a year of letters

connection + curiosity

I promised myself (and you, if you didn’t know it) that I would share twelve letters through your inbox in 2021. It’s been a while, I know… and some of you have been along for photography updates, marketing strategy subjects, and otherwise non-consistent spurts of personal sharing. Thank you for playing along for sure!

As I mentioned to those who subscribed over the last few weeks, my intention moving forward is to quiet the whole thing down, and to come to you with a sense of sharing, simplicity and curiosity. I’m in a lovely, deepened season of learning more about myself, and my hope is that you find a little connection to your own life too. 

It felt like everyone, everyday was constantly bashing on the year 2020. Maybe we didn’t even actually mean it after a while, but it just seemed like the thing to do.

Sure, it was a tough year with some hard lessons. There were bushfires, wildfires and global injustices. Many people died, others incomprehensibly mistreated. Kanye West ran for president for a few minutes. It wasn’t exactly stellar.

But holy cow, what a year of GROWTH it was too! We got vulnerable about race, we opened up about gender identity and equality, we were more involved in politics than our generation has ever really had to be. As a zoonotic disease, COVID taught us about our connection to animals, and how the mistreatment and exploitation of another species can be our demise. And perhaps most tangible for us all, we learned how to be home. To make our own coffee, to sit with ourselves, maybe to connect with our loved ones in ways we’d forgotten.

Personally, I feel 2020 was incredible, and it changed us - it changed me - in beautiful and important ways.

I pulled out my watercolor paints this month. I have had the same handsome set of watercolors since studying abroad in high school, and I took a few watercolor classes through college too. But when life gets busy, that old love for sketching and paint is always the first thing to go.

When I was a kid, my imagination was wild. I actually remember it, and I remember how proud I was of the people and places I imagined. I imagine we all had an overflowing source of creativity then, and it seems so difficult to tap into it as adults.

I must have seen an Instagram ad around the holidays, and it introduced me to the wild celestial style of Ana Victoria Calderón‘s watercolor technique. I immediately signed up for her three-part online class on the Domestika.org site in Spanish, ha! (English subtitles)

My dear friend Lara has been dancing into her camera and sharing it with others on Instagram. She’s linked to other women dancing by themselves too (Shanti, Lisa Rinna). A beautiful release and celebration of one’s own self - no matter your age, size or days-since-last-shower. You don’t have to post it for all to see, but maybe you’ll join me for a little wiggle time this month?

Out on the skinny skis lately! Temps have been sub-zero up here in Vermont the last eight days, so you’ll spy me on cross-country ski explorations instead. What an amazing workout.

Deep in spirit. A little blog about the books I’m [always] reading, centered on inner work and self exploration. At any given moment, I’m reading one of these, as well as a novel, and listening to something nonfiction on Audible all at the same time. I tend to have as many books open as I do tabs on my internet browser, and that’s probably not a good thing ;-)

Testing the waters. I’ve been exploring the “sober curious” movement since October and am actually quite loving it! What makes COVID lockdown perhaps the perfect time to cut back?

And with that, the first of what will be 12 letters to you this year. I’m wishing you a beautiful Sunday morning, my friends! Please know you can always hit REPLY to say hello. You can unsubscribe to these letters at any time via the link mentioned below.

Till next time!