Notes From The Midwest

Lessons from 2025

The final episode of the first season of Notes from the Midwest focuses on listeners' reflections on lessons they are contemplating as the year draws to an end. Katelyn and Nic share those lessons along with their own as they say goodbye to a hard year that was 2025. The meditation that begins the episode can be read here: https://pathwriter.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/all-fall-down-mark-nepo/

Parenting Without Notes

On this episode, Katelyn and Nic reflect on their own experiences of parenting little humans and recall similarities and differences to their childhoods. Nic ends the episode with this reading from Khalil Gibran titled "On Children": https://poets.org/poem/children-1 Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have thoughts, questions, or feedback (notesfromthemidwest@gmail.com). We are glad you are a part of this community :)

Since Our Last Episode

After a week off due to professional commitments, we discuss some of the recent work conferences we've attended. Katelyn shares about her recent trip to learn and present at the Kentucky Counseling Association (https://www.kyca.org) and Nic shares about a ministers conference he attends called Prairie Group, in which he delivered a paper this year (https://prairiegroup.org). Thank you for your continued support and listening. If you'd like to reach out to us please do so by leaving a comment or writing to us at notesfromthemidwest@gmail.com. Here are some resources mentioned in this episode: https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/healthcare/youth_medical_care_bans https://viewpointbooks.com/book/9781683738268 https://viewpointbooks.com/book/9780063424623 https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-539/370703/20250826102657442_24-539%20tsac%20American%20Psychological%20Assn.pdf

Love vs Ownership, Part 2

In this episode Katelyn and Nic recap the previous episode, where we covered topics such as seeing love as expansive and not transactional, metrics of success according to society and whether we should adopt them, understanding divorce as sometimes pro-relationship and not a failure, and arbitrary rules for partners/spouses. We then talk about the now what— What do we do with/about this? Some of the things we discuss include friendships and intimacy and intentionally making choices about who gets our energy (and love might be an abundant resource but time and energy are not).

Love vs Ownership, Part 1

In this episode, Katelyn and Nic start with a check-in to discuss:     1.    How are we feeling so far     2.    Feedback and how to get it to us (notesfromthemidwest@gmail.com)     3.    A bit of a new structure: what, so what, and now what We then move into discussing a topic that has been of high interest and importance to Katelyn for quite some time: Love vs Ownership. In this conversation, we cover topics such as seeing love as expansive and not transactional, metrics of success according to society and whether we should adopt them, understanding divorce as sometimes pro-relationship and not a failure, and arbitrary rules for partners/spouses.