SCH 117 Four Self-Care Hacks I’ve Learned from Lizards

What have you learned from lizards lately? Try saying that five times fast! I’ve learned some important things about self-care from lizards.

The older I get, the more curious I become. I think smartphones and the internet have much to do with my budding curiosity. With apps such as Merlin and Seek, I can enter basic information about a bird or snap a photo of an object and know what I see within seconds. Last weekend I saw a weird flower-looking thing on a willow tree. I snapped photos of it from several angles on several different willows, and when we entered cell service, I uploaded the photos to Seek.

To my surprise, what looked like a flower was a gall. Of course, I had to use my dictionary app to figure out the exact definition of gall. I’d only heard it used to describe a skin sore or something bitter. The pretty flower turned out to be an abnormal growth of plant tissue housing an insect or parasite.

I will often find one piece of information about something in nature and keep following rabbit trails until I end up knowing all kinds of things that will never come in handy unless I end up on Jeopardy. Although, since students always ask random questions, I know how to answer at least some of them.

The inspiration for today’s episode, full of the self-care hacks I’ve learned from lizards, started as one of those random observations and questions from my students. I’d love to hear what young people in your life have inspired you to learn lately!

If you’re not sure whether or not to see a counselor, this post may help.

This episode is full of great self-care hacks for parents of adult children.

Curious about African spiny mice? This like will help!

You can find out more about the free Merlin bird app here.

And you can find my go-to app (Seek) for identifying everything else here.

With all the hours I’ve spent watching and photographing hummingbirds, next week’s topic shouldn’t surprise you! I’ve learned a lot about self-care from hummingbirds, too!

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