Fall
In the morning, we begin our day with you on the porch. Hands wrapped tightly around our coffee mug as you exhale your first cool breaths of the day. We drive into work with the windows down. Your crisp air churning in tune with the waves of the Beach Boys. We make our way to South Salisbury.
We find every excuse to hang out with you, like choosing lunch spots on the other side of town. Arms moving effortlessly and faces smiling upwards as we head towards Centro. Not wanting to let you go, we hold your hand during our strolls under the dark blue skies in the evening.
You inspire French-themed dinner parties with close friends and evenings outside. Conversations dancing late into the night, upwards into the sky with the flickering embers from the fire.
You turn Falls Lake into a vibrant painting. Our canoe glides softly over its glassy water. The horizon explodes with orange, red and yellow. Golden light pierces through the gaps in the trees that surround the shore. Frogs and herons chat about their day.
And just as sinuously as you crept in, you meander out. Leaves flutter downwards. Temperatures drop. We say goodbye for now, preserving you in our reveries until we meet again next year.
In this third issue of the Humble Healthy Digest, we are celebrating Fall in all its glory. There is something about the season that makes us feel alive. So, we wanted to learn about what animates some of our co-workers' creative health, too. This edition is sizable. We have a breakfast recipe to keep you warm and cozy. Excursions to feed your soul. And an inspiring look into the creative minds that fill the Myriad walls. As always, Humble Health's mission is...
TO BUILD A HEALTHY AND BALANCED WORKPLACE COMMUNITY.
Sweet Potato Breakfast Hash
This recipe comes from the esteemed author of the food blog, Bon App Alysse! If you like this one, you can learn more about her kitchen escapades here.
The great thing about this recipe is that it’s extremely versatile. You can use any combo of veggies and breakfast meat (though Neese’s Sausage is the best if you’re really going for it). This recipe serves two people with no leftovers.
Ingredients
- Breakfast meat (sausage, bacon, tofurkey, etc)
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
- 1 cup of chopped veggies (red pepper and onions are delicious)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 4 eggs
Directions
- Heat up a large sauté pan to medium high heat. Add your meat of choice and cook until done. Remove meat from pan and discard about half of the leftover oil. Leave enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan.
- Peel and chop your sweet potato into small, even chunks. Add to the pan and sauté for 5-7 minutes, until the chunks start to get soft.
- Add your chopped veggies and lower heat to medium. (Add a little olive oil if needed.) Cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add your garlic and seasoning. Then add the meat back into the pan. Stir to mix.
- Create 4 circle shaped divots in the mix, and crack an egg into each. Cook until set to your preference. (Scrambling the eggs into the mix is delicious, as is cooking the eggs sunny side up.)
- Add a bunch of salt and pepper to taste. Dish up and enjoy!
Humble Healthers
In this interview series, we share health habits and perspectives from various Myriad employees. Read on to learn about Max's perspectives on Creative Health.
The Importance of Creative Health
I'm a person who acknowledges the need for space. Not only physical space where you can exercise your creativity, but also your mental space. And a lot of times, it goes unnoticed how much little tasks, admin work and repetitive things that need to get done, get in the way. They basically diminish our Creative Health.
Growing Creatively at Work
Lately, I feel that having multiple projects going on at the same time and being at a different level of engagement with them has allowed me to push creativity in a different direction than I have before. Being a creative lead while others are actually doing the hard work of execution and production--with me maintaining a higher view of it--allows me to push the creative and take bigger risks.
Caffeinated by Creativity
Comedy is a creative catalyst for me. I feel like I'm constantly looking for soundbites, little clips, talk shows, late shows, things online that divert my thinking about an issue, a subject, or essentially a distraction. I need five, ten minutes a day with a little video. I need that. It's like coffee for me.
In the past, I would stay up all night and write down ideas for short films, movies and music videos. It really jazzed me up. I would come to work with two hours of sleep but still have so much energy like I was caffeinated. It wasn't because of caffeine. It was because of creativity. I don't do that anymore. I want to pick that up again.
Creative Health at Home
I feel it. You know, it probably is subconscious. I might not be aware of it, but I totally get or absorb creativity from my children. Everything is play. Their mood or state of being is contagious. There's one thing we do, where I play the piano and they sing or dance. Five or ten minutes after dinner, I play a little bit. They improvise dance and then they get tired and go to sleep. That happens all the time.
Creative Inspirations
Beethoven. I could give you 120 reasons why he's an inspiration in my life. But what he did with music at the time he did it was kind of revolutionary. He was breaking rules and the way he approached composition is still mind bending. I listen to Beethoven frequently, very frequently.
The other person is somebody who you wouldn't know. It's my old mentor Aaron Duffy from Special Guest. He's a creative director. And a “Creative.” He’s just a guy who doesn't stop creating. Everything he does and the ethics of his work...it's all so inspiring.
Q3 Highlights
Pit Workouts
We had majestic hopes for a short, daily work-out in the Pit last quarter. It was extremely successful for three days. A small group of us met to do timed activities such as planks and wall-sits. We chatted through clenched teeth about other health topics while holding our poses. We tracked our times each day and set goals to achieve over the quarter. And then we never did it again.
