The past few months I’ve felt a gradual yet marked shift inward. Building the “right” life for myself post-college was something I experienced a lot of anxiety and despair about that only recently started quieting down, three years later. My life today feels decently settled and deliberately chosen in all the areas that matter — revealing to me the painstaking truth that I’m the only person who can make sure I actually enjoy it.
If you asked, I’d say that right now I’m focused on living well and loving my people dearly. I also want to do good work by becoming hyper-discerning about when to push myself and when to rest. I’ve noticed that feeling in flow and like I’m being led by something greater seems to be a special byproduct of getting this balance right. To sum up this pursuit, I’d say it feels a lot like chasing light in a metaphorical garden. What this intention looks like for me:
Revisiting all my childhood hobbies (and taking classes regularly with friends)
Creating the colorful nest (aka my own apartment) I dreamed of when I was a girl
Making Friday a weekend day and Saturday a workday (a self-employed pleasure)
Slowly constructing a closet of carefully collected and deeply researched pieces
Having a walking commute and taking my walks in the sun extremely seriously
Links
Larva learnings (essay)
"At the stage I invest, I’m selling my viewpoint to founders in the form of a small check, and I’ve found that the weirder that viewpoint is, the more interesting I am to the type of outlier people I want to back.”Casual Viewing by Will Tavlin (essay)
A history of Netflix and the Netflixification of the entertainment industry.The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula K Le Guin (essay)
Fascinating “retelling of the story of human origin by redefining technology as a cultural carrier bag.”Principles by Nabeel Qureshi (list)
I emphatically nodded my way through my read of this list. His point on being specific hit especially hard right now — granularity is gorgeous.Kim Kardashian, mogul, tells us her money story (profile)
A peek inside the pocketbook of an impressively commercial woman.Pregnant With One Child and 295,233 Words by Molly Young (essay)
One woman’s account of becoming wildly creatively productive while pregnant. Motherload and Splinters were two other recent accounts of early motherhood.Michelle & Trae Stephens interview (podcast)
I adore honest interviews with couples who each have equally interesting careers. Nadia & Delian Asparouhov’s was also great and I’m actively on the hunt for more.Bon Iver Glastonbury 2009 full set (video)
I’ve listened to this too many times to count, it just never gets old.Beauty Sleep by AB001 (song)
A song that sums up the feeling of being able to lie and rest peacefully.House by Nobuhiko Obayashi (film)
If you’ve already exhausted the Lynch catalog, I offer this surrealist masterpiece for consideration (and Rubber, for that matter).
Parting thought
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves…
— “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver