Eleven days into October I had a 2-hour video call with Nicole Antoinette and my retreat group from January, to reflect on the past quarter and look ahead to the final months of 2020.
Afterwards, I spent an hour or two quietly working through Nicole’s Q3 reflection workbook, answering journal prompts freely, with only myself as witness.
Below is some of what arose from those reflections, but first, wtf happened in September? some space for September. Read more
Three months into the season, I was lucky enough to meet a woman (my neighbor! Well, here’s how it happened: a man living on opposite coasts from his wife—because he firefights out West in the summers—hosts a neighborhood crawfish boil here on their anniversary, a Tuesday. I happen to go to this weeknight event, La Croix in hand, and end up sitting next to my neighbor. She’s hilarious and brilliant and kind, and why am I only now meeting you?) who a few days later invites me to a painting night with some other women nearby.
A few weeks later we do another. And another. Hosts change, materials change, the instructional YouTube videos change, but we always bring tea and laughter.
Here’s a roundup of the “Art Nights” we’ve had, should it inspire playful creation for you: Read more
Below are six resources I’ve used this summer/fall for reflection, encouragement, inspiration, and anchoring.
On Sunday morning, after a 2-hour reflection video call with Nicole and my fellow retreat friends from January, I sat down and worked through Nicole’s journaling prompts in her Q3 reflection workbook: “Ask & Answer.” Read more
Molly Caro May recently hosted another free monthlong writing experience called “Name Your Anchors,” which I just finished today. You can start any time. Read more
Here’s some of my outgoing mail from the month. The postcards at the end were creations from an art night at a neighbor’s house.
On August 15, I had a pop-up ukulele concert, on a whim.
Impromptu and unpracticed, I hit record and played five songs, one after the other.
I shared the concert here on the blog, and sent it directly to some friends and family. It was only available for a day, to mimic the impermanence of a live performance.
Now, I’ve come up with a way to use this little performance to bring more snail mail into the world.
If you’d like to watch the recording from that afternoon, all you need to do is send a piece of snail mail!
Simply:
I switched host providers this past month, and in the transfer I lost all the blog posts I’d written in the past month. A few of the shorter ones I rewrote, back-dated, and republished, but it was not worth the energy to rewrite my July end-of-month reflection.
So, I’m going from a blank slate here, with faint memories of what I wrote last month. Read more
For years now, I usually take pictures of my outgoing mail so that I can look back and remember the love shared. Sometimes I’ll take pictures of the letters/postcards I write too, for the documentarian/memoirist in me.
This month, I thought it’d be fun to share the outsides of what I sent out. Perhaps it will inspire you to send a postcard or a letter to a friend!
For over six months I slowly read and savored Marianne Williamson’s book “The Gift of Change.” I’d underline and star passages as I went along.
The other week I went back through the book and copied down such passages in my notebook. Here’s what I have now for personal reference:
A few weeks ago, I spotted this Life Nature book at a local thrift shop for $2.
I paged through it, and saw it had lots of nice full-page images that would make great envelopes. Read more
