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 …

• Rejoyvenation

  • Both/And

    • Yeehawesome!

  • Wonderful Wednesday

  • Today’s Beany-full Summary:

Rejoyvenation

Not a typo, folks!

I coined a new word this week:

Rejuvenation + joy = rejoyvenation!

I used to assume that I was supposed to just conjure up some joy.

And if I didn’t, I was deficient in some way.

If I wasn’t bubbly, there was something wrong with me.

I’ve now decided that it might not be possible to snap my fingers and force myself to look neurotypical-happy.

I’m quiet for a reason.

I’m introspective.

I’m bookish.

But I also do enjoy a good joke.

(This next bit is posted with permission, but I have to give you the backstory. The Thames Water utilities company here in this part of the UK has been caught illegally dumping sewage in waterways and being involved in financial mismanagement including paying their shareholders and CEO big wads of money even as they were being fined. My son and I were walking down to the high street this morning to buy groceries and we saw some Thames Water folks with the covers off the drains and they had these weird ear funnel things to listen to the drains.)

Me to the Thames Water people: Found any monsters down there?

Thames Water people: Nope, not yet.

Me: Phew.

My son, to me, as we kept walking: Only the specter of the CEO bonuses.

Now that had me cracking up! (Honestly, it was very Private Eye.)

What tickles your funny bone?

Here’s another one right up my alley.

Here are some autism-themed funnies:

There’s too much poop in the world. Just read the news.

There’s also joy.

It might not look like you expected or what others expected of you.

It might not fit into a tidy box.

It might be you laughing at the “wrong” thing or time.

From the Big Issue magazine, June 2-8, 2025, a quote from Mark Porter, the Big Issue Invest executive chairman:

He might’ve been talking about investing, but I took it as encouragement. We don’t know how things will turn out each day, but it can be an opportunity to spot the joy. 

We don’t have to conjure anything though.

Corrie ten Boom says joy runs deeper than despair.

Tolkien’s stories featured small (in stature) characters putting one hairy foot after another and then conquering evil. With a supporting cast of characters.

Whether your extremities are hirsute or not is beside the point.

Most of us are ordinary folk on a life-quest. Sometimes joy is obvious; sometimes we have to hunt it down with a spoon or a pen or whatever we have handy.

Sometimes it thwacks us upside the head with a sewage-CEO joke.

Are you feeling a wee bit more rejoyvenated?

Both/And

We’re still in the UK, and last week I had the opportunity to gather with other neurodivergent adults at a local pub (I had a pot of mint tea that I proceeded to partially spill on my tennis shoes and discovered that thankfully it didn’t burn me and it doesn’t stain—in case you need that for any future tea-type decisions you might need to make.)

I wasn’t working at full capacity that evening.

Though who knows what full capacity even means, hey. (Should we have to work at full capacity?)

And as my therapist says, "normal” is just a setting on a washing machine.

Anyhoo, the neurodivergent lady who started and hosts the group gave a wee talk about executive functions.

(Speaking of functioning.)

We also all (all 18 of us) had the chance to chime in with our executive functioning struggles. The struggles were many and varied but I could relate to a lot of them. (I won’t give any details to protect people’s privacy.)

At the end, the host handed round some beautiful origami paper.

She gave us the option of doing the activity or not. If we wanted to, we could write out a sentence using the both/and idea of something we are currently struggling with along with something positive.

In other words, our struggles don’t need to dictate who we are.

That’s my origami paper above (pretty, right?). On it I wrote:

I’m perimenopausal and I’m in a good stage of life.

What are you currently dealing with? Struggling with?

And what could also be true at the same time?

Would you like to try writing your own statement?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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. English country dancing! (That’s me in the yellow top.) Stephen and I visited the Marlow English folk/country/barn dancing club last Friday night, and it was SO MUCH FUN. It reminded me of the ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) at our UK wedding reception. Anyway, these guys have been doing this twice a month for decades, and one of the ladies we danced with was 95 years young! We learned these dances: Comical Fellow; Bittiford Pushover; Perculator; Yorkshire Rose; Three Squares; Shrewsbury Lasses; and Dartington. Some of these types of dances go back to Jane Austen days, so that added to the difficulty and joyfulness of it. I wish we could go back for another dancing night, but that was their last gathering for the summer till they restart in September.

2. The English Folk Dance and Song organization has now added in some guidelines for accessibility, such as checking sound levels and letting people know what to expect with the events and the dances. Sounds good to me, and sounds like it could be very helpful for other neurodivergent people as well.

3. A friend went to the Chelsea Flower Show in London this year and kindly brought me some info about The ADHD Foundation Garden that they presented there. Katy Terry, the garden designer who is also neurodivergent herself, named her garden “All About Plants” to go along with The ADHD Foundation’s theme of “Thinking Differently About Thinking Differently.” She created a lovely garden full of sensory delights to offer calm and also stimulation for folks with ADHD and other neurodivergencies. I wish I could have gone. It invited everyone, neurodivergent and neurotypical alike, to “pause, reflect, and appreciate the beauty in thinking differently.” Amen to that.

I wanted to put The ADHD Foundation’s CEO’s quote on its own here because I think it’s so valuable:

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:

• Rejuvenation + joy = rejoyvenation. You don’t have to conjure up joy. Just be you.

• Both/and. Many things can be true at the same time.

• 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.

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