernuclear

It feels like everyone living in community homes is doing research on how to do it well. There's a lot of complexity and things to think about. I want to write a lot more posts about things I've learned and am thinking about so that others can learn from our house's learnings. The post wasn't published, but it's drafted and it's hard for me to control when the people who run the blog have time to look it over. So I'll consider it done!
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make a big art

I got this huge canvas from a thrift store and painted it white and now I guess I should paint it?? It was scary and I don't know if I like it, but I did it and it's hanging on the wall now. Earplugs and legos were involved.
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