In the blink of an eye, half of 2025 is in the books. June was a busy month, so I’m ready for a little downtime over the summer. But first, my June 2025 roundup.

Along with my goals update, my June 2025 roundup has terrific posts on patriotism vs. nationalism, and male-female friendships.

Happy summer reading!

Cool things I read in June

Since publishing my first monthly roundup at the end of 2020, it has been an honour to introduce you to some of my favourite bloggers. I started the roundup to say thank you to the blogging community and bring attention to talented writers who create inspiring and informative content.

Here are a couple of pieces that captured my attention in June.

Patriotism vs. Nationalism: The Two Faces of Love for Your Country – Aspiring Blog

I’ll never understand the greed and hunger for power that causes so much pain and suffering in the world. In this informative and thought provoking post, Deepak discusses the advantages and disadvantages of patriotism and nationalism. That’s a message the world needs right now!

At its core, nationalism is the belief that your country should always come first, above everything else. And while that can sometimes lead to unity and pride, it can also have some pretty harmful consequences if taken too far.

Patriotism vs. Nationalism: The Two Faces of Love for Your Country – Aspiring Blog

It’s Not Complicated—Unless You Make It: My Thoughts on Male-Female Friendships – Thoughts About Leadership, History and more

It’s an age old question. Can men and women simply be friends? Edward discusses this topic in a series of two posts.

• It’s Not Complicated—Unless You Make It: My Thoughts on Male-Female Friendships
• It’s Not Complicated—Unless You Make It: My Thoughts on Male-Female Friendships Part 2

Here’s my bottom-line answer: From my perspective, No, if you see women as objects. But Yes, if you see them as equals.

It’s Not Complicated—Unless You Make It: My Thoughts on Male-Female Friendships – Edward Ortiz

One issue we face in today’s society is the lack of friendships between men and women. If men don’t have women in their circle of trust, women who can offer thoughtful advice and perspective, the world suffers.

It’s Not Complicated—Unless You Make It: My Thoughts on Male-Female Friendships – Edward Ortiz

What I wrote in June

In case you missed any of them, here are the new posts I published in June here on Boomer Eco Crusader.

• The Sunday Spark – Say something nice today…and every day
• Skillfully sharing bad news – How to share podcast
• The Sunday Spark – Empathy puts problems in perspective
• It’s National Iced Tea Day – Sweet or unsweet?
• The Sunday Spark – Create or consume – What’s your thing?
• Can the gift economy slow down the consumption treadmill?
• The Sunday Spark – Survivor guilt and life’s big questions
• Taking things one step further for Plastic Free July 2025
• The Sunday Spark – Reinventing retirement…a year later

Plus, I refreshed and republished these posts.

• The big lie of convenience culture
• 10 super easy decluttering and organizing tips

And on my retirement coaching site Second Life Vision, I published:

• How your social portfolio impacts your retirement wellbeing
• What I learned in the first year of retirement

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Let’s keep in touch! Join my mailing list and I’ll email you when I add a new post.

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June goals update

Let’s look at how the month went on the goals front.

Fitness goals

This is an area where I’ve been consistently hitting my goals this year. The summer months are my best opportunity to get more exercise, so I increased my goal to 400 minutes of physical activity a week, including walks and 2 strength training and 3 balance/flexibility sessions. Despite some crazy weather, I exceeded this one with an average of 414 minutes a week.

Reading

I exceeded my goal of reading 4 books in June with 5 books read. Here’s what I read this month:

• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
• Hope by the late Pope Francis
• Illusionist by Laurie Buchanan
• Whealthspan by Scott Fulton
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Writing

I had two writing goals for June. I didn’t make any progress on the first piece which is for a book collaboration I’m working on. But I did exceed my goal of writing 4 “stories” for my personal memoir—with 7 stories written.

Retirement coaching

I met both of my goals for my retirement coaching business in June. I have a date for my virtual workshop. And I contacted all three public library systems in our region to submit a presentation proposal.

My July goals

My sister is coming over from England for three weeks, so I expect July to be busy. Here are my goals for the month.

• Fitness goals: I’m hoping to maintain the summer momentum and get 400 minutes of physical activity a week, including walks and 2 strength training and 3 balance/flexibility sessions.
• Reading: I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction books in recent months. Summer is a good time to relax with a good novel so my goal for July is to take a break from non-fiction and read 4 fiction books.
• Writing: I plan to wrap up the first draft of my personal memoir.
• Retirement coaching: Now that I have dates, I need to get my fallretirement coaching workshop on my website—which involves figuring out payment options.
• Health: The candy nemesis is back! I really need to reduce my sugar intake so I’ll be limiting my sweets to once a day.

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Thanks for dropping by to check out my June 2025 roundup. Do you have any exciting news to share? Drop me a comment below to let me know.