I keep reading tirades about Bitmojis. And they all make excellent points. There are concerns that they are not inclusive as they should. There are valid privacy questions. Do you need to have additional reasons to give Facebook your data? And, in the end, no students every became better readers because their teacher spent time making a Bitmoji.

Bitmojis are, as are emojis, another tool for communication. Words, pictures, videos, likes on our posts are all methods of communication. And communication is hard.

Interpersonal interactions are about nuance. Human connections are about small details. Small details not always the easiest to send and receive.

A cake with candles is another method of communication. At the right time, it celebrates a moment and builds trust. At the wrong time it can mock the solemnity of the moment.

Don’t swear off birthday cake because someone brought it to a funeral. It is not the cake’s fault.

I heard Brene Brown once used the phrase “The Story I’m telling myself. It was a way to start a touch conversation with someone. “Something happened, and the story I am telling myself is this.”

I’ve started to use it as a tool to process what I am thinking as well. When I am storming about some email I’ve received I attempt to stop. If I can change the story in my own head, the story I am telling myself, I can re-frame my feelings and responses. I can re-imagine the story as something else.

That time I got an angry email from a friend, the story I told myself was they were mad at me. I could have tried changing the story. Maybe the story was that they were reaching out for a moment of connection, their anger got in the way, and could not find the right words. Maybe my story could be about reaching out to connect with them and building trust between the two of us.

Your family needs you. Your job is happy to take any spare time you wish to give. There is so much to do it can be hard to take time for yourself.

The past week has been a struggle. I’ve been taking time away from sleep and self-care to give work and family. Yesterday I crashed. At 2:00 p.m. I emailed my boss that I would not be able to finish a project I was working on until tomorrow. I went to bed and slept for 13 hours.

Then I woke up at 3:00 a.m. My thoughts, in order were

1. I bet I could finish that project.
2. I wonder if I could get some work done around the house without waking anyone up.

I do not know what to do for me. Oh, I waste time. I scroll through Reddit or TikTok. But, I am starting to think that time is not for me. I can’t tell you one thing I read on Reddit yesterday. Nothing was so impactful that it made a difference in my life.

So where do I start? I’m removing Reddit and TikTok from my phone. They bring me neither joy nor peace.

What do I do instead? I have not figured it out.