Issue #10: Monthly Scroll 👓

sweat beads and paperback books: viewing*doing*creating* in July

Hi! I’m Jordan, and Shade Cactus is where being a cozy homebody and always planning your next travel adventure come to meet. Here, you’ll marvel the mundane and wish for your wild, while reveling in rest.

You’ll learn about how to support your habitual travel adventures alongside your happy home base (even the one inside your own head). Cool kids subscribe. I appreciate you!

Each month, I share a recap of what I was viewing, doing, and creating! These take a generous amount of time to put together, and I hope they are full of lovely goodies for you. Become a paid subscriber for full access!

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July is the effortless bead of sweat, journeying down the back of your neck. It’s slow, easy, and you kind of don’t want to be there. But July is also wildflower fields full of swollen bees, and it’s the front garden gone to hell with all the weeds. (It’s also an accidental rhyme.)

You can’t help but slow down during the mid-summer month. Outside of childhood, July becomes much more about soaking in the stillness of things, and less about making every second count.

Every second counts, anyway.

July found me rediscovering my love of running (I know, I know) as well as unhurried days of living out of the van in Colorado. I’ve laughed a lot. July found me letting go of commitments so that I could commit even harder to others. I’ve been both reveling in the outdoors, while also hiding from it. (I’m just so sweaty.)

Keep reading for more of all July brought me!

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Inside:

• 📚 Books

• 🔖 Bookmarks

• 📖 TBR (To-Be-Read)

• 🌿 Posts

• 🌈 TV

• 🍂 Activities

• ⛰️ Travel

• 🕸️ Writing

• 🔮 Poetry

✨ Viewing

📚 Books

July saw a lot less reading than has been typical for me. And maybe that’s just July? This season found me craving TV and movies more often than reading, though I still got some books read thanks to my morning reading habit.

My morning reading habit has shifted slightly in recent weeks. Using habit stacking (something I’m super nerdy about), I’ve now started reaching for my journal first thing and writing “morning pages” — I use quote marks here because I don’t use the same rules as outlined by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way, but they are page(s) I’m writing in the morning. Then, I meditate for 10 minutes. Then I read.

All without getting out of bed!