CASUAL HOSTING, DIARIES, AND LENA DUNHAM

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that's me!!

Diaries of a Poet: I swerved left on my reading choices and picked up The Diary of Emily Dickinson by Jaime Fuller. This is NOT the real diary of Dickinson, but it simulates entries and poems in a diary she Emily Dickinson kept from 1867 to 1868...and then each “entry” is annotated with factual material about the context of the poets life. It's a cute little read that gave me a window into how she sees the world, and perhaps an imagination as to why. I stumbled onto this book during a visit to The Book Lady in Savannah, a treasured local bookstore that sells very vintage books right alongside brand new ones. There are always surprises in store, literally. More than anything this book has done two things 1) Reminded me I want to watch “Dickinson” on AppleTV and 2) to re-read my favorite line of an Emily Dickinson poem, below:

Not knowing when dawn will come,
I open every door.

What I'm writing: What would you willing be thrown in jail for? That was at the heart of my Evangeline writing over the weekend, because in order to have a world where Astrology was legal in this country, one woman had to be arrested multiple times to make it so...and that woman is Evangeline Adams, my main character of Evangeline. That kind of passion and more importantly, conviction, wasn't hard to imagine, but also it was.

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history.

Too Much. You've probably heard about Lena Dunham's new show on Netflix too much but you'll hear it here again because...it's just good. A heartbroken New Yorker, Megan Stalter, who you might recognize from Hacks, moves to London and falls in love with an indie musician...and this girl is the MOST, as is the events that ensue. I forgot how amazing, how poignant, how specifically universal Lena's writing can be when it comes to capturing the interior of a woman's experience – especially in relationships, in finding herself, and in romance. There's moments of, hmmm I'm not sure I need another scene of this, and moments of god this is so funny and true. Once I finish this series, I'll be devouring all of the social commentary and think pieces that I'm sure have popped off from this show, like only Lena Dunham can stir up.

The French Don't Obsess Over Purpose. I giggled at the core anecdote from this author, Pamela Clapp, which launched a beautiful reflection on what matters. Last week I had a phone chat with a friend of a friend who had some ideas for my creative projects...and when I asked what her POV was on what to do (about something system-level work related) she said, “I don't know, go to dinner? Have fun? Live your life!?” Amen. And maybe I'll go do that in Paris ;)

8 Ways to Embrace Deep Casual Hosting. Every Wednesday night I play Mahjong with a few friends in Savannah. Every Wednesday night. We started in December and it's become one of the great joys of my social life. We rotate houses. We cook for each other. I LOVE having friends in my home, but sometimes I stress about it being this or that or omg is there dried soap on the outside of soap dispenser that I need to clean off!? Anyways, this post by Katherine Goldstein was a reminder on why hosting is so lovely, and why being so casual about it is even lovelier (and how to actually do that). It was followed by seeing Amanda Litman, Run for Something founder, posting about half a year of hosting friends every Saturday night for dinner. It's a joy...these gatherings...these wildly offline but very togethering things.

Why does my mind keep thinking that? Ezra Klein's podcast with Mark Epstein, a psychiatrist and buddhist was so good that I listened to it twice. In a 24-hour period. Some of the conversation is looping and repetitive (sorta like our minds, which are the subject of this convo...) but there were a few true strikes of lightening insight for me. The kind that make you stop. Rewind. Listen to it again. Stop. Rewind. Listen to it again. The conversation touches on meditation, on desire, on freedom, on presence. It's lovely, if you need a mental reset.

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine:

My dear friend Lisa Raphael sent me the perfectly out-of-the blue I think you'll love this screenshot:

And I did. I did perfectly love it and perfectly need it. We all do, because our creative energy often wants to oscillate between staying safe, doing what we've always done, how we've always done it...and living big and living free, doing things we've never done before, making a thing happen that could happen us to fail, taking risks, saying the thing. This reminder from Gretchin Rubin to choose the bigger life is so apt, so lovely, so simple in its instruction...and the bigger life comes to us in small moments, when you're a passenger on a jetski and your bestie asks if you want to drive but the storm is coming...yes.....when you're headed to a town where you know a lot of people and instead of talking about each of them to all of them, you plan a dinner for everyone to meet...when you're feeling pulled to make something new but don't know if anyone will want to read, or listen, or buy, or whatever, you make it anyways. Small moments, small decisions toward expansion, open up the path to major aliveness:

When uncertain about how to proceed...choose the bigger life.

woman on xx