The Vital Lesson I Learned in March and 5 Ways I Practiced Self Care
Highlights and photos from the month.
I’m bringing back the monthly edition of Morning Person, featuring the best moments, recipes, articles, and recommendations from the month. Let’s dive into some March highlights!
So often, the pieces I share on Morning Person feel like notes to self, that just happen to be published on the internet. In March, I wrote about the breakdown that reminded me of how vital self-care is, my workout routine, an intimate conversation with my boyfriend about our breakup, and a “before and after” of my favorite room in the home we share. Even though I spend hours thinking about, writing, and editing each piece, the topics take on entirely new layers of meaning as soon as they go live. Every week, I am floored by your thoughtful comments and generous email responses, which deepen my own reflections.
I’ve said it before, but I really can’t overstate how much this community means to me. Sharing what is effectively my diary online should feel scary, but your kindness and engagement always make me feel safe, like I’m writing for a group of close friends. Last week, several of you emailed me just to check in with how I’m doing with school (!) and a reader in Portland organized a meetup from the email list of attendees from our holiday party. Recently, I’ve noticed more activity in the subscriber-only chat—with in-person meetups, a huge thread of moms connecting, big questions, and requests for recommendations!
Next week, I’m sharing a piece that will kick off a series I’ve been working on for months. It’s big and vulnerable, but I also feel confident sharing it because of this community. I may be the one writing each issue, but you create the container. In case I don’t say it often enough, I just wanted to tell you: thank you, thank you. Read on for a few highlights from March! x
This month, my boyfriend and I talked about our breakup and the process of getting back together, but my favorite response was his answer to the question, “What do you love about each other?”
🎥 ‘Mickey 17’ in theaters: “What’s it like to die all the time?” People aboard the space ship bound for a new planet keep asking Mickey (played by Robert Pattinson), an “Expendable” who is put through such dangerous and experimental tasks that he frequently dies and is reprinted, or cloned, with his memories intact. I loved so much about this movie, the latest by ‘Parasite’ director Bong Joon Ho, but it’s strongest in its sci-fi explorations. The satirical aspects, led by a Trump-adjacent Mark Ruffalo, hit a little close to home, even with a plot that takes place light-years away.
📚 Pieces You’ll Never Get Back by Samina Ali: Five days after giving birth to her son Ishmael, Samina awakes from a coma with significant memory loss, from nearly dying from a rare form of preeclampsia her doctors missed. Her stunning memoir straddles cultures, and even life and death, as Ali recovers painstakingly slowly, navigating motherhood while putting herself back together like a puzzle.
📺 “The Åre Murders” on Netflix: As if we needed another high-stress show (!), I’m intrigued by the premise of this Swedish murder mystery, which I found thanks to
’s recommendation. In it, a young girl goes missing at a Swedish ski resort town, prompting an investigator, who is there on vacation and under internal investigation, to go looking for her.
In light of this week’s piece on “wringing out the sponge,” I made an extra effort to incorporate genuine moments of self-care into my month. Here are five ways I took care of myself:
Did one thing at a time. In the morning, I am often multi-tasking, but I’ve been making a concerted effort to do one thing at a time. For example, I spent the three minutes it takes to make pour-over coffee—get this—only making pour-over coffee. Such a small tweak, but I felt significantly calmer and more grounded.
Read a book in a single sitting. I recently went to Las Vegas to see Dead & Co. and brought
’s upcoming book Everyone is Lying to You, out this July! I am obsessed with her Substack and our previous book club pick, The Sicilian Inheritance, so it was no surprise that I adored this thriller about a trad wife influencer who goes missing after (possibly??) killing her husband. I read the entire thing poolside, which felt like heaven. P.S. Book club is coming back soon, in a new iteration! Stay tuned!Took a bath! I am not historically a “bath gal,” but after taking one a few weeks ago, it quickly became my favorite way to unwind from my internship, calming my nervous system without the exertion of exercise. I use the time to watch #vanlife videos on YouTube (my absolute guilty pleasure and strange addiction) and added a few drops of scented body oil, to give the water a light fragrance, though I recently purchased this bath soak from Primally Pure to up my game. I’ll report back!
Took myself out to lunch. Last Monday, I got out of class a half-hour early. Instead of racing to my next meeting, I used the extra time to take myself out to lunch at Sebastiano’s in Sellwood (their raddicchio salad is the only thing I order, I love it so much) and read a book in the sunshine.
Went on a long, slow run. Portland was blessed last week with a day of seventy-degree sunshine, so I grabbed Toast after my internship and headed on a long, very slow run, to soak it in, pausing in parks along the way so he could roll in the grass!
I’ve gotten a few nudges recently for an updated guide to Portland, and I hear you—I am long overdue! Until then, I wanted to share a restaurant I went to Friday night, a new Korean pub called Moon Pocha that opened this month in one of my favorite neighborhoods, at 28th and Burnside. The bulgogi was as delicious as anything I ate in Seoul, and the tapas-style small plates made it ideal for a group. It was the perfect spot before an evening of dancing at Goodfoot down the street!
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Vanlife and thru-hiking videos from the PCT are my YouTube addiction as well!
Oh my gosh, I LOVE van life content! I'm also obsessed with extreme hiking or camping videos too. Things I will likely never do in my life (I love camping and hiking but extreme is not for me) but I find some comfort in seeing how people make it work. I highly recommend WildBeare and Madison Clysdale if you already aren't following them. And if you're not already following her, JustRowan is wonderful and given that she's living van life (with her sweet dog!) after recovery, I think you'll lik her.