Welcome to May, the month of many birthdays, the first real tastes of spring, and the joy of finally finishing the school semester!

I have a problem with getting ahead of myself. I tend to think of the future, rather than being focused on the present. So one of my first thoughts as I wrote this, was “yay, it’s almost summer!” And of course (at least to me), summer is wonderful. But it’s also really important to remember the beauty of now.

A good friend of mine always says having anticipation and goals for the future is good. It’s great to be excited about upcoming things! But if we don’t take time to ground ourselves in the present, to be sure we’re not just shoving stress down underneath a veil of excitement (guilty…) we risk letting anxiety take hold and twisting up all that excitement. Like that one climax scene in Inside Out 2 (if you haven’t seen it yet… I highly recommend, for all ages. It gives good insights to the different ways anxiety works in your brain.)

And I’m guilty of all this, but I’m also making a big effort to fight against it this May. I want to take the time to prep for this summer, so I can have fun. But I’m also moving to live in the moment. Stopping to smell the rose buds, the fresh rain from the night, the damp grass beneath my feet. And I encourage you to join me. See how it goes. What little things you notice that bring you joy. You might be surprised at how much life is really in the tiny moments.

This month, I’m also continuing our reading challenge! (I haven’t been updating my book bracket… whoops. Perhaps at the end of the year!) And for May, I have a very fun and fitting topic. Drumroll please…

Our reading challenge for this month is read a book about mental health!

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, and what better way to be aware of a topic than to read about it? You can read a novel (my preference at the moment, because I don’t currently have the mental space for nonfiction.) or you can read a nonfiction, graphic novel–anything! Below, I have some recommendations featuring all sorts of mental health topics.

• OCDaniel by Wesley King. A middle-grade contemporary novel about a boy with OCD who’s noticed by none other than Psycho Sara, the weird kid at his school. When he receives a note from a “fellow Star Child”, he’s sweep up into a mystery, and an adventure to find his place in the world–and in his family.
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, winner of the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award. This magic realism adult novel tells the tale of Nora Seed. When she finds herself in the Midnight Library, a place where each and every book shows her a different way she could have lived. Until she has to ask the question: what is the best way to actually live?
• We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride. A young adult fantasy contemporary centered around clinical depression and healing from trauma, a mysterious, magical forest, and two teens’ lives, intertwined.

Have fun, and let me know what books you end up reading!

Last but not least, we have our writing challenge for May. Feel free to use this for poetry, a short story, or even a journal prompt!

Our writing challenge:

Who would you be if you made that choice?

This is a little unconventional, but take some time to explore it. What choice shaped your character? What choice in your life do you think shaped you? You could even form this into a poem about this said choice…

While you’re thinking up your choices, I’ll be busy behind my computer. I’m hoping over the summer to write up some really fun posts, and even spread out to new platforms! I’m also starting to get my novel ready for querying… I’ll be releasing more information about that over the summer. But until then, let me know: what are you most excited about this May?

Keep blooming (and staying in the moment!) ❤