This week, we're celebrating our selves, and with support from two of the most influential writers in my life these days.

Hi! I think I’m sometimes guilty of taking myself for granted. Do you know what I mean? When you’re with this being that you’re so used to 24/7, it can be easy to overlook the things that might be seen as valuable to others. My attempt, with this week’s episode is to see what things about myself I overlook, and much more than that—maybe a form of celebrating being alive, by acknowledging these things?

I even invite you to create a list, as I write mine, of your best/favorite atributes.

BUT, not without the support of writing from (the) Jenny Slate and her amazing memoir “Little Weirds,” which is in so many ways a celebration of her aliveness, including the complexities of human existence. She hardly leaves anything out. Lain across the table (or the pages) are her quarks, joys, insecurities, deep reflections, explorations of her own loneliness, and other things that, honey, you’d have to read for yourself to feel the vastness of. Plus, there’s no way I could acknowledge the self without help from “Master of Me” by Keke Palmer.

We might just relate on some of these things.

What can be found within the depths of stillness, and why doesn't it seem like an accessible pursuit (sometimes)? Join me as I recollect the reimbursements stillness has given me at the least expected times.

Do you find it easy, difficult, or somewhere in between, to snatch moments of stillness for yourself? How do you recollect the pieces that make you who and what you are, as maybe a working class person, a performing artist, a friend, or all of the above?

This episode of Underneath the Sunbeams is named after "Still," a piano song by Ann Sweeten.

This episode of Underneath the Sunbeams is an exploration and honoring of vulnerability. Have you ever heard the song 'Heartstrings' by Leighton Meester? A Fall season's classic. As I listened to the pop beat this time in my life, I felt something deeply resonant in the lyrics of the song. It made me think of what it really means to tie ones own heartstrings.

This week, I comb through the meaning in being a deep feeler, and what it means to evolve and do life after having experiences that might make a person want to close themself off from any potential harm--plus what beauty might be missed in the process. So much of Underneath the Sunbeams is about what special things can happen when we remain open, and so, how do we in a world filled with reasons not to? From my heart, to yours, let’s see.