In this therapy session, Jen does some dream (read: nightmare!) analysis and discovers that she is in a very scary place. She talks about crying in Spanish and the scam of social media as well. Be a fly on the wall, but also, go ahead and ask the questions that poetry asks of yourself, too. You might learn something. Today’s poem is “Famous,” by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Jen is experiencing an existential crisis — an Instagram existential crisis. Dread, agony of choice, and the impossibility of perfection are all topics on this episode. But pulling it all together is that META spawn, Instagram. Join her in the agony. It will be fun!

O Me! O Life!

...but Jen definitely is! And that's OK. She's finding purpose in her wandering, especially when it leads to beautiful, surprising discoveries -- like maybe she's not as horrible at speaking Spanish as she thinks. Maybe it's what we all need in life -- to get a little lost to be able to discover the beautiful things waiting for us.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

You know that we are living in a dystopian world, and I am a dystopian girl. So predicted Aldous Huxley, anyway, according to Neil Postman, author of the book Amusing Ourselves to Death. On this episode, Jen takes a hard look at how she is actually losing her capacity to think -- and doing so ... willingly?? (Just take a look at the sentence structure of sentence two -- yikes.) It's not a therapy session to miss, that's for sure.

There's freedom in letting go of possessions. Jen chats about how culturally it's easier to feel that way living in Spain than in the States and how even still she has to make it a point to say, "No, I don't own this."

"The Moment" Margaret Atwood

El apagón -- the never-really-explained, mysterious power outage of Spain: Jen talks about her experience with it and how maybe we all need some outages in life here and there. Maybe we need to "stop all the clocks" and "cut off the telephone"* for ourselves to be able to remember what it feels like to be human. Remember? We used to talk to real people, face to face, without looking at a screen?

⁠"Big Clock" ⁠Li Young Lee

"The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

*edit from the episode: Jen incorrectly cites the title as "Stop All the Clocks"; the title of the poem actually is "Funeral Blues" by W. H. Auden

Losing things, losing friends -- it's all in this therapy session. Join Jen as she loses socks, a wedding ring, and a best friend but maybe (hopefully) gains some clarity.

"One Art"

"too tight"

It's Fall, y'all, and all that. In other words, 'tis the season of DEATH. Grab a pumpkin spice latte, and join Jen as she takes a different perspective on death in this light episode.

"Fall, leaves, fall"

"l(a"

Jen tackles regret in this episode. But instead of beating it up, she ... gives it a hug? Strange times, indeed. Join her.

⁠In Praise of Regret⁠

Alternate title: Fruit, THE HORROR! As you start layering up when the air gets crisp, may you be reminded that we're all made of of life layers -- and we're getting between them on this episode. Join Jen as she evaluates where she has been, where she is now, and the absolute horror of offering fruit before a meal in Spain.

"The Layers"