Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope today’s newsletter will bounce us up as we contemplate the upsides and challenges of being neurodivergent, a little beauty, some creativity, and just general yeehawesomeness.

Table of Contents

• Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

  • Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope t …

• I Stumble to the Kitchen

  • Ha Ha Haiku

  • Airborne

    • Yeehawesome!

    • Quote of the Week

  • Wonderful Wednesday

  • Today’s Beany-full Summary:

I Stumble to the Kitchen

Along with what seems like half the world’s population, I am grieving Dolly Parton’s death.

You might wonder: What does Dolly Parton have to do with a jumping-bean brain and neurodivergencies?

I’m not going to try to make any connections. I’m just sad.

I sing her song “9 to 5” when I go do karaoke, and I was kind of stumbling to the kitchen this week as I realized she’s not with us anymore (for now).

In 2024, when Dolly’s book Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones was in the new-release section (in English!) at our local Japanese library, I snapped it up. Before I turned it back into the library, I put on my butterfly sweater (her symbol) and took her to the laundromat in honor of her love story (she met her husband, Carl Dean, at the Wishy Washy Laundromat on her first day in Nashville).

Here’s my review in the Goodreads reading app in March 2024 of Behind the Seams:

My word for the year in 2024 was “fly” and I listened to Dolly’s song “Love Is Like a Butterfly” to connect me to my word that year. Have you heard it? She wrote it in 1974. (Another one I listened to that year quite a bit was “Butterfly” by Jon Batiste.)

“Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.”

Dolly added an extra layer of sweet brightness into the love parfait sloshing around in this old fragile glass world. Thank you, Dolly, and enjoy your eternal coat of many colors.

Ha Ha Haiku

A funny haiku for you every week in every newsletter, whether it’s one of my own or one I curate for you. HA. Ha. Haiku.

Airborne

I didn’t realize when I bought a pot of pentas flowers that they were good for attracting butterflies. A black swallowtail found them the other day and spent a good long while on our front stoop, and I felt it was fitting right after Dolly Parton departed this world and her symbol is a butterfly. Also, it goes with my one-word theme this year.

Do you pick a word or theme for each new year? Mine for 2026 is airborne (I know—fly for 2024 and airborne for 2026).

Do you also listen to the podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin?

One thing that she and her sister Elizabeth Craft recommend to bring more happiness to your life, in addition to choosing a word for the year, is distanced self-talk (talking to yourself using your own name).

A funny example of this is from the movie “Sliding Doors” when Helen’s boyfriend Gerry is talking to himself in the bathroom mirror when he gets stressed (his own fault—he’s having an affair and trying to juggle the situation).

Anyhoo, distanced self-talk can be a boon, if you need to think about yourself from a different angle and cheer yourself on.

(Makes a change from the angry voice in my head telling me I’m doing everything wrong.)

So…another Gretchen Rubin recommendation: Choose a roller derby name for yourself to improve your distanced self-talk and to add whimsy. (Someone close to me used to be a real roller derby girl, by the way!)

Have you thought of one yet?

I’ll give you a minute…

…….

…….

…….

…….

…….

All set?

When I was a little girl, my best friend used to call me Alligator (we lived in Florida) and I called her Lisa Pizza.

So my roller derby name is…Airborne Alligator!

Having a word of the year and roller derby name help me to organize my life a little bit better.

When the world feels out of control and your brain is always busy, it can be a support tool to choose and use a one-word theme and to utilize distanced self-talk.

Airborne Alligator, you’re doing great with this weekly newsletter thing and maybe you’re sharing some ideas that might be useful for other folks too. Keep on rollin’.

Yeehawesome!

Yeehawesome! is a happy-brain roundup in each issue of Beany Brain. What’s happening that’s good in brain land? What’s bringing me joy?

1. Pokka Sapporo’s lemon juice bottle has braille on it. I see what they did there, and it’s very well done.

2. “Ordinary Abundance”: an interactive article about the gift of everyday inventions in our homes.

3. A mum got a tattoo of a keyboard on her arm to help her nonverbal autistic son communicate with her. What a sweet story.

Quote of the Week

Beany Brownie Points and Extra Bonus Funniness

Wonderful Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday was a day once a year in college when they would suddenly and surprisingly call off all classes and we’d play all day. The cafeteria provided special fun food and we’d do stuff outside like slip ‘n slides and jello wrestling in sumo suits. This segment of Beany Brain is dedicated to that memory of silliness and fun—no words, just a photo from the week that I’ve taken or found that reminds me to let the joy in. Since Beany Brain is published on Wednesday every week (at least, Wednesday in Japan), I hope you enjoy this Wonderful Wednesday.

Today’s Beany-full Summary:

• An ode to Dolly Parton, who just passed away last week.

• It can be helpful and supportive for ourselves to choose a one-word theme for the year, use distanced self-talk, and maybe even choose a roller derby name for ourselves for an extra bit of whimsy.

• Go forth in Beany joy. What will help you feel yeehawesome this week?

Thank you for reading this installment of Beany Brain! You’re very welcome to hop on by any old time.

If you’re enjoying Beany Brain, please share with a friend or seventeen at www.beanybrain.com. Cheers big time!