No words, in contrast to all the lovely, elegant words you produce. Frank Bruni, who writes for the New York Times, has a periodic piece where he prints wonderful sentences that readers have found and sent him. It's called: "For Love of Sentences". May I risk saying that I adore your sentences.
Thank you for sharing this. You and your sharing have helped me in countless ways and I’m a better person for it even if I’m trudging in a landfill, I know it’s as it should be.
#19. That was it. That was the one. That was all I needed to be reminded of today. Thank you for you. Keep giving us whatever you can. It sticks with us.
So happy to see you in my inbox! Been missing your dispatches and wondering if you’re ok. This is… a lot! Imagining you and Emily bonding over house flooding. 😖 Take care of yourself Hol - wishing for an abundance of good tidings to come your way as Spring emerges. 💖
Thank you for sharing this. I still want the meditation cushion and the rose colored light and the lavender scent. Surviving this is the only job. So true. I’ve been fighting change like it’s my only job. I’m not being given a choice. The only way is surrender, but it’s so hard. It’s the thing that keeps on needing to be learned over and over and honestly I hate it. But I’m glad I’m not alone in this. (Not that I wish pain on anyone!)
I was a creative writing major in college and wrote poetry and essays until I was blue in the face. Fast forward to now, 20 years later or so, and unexpected kids and married life and getting sober and "doing the thing" whatever terribly beautiful thing that looks like, I finally put myself in a memoir class after years of not writing and wallowing in my own perceived "wasted talent" that I couldn't figure out how to get out of. The class is great, I tend to write more poetically so it's been a bit of a learning curve but the thing I love about it that is so different from college and any real academic setting is that when we read our work everyone just says how wonderful it is, no one has some note or thing we need to work on, or really any critique, it's really just a bunch of people rooting for each other. The one thing I did notice though about the class was that nearly 100% of the time before anyone reads their work, there's some apology before hand. Whether it's "I didn't proofread this" or "It's messy" or whatever, and something that it does is just take away from the wholesome of the work itself. All of this is to say that you don't need to always apologize to your readers when you write. I have been following you for years and I read your work because I love it, and the unexpectedness of it feels real and I don't need to pay for you to force something once a month. So thank you and no need to apologize!
Why is it that we only want comfortable, aesthetic change, when real change only ever happens in a crucible? Also, why does that have to be, though? Maybe it's because humans are so stubborn. I don't know.
This series is so incredibly helpful to me, thank you for your courage and persistence in sharing it all.
Thanks for this series~ I always look forward to your posts, their layers and threads.
No words, in contrast to all the lovely, elegant words you produce. Frank Bruni, who writes for the New York Times, has a periodic piece where he prints wonderful sentences that readers have found and sent him. It's called: "For Love of Sentences". May I risk saying that I adore your sentences.
Thank you for sharing this. You and your sharing have helped me in countless ways and I’m a better person for it even if I’m trudging in a landfill, I know it’s as it should be.
#19. That was it. That was the one. That was all I needed to be reminded of today. Thank you for you. Keep giving us whatever you can. It sticks with us.
This!
Life is brutally hard, Hol.
Thank you for reminding me im not suffering alone.
All my love from Australia,
Hol x
So my faith is based on this kind of magic. I didn't know where or how to be today and then you send out this.
I am eternally grateful
So happy to see you in my inbox! Been missing your dispatches and wondering if you’re ok. This is… a lot! Imagining you and Emily bonding over house flooding. 😖 Take care of yourself Hol - wishing for an abundance of good tidings to come your way as Spring emerges. 💖
Thank you for sharing this. I still want the meditation cushion and the rose colored light and the lavender scent. Surviving this is the only job. So true. I’ve been fighting change like it’s my only job. I’m not being given a choice. The only way is surrender, but it’s so hard. It’s the thing that keeps on needing to be learned over and over and honestly I hate it. But I’m glad I’m not alone in this. (Not that I wish pain on anyone!)
I love what you bring to the table, Holly. This post resonated deeply with me. I feel seen again while I read it.
Thanks for directing us to a non-profit making a difference in MN. Donated and will be taking advantage of my company match to have them double that.
Take care <3
Holy shit, Holly. You held space so well these past three months of coworking while "Rome burned." Kisses to the kitty cat.
I was a creative writing major in college and wrote poetry and essays until I was blue in the face. Fast forward to now, 20 years later or so, and unexpected kids and married life and getting sober and "doing the thing" whatever terribly beautiful thing that looks like, I finally put myself in a memoir class after years of not writing and wallowing in my own perceived "wasted talent" that I couldn't figure out how to get out of. The class is great, I tend to write more poetically so it's been a bit of a learning curve but the thing I love about it that is so different from college and any real academic setting is that when we read our work everyone just says how wonderful it is, no one has some note or thing we need to work on, or really any critique, it's really just a bunch of people rooting for each other. The one thing I did notice though about the class was that nearly 100% of the time before anyone reads their work, there's some apology before hand. Whether it's "I didn't proofread this" or "It's messy" or whatever, and something that it does is just take away from the wholesome of the work itself. All of this is to say that you don't need to always apologize to your readers when you write. I have been following you for years and I read your work because I love it, and the unexpectedness of it feels real and I don't need to pay for you to force something once a month. So thank you and no need to apologize!
Your writing always stops me dead in my tracks!
I’m 72 and let go of everything I was trying to do to appear younger. Not. Easy.
I’ve been donating the money, I’m not spending.
Really? I’m worried about this shit when there are people in concentration camps.
And now I’m effing molting, after being sick and losing a lot of weight…my freaking thin hair is both breaking and falling out!
Put in the right perspective these aren’t problems.
This: My mission is to survive this.
Survive what? Living in our current effed up world and all the grief that goes with it. I don’t want to. I know I have to.
I’m one of the helpers.
Like the song says, “All I can do is keep breathing.” (At the very least.)
❤️
Great post, Holly.
Why is it that we only want comfortable, aesthetic change, when real change only ever happens in a crucible? Also, why does that have to be, though? Maybe it's because humans are so stubborn. I don't know.