WE BACK!
Guys, I missed you so hard. I know I went radio silent there for a minute half of Winter, but there’s a reason for that, I promise. Mainly because I’ve been in a season of quietness & stillness creatively. Of input instead of output. It’s been unexpected and wonky and absolutely life giving. More words on that soon.
The other reason is that I switched over to a wicked-cool new online space (can I get an amen and a slow clap for figuring out how to migrate everything? Or can I at least get a mimosa up in here? It’s Friday. Calm down. Friday is the new Saturday.)
If you’re new here, THANK YOU for stopping by. The first thing you should know about me (besides my deep and unrelenting love for parenthesis, Taco Bell, and dogs) is that technology is not my strong suit. Not sure why I led with that, but there it is. So I’m pretty dang proud of myself for graduating to a prettier platform. The only issue so far is that I’ve yet to figure out how to use GIFs here, so I’m at least 50% crippled in our communication. It’s fine. We’ll get there.
To borrow a quote from Austin Powers, “Allow myself to introduce… myself”
(I’m gonna need you to close your eyes and imagine an Austin Powers GIF here.)
Most of you already know me but for those of you who are new, I’m a wife, mom, believer, podcaster, hope*writer, wellness coach, and fun-haver. I’m 38 and I live with my family on a pretend farm in the Oregon countryside. I say “pretend”, because we do not grow and sell food but we do collect animals like it’s our job. It’s not. I know this only because we do not get paid for it.
All that might sound like a lot, and I suppose it is. Which brings me back to the season of quietness & stillness I recently stumbled into.
When I first started out in this creative-work-arena 7-ish years ago, it was by writing.
Words on a page, arranged just so to make you laugh or cry or instantly know something deep down in your knower, are precisely what make me come alive.
They are my love language.
Written words are how I process and contribute to the world around me.
That wasn’t always the case though.
Years ago I vividly remember standing in my kitchen (where all my important conversations seem to happen) and randomly blurting out to friend that I “wanted to write a book one day”. And then I laughed like it was some kind of hilarious joke. Because as new mom of small kids with precious little “free time” that’s exactly how it felt. Like a joke.
Like I may as well have announced that I want to move to New York and get a job working directly for Lorne Michaels. (Which is, I imagine, the best job at SNL.)
But that “joke” struck a chord somewhere deep in my soul, shaking the dust off of a very hidden but very real dream I’d been carrying around. A dream to write.
So I did what everyone and their Aunt Fay did back then. I started a blog.
I was here and I was ready to party! I threw my love of writing around like confetti at a parade.
Sure, I wrote a lot of cringe-y, self indulgent stuff in the beginning. But I also wrote some really funny essays that I’m still proud of to this day.
Somewhere along the way in the last couple years as I’ve added in new creative outlets and taken on new types of work, writing purely for the love & joy of it has sort of fallen by the wayside.
I miss it.
I’d like to remedy that.
If you’re down, I’d like to invite you along in that process with me this year.
I won’t lie, I’m a little rusty. But one thing’s for sure: I just can’t quit you. To borrow a quote from Parks & Rec, “You’re what keeps me going! You’re my Verizone/Chipotle/Exxon!”… (Again, Imma need you to close your eyes and summon that exact Andy Dwyer GIF to your mind. You know the one.)
As 2020 rolled around I became increasingly aware of a strong internal pull towards following the love of writing again.
Now, I do realize that “following the love” often leads right back to “doing the work”, because creativity, after all, is equal parts work and play. But this is me, rolling up my sleeves and getting in there.
It feels like the right time to go deep instead of wide, creatively speaking. To actively pursue writing because it fills my cup and makes me feel like the truest version of myself.
I trust that it will serve you too.
Whether in the form of entertainment, encouragement, artistically placed GIFs, or the occasional photo of our baby goats being adorable, I do think there’s an overlap between the writing that lights me up AND that you enjoy as a reader.
So here’s what you can expect from me this year:
A letter, just like this one, once a week or less. No annoying spam. Because we’re on YOUR time, woman! And it is precious! You are busy ruling at life!
In these letters we’ll talk about mothering & marriage, coming home to the body you live in, and ditching self doubt so you can uncover & pursue whatever it is that makes YOU come alive.
Of course we’ll also mine any and all humor along the way, of which I’m sure life on the farm will provide plenty.
I’m probably supposed to tell you that we’ll only talk about ONE of those things so I appear to be very professional and “niched down”, but that would be a lie, and besides, we’re better than that.
We are real Renaissance women who know that we are more than one thing.
I hope you find these letters to be bright spot in your week, and I also hope you leave a comment and tell me your things!
How’s your head, how’s your heart, how’s your butt?
Tag, you’re it.
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