Hello, Again

A new-ish beginning

Earlier this week, as I was journaling, I kept thinking about things that used to make me happy. I thought about the ways I filled my time before I had a smart phone and had access to everything all of the time. I wrote down things I love + things I used to love doing.

I journaled nearly every day.
I scrapbooked often.
I read countless books from the library, over and over and over again.

I miss some of the things that I put on my list (which had over 50 things on it) and I’ve already started to bring some of them back into my life. I’ve painted my nails a fun color, I’m currently cleaning off my office table so I can do a puzzle this weekend.

One thing that surprised me was blogging. Think the 2010-2014 era of blogging, before anyone was an influencer, and so many people were sharing their thoughts online. I miss it, that old school style of blogging I used to do. And now, I hope to bring it back.

At least in part.

I’ll still have longer essays and poetry that I share here on Substack, but I also want this to be a space where I can come and exercise my creativity without feeling the (often internalized) pressure to fit into a certain niche or box. I don’t know if this Substack will have a niche, other than me. I’m the common factor in what I’ll be writing about. Whether it’s books, writing, motherhood, chronic and mental illness, or my deep disdain for all things generative AI, or Taylor Swift. You can find it here.

Maybe that means less people will subscribe. Maybe It’ll be harder to share posts, since I might not have one perfect reader. I’m okay with that. In a world that’s constantly pushing out new content, I think we’ve (myself, and a lot of us) have forgotten how to create simply for the sake of creating something. Not to sell. Not to go viral.

I’ll still be writing and publishing books, but I want this space to be fun, to take the pressure off. I still hope to share some of my best writing here, but I’m giving myself permission to be messy in the process. This space won’t be perfectly curated, and I’m okay with that.

I hope you’ll join me.