Inkblot Art Interpretation
Your responses to the images on the pantry doors, such as, "Two Grovers sitting back to back, throwing up" were pretty epic.
Creative Lunch
Creative Lunch is a quarterly tradition at Myriad. Its a time to sit down as a team to learn and discuss something new, in efforts of taking us to new places. This month, Spike led a conversation around the movie Dunkirk (written, directed and produced by Christopher Nolan).
Take a look at explainer video below about Shepard Tone. This is "the sound illusion that makes Dunkirk so intense."
Mindful Hours Survey Results
Based on your answers to our questionnaire, we are going to schedule another round of Mindful Hours. More information to come.
Pumpkin Spice it Up
In every issue of the Digest, we share a few events and places in the Triangle to explore.
- NC State Fair (Raleigh, October 17-27)
- Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Masterpieces of Modern Mexico (NCMA Exhibit, October 26 - Jan 19)
- Moonlight in the Garden (JC Arboretum, November 7-16)
Creative Expressions
Myriad is bursting at the seams with creatively driven people. The following pages are designed to connect you with a few of your co-workers' imaginative hobbies, outlets and interests outside of our office walls.
Melissa Douglas
Creative Outlet: Cross stitch and embroidery
I LOVE It BECAUSE IT’S SUCH A CREATIVE VENTURE THAT REQUIRES ATTENTION TO DETAIL WHILE ALSO BEING MINDLESS BECAUSE OF THE REPETITIVE NATURE.
I prefer embroidery over cross stitch because you have more freedom for what you can design. If you cross stitch, you can only put the needle in certain places and it’s square based. Embroidery makes for better designs.
One time I was embroidering and something in my oven caught on fire. My whole apartment filled with smoke but I didn’t notice because my head was down, focused on stitching. I only noticed when my eyes started watering. I also love the feeling of satisfaction after creating something and being able to share it with people.
Chris Young
Creative Outlet: Overlanding
Ever since I was about ten years old, I’ve been obsessed with Toyota trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles. I worked for a Toyota dealership for about six years through high school and college. I’ve never owned any other brand of car and don’t plan on it.
A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a few YouTubers with Toyota truck travel vlogs. They built their rigs so they could sustain themselves “off-grid”, traveling through unpaved forest roads and trails only accessible with four-wheel drive.
I WANTED TO DO THIS TO MY FJ CRUISER!
One of my first experiences was Overland Expo in Asheville, North Carolina. Then I found out about Appalachian Toyota Round-up. It was going to be held at Windrock Park, a private off-road park in Tennessee. It has over 73,000 acres of forest, with 300 miles of trails. I signed up and immediately started my prep.
I built a two-drawer system with a slide-out table for the back of my truck. This was the base for the sleeping platform. It gave me great storage for my recovery gear and cooking supplies. When I was testing out the sleeping platform, I quickly realized that once I closed the back door, I couldn’t get out. I had to make a rear-door release mechanism. I also mounted my fire extinguisher and my hatchet to my back door for quick and easy access.
I made window screens using standard porch screen material and magnetic strips. Now I can partially leave my windows down at night without worry of mosquitoes or other nasties flying in.
I purchased and wired up a Uniden CB and 4’ Firestik antenna for communication in convoys, as we typically run 10 to 20 trucks in one group.
The trip itself was a success…camping and driving, driving and camping. This type of activity is not for people that don’t enjoy being behind the wheel.
I had almost as much fun preparing for this trip as I did on the actual trip.
It was a great escape from my daily grind and something I looked forward to working on in the evenings and weekends. The design, build and woodworking processes helped me get creative. These are things I’d love to do more of so that I can improve my skills. If you’re ever interested in riding shotgun on one of my rides, hit me up. I’m always in the need of a navigator!
Please Note! This section was a shortened version of a more detailed write-up that Chris shared with us. You can find it here. It's such a fun read.
Will Feichter
Creative Outlet: Gardening + Landscaping
Something I love is how being outside makes you so much more in tune with the world around you.
The plants, the bugs, the birds, the wind, the sun. By tuning into them, you quiet the conversations bouncing around inside your mind. Those two birds in the beautiful Hackberry Tree having that animated tweetery conversation? They aren’t concerned about you. That’s a profoundly positive feeling for a normal human have dawn on them every so often.
In my job at Myriad I see so many different conditions and influences it can be hard to know how things are going. What’s certain, ya know? Progress is at times a long cycle. There’s also a lot on the line. It’s good to have a break from that sense of constant evaluation and looking for signs of success.
A relationship with plants is much less complex. They’re actually pretty simple and responsive; either thriving or not. I love to see my impact on them feeding back to me in almost real time. It’s like a little surprise to go home each day and see how they’re doing.
That’s the part of gardening that brings me good energy; being able to care for something and see it grow overtime.
What's Next?
- Let's eat. It wouldn't be Q4 without a Thanksgiving Potluck.
- Let's have a competition. It will either include ping pong, corn hole, hot dog eating or all three in reverse order.
- Let's make some videos. Brown bag challenge anyone?
- Let's go on an adventure.
- Let's get silly.