|
"What do you love? And if you get close to what you love, who you are is revealed to you, and it expands… There is no path, there's no path 'til you walk it. And you have to be willing to play the fool."
― Ethan Hawke on creativity
|
|
Hi Brightside friends,
Been a minute! I hope everyone's emerging from winter and enjoying a few more hours of sunlight this week.
Confession time: I haven’t been doing a lot of writing this year. Or I should say, I haven’t been doing a lot of focused writing. I’ve been a bit distracted by the general chaos of life. I’ve sat down a handful of times to write a Brightside - but I haven’t been able to find the right words to capture the moment, and when that happens I think it’s better to be quiet than to try to force something. But I also know that excuse could keep me away forever, which isn’t cool. So I’m checking in to say hi.
The Sanity Check today is, I have a lot on my mind right now. There’s a lot I want to say, and to be honest, I really need to sit down and get organized and carve out some dedicated focus time to articulate myself. I’ve been having a hard time getting out a newsletter because I want to come here with something big, important, and meaty – but when I sit down to write, I just can’t seem to get out what I’m trying to say. Imposter syndrome is also a bit to blame - it seems like everyone has a newsletter these days, and everyone’s saying something profound and different and beautiful, and I want to, too.
But I know that mindset makes me my own worst enemy, so trying to nip that in the bud - and not lose sight of all of the other awesome stuff going on right now. So you know what we’re doing today? Taking it WAY back to an early Brightside feature: good ole’ fashioned highs n lows. Nothing groundbreaking. Nothing meaty. Just a little log of what's going on right now.
And I'd love to hear from you: how do you meet yourself where you're at when you're in a bit of a creative rut? Hit me with your best, Brightsiders!!!
(Whenever I'm in a slump, SwissMiss's RSS Feed (not the hot chocolate) gets me right. I was really touched by this Ethan Hawke Ted Talk that she shared a few weeks ago, hence the quote to start this week's B-side.)
|
|
|
|
Highs:
- Holly and I just wrapped a super fun creative project for Pinterest. We had a week to stage and photograph a dinner party, and we KILLED IT! It was so energizing to flex our creatives muscles in a new way. (Pinterest board here ... it has FOLDERS!)
- I’ve officially banned neutrals from my wardrobe. If you follow me on IG, you’ll notice lots of hot pink -- like my Big Bud Press overalls and Cactus Store sun pants.
- Daylight savings time has made me a new woman. I took a long walk outside after 5pm the other day, and it HIT DIFFERENT!!!
- In an effort to use my kitchen more, I bought this set of starter knives which has really changed the game.
- Took a week off in Feb and spent it doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in Aruba with Harley and a bunch of friends. 'Twas a dream. PSA: Go on vacation.
Lows:
- Writers block! Bleh.
- Been reallllllly bad with budgeting lately. SOS!
- Ditto on exercising. Trying to find ways to move my body that feel good, not forced.
- The News. Heartbreak is an understatement at all the shit going wrong in the world right now. This episode of The Robcast gave me some really good perspective on what’s going on in Ukraine, and I also thought this piece was really important.
|
|
|
|
Speaking of other people's newsletters, here's a roundup of the ones I've been loving lately:
|
|
|
|
|
|
