Friday Favorites – Meaningful Media

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This week has completely flown by and it’s time for another installment of Friday Favorites. This week I’m sharing some things that have been meaningful in one way or another and have elicited some strong emotions in me, so fair warning, if you’re looking for a butterflies and rainbows post, this isn’t it.

Shawn Johnson East’s Video on Pregnancy Loss

I know, kind of an odd choice for a “favorite” thing, right? Well, if you’ve followed my blog over the past few months, you may have seen my post on my miscarriage back in June. Shawn’s video is almost a year old, but for some reason popped up on my Instagram feed this week and I’m really glad it did. I always enjoyed watching Shawn as a gymnast back in the day but didn’t know she had gone through this loss. This video is so incredibly relatable and it brought back a lot of emotions for me – it made me realize that grief is definitely not linear and I’m learning more about it and how to deal with my emotions better as time passes. I identified with so many of the feelings she and her husband were expressing and I appreciate how real and vulnerable they were in the video. After watching this, I checked out their current feed and saw that Shawn is actually currently pregnant and close to her due date, which left me with an incredible feeling of hope. How exciting for them! Below is the video if you’d like to watch. I really appreciated the fact that they were so honest about the ups and downs of the whole process of pregnancy and miscarriage.

One other thing I want to mention related to miscarriage – Lullaby of Hope. This is an incredible non-profit ministry, crafting personalized gift boxes for women journeying through infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth and infant loss. A sweet friend of mine sent me one of their boxes after my miscarriage, and it meant so much to receive that and be encouraged through their ministry and the specific Scripture resources related to loss. I’d encourage you to check out their site if you or someone you know have experienced loss or are journeying through infertility.

Find Me

This is an indie film that I found on Amazon Prime. Maybe because we just got back from spending time in multiple National Parks or because its message spoke to me, I found myself completely immersed in the story. I won’t spoil the ending, but if you’re looking for something a little different that will get you thinking (and will probably make you re-evaluate your priorities in life) check this one out.

Diagnosis

This is a series on Netflix that I started watching this week and it’s completely fascinating! The premise is that Dr. Lisa Sanders crowdsources diagnoses for mysterious and rare medical conditions in a documentary series based on her New York Times Magazine column. These are people who have suffered from a variety of conditions that their doctors have not been able to explain or diagnose, but Dr. Sanders uses the power of the internet and crowdsourcing to ask people from around the world for their input and to find a way to correctly diagnose and treat these mysterious conditions. The first patient actually ends up going to Italy to find her solution and diagnosis. It brought me to tears seeing the joy and relief that these people experience thanks to those who have seen their stories and offer their expertise and insight to help diagnose them. You can find more about the series here.

Kick Telemarketers To The Curb

I don’t know about you, but I’m on the Do Not Call list and it seems to be completely worthless as I receive at least 4-5 telemarketing calls each day, sometimes more. Talk about strong emotions – I struggle to control my rage at being constantly interrupted by these calls with no recourse. This week on the Jordan Harbinger podcast, he offered a few resources that may help you banish these annoying calls, so I figured they might be worth a shot.

Answer the call and say, “I’m sorry, you must have the wrong number, you’ve reached a government office”. Good way to scare off the scam artists if you’re actually willing to pick up the call (which I usually don’t).
Add the disconnected line tone to the beginning of your voicemail message. Apparently, when the telemarketing software detects the tone on your voice message, it registers your number as non-operational and will take you off their list. Brilliant. You can read more about that tactic here.