Moving forward
#015: coincidences, moving forward but not moving on, and my paper collage workshop
Dear Reader, it’s a new week ☀️ I also wanted to test out the voiceover functionality so give it a listen above 🎵 This is also post #15, but I didn’t feel like re-recording.
Thank you for your kind words about my last post. I’ve noticed that many of you choose to write me emails rather than comment publicly and I really like that about Substack. I like how readers will communicate more intimately with me. However, if you want this Substack to continue, then I need the algorithm to work, so commenting will add it to the algorithm, I’ll be able to become a Substack writer full-time, and retire early. Just kidding. I don’t want any of these things other than to retire early.
These days, I’ve been experiencing a lot of coincidences.
I won a gift card for winning an Uno tournament at work and won a raffle at a recent event! My mom encouraged me to buy lottery tickets. While third time’s a charm, luck doesn’t work three times in a row apparently.
In the last month, I’ve learned just how many of my colleagues have lost a parent and half of those conversations were unprompted.
I looked up “grief” as a podcast topic and Spotify informed me of Terrible, Thanks for Asking, so I made a mental note to listen to it sometime. Instagram then showed me an Adam Grant post about grief and encouraged viewings of this TED talk. The presenter talked about moving forward from grief rather than moving on. Turns out, this presenter was Nora McInerny, the host of the above podcast that I had favorited! THEN, a friend told me that she was trying to move forward from a sad event! I MEAN, SHEESH. I GET IT, UNIVERSE.
All of these coincidences have been equal parts comforting and like a prelude to something even bigger and tougher. Grief is often likened to a pebble in a shoe. For me at this point, I feel like it’s a tickle in my throat. With a few coughs and a swig of water it generally goes away, but sometimes the coughs are so dry that my eyes get all teary and it’s just super embarrassing. I don’t know when it’ll come back. At the most inopportune time—when my mouth is wide open in the dentist’s chair, during a meditation, in the middle of a presentation—it’ll come back and choose to make its presence known.
I was listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour’s recent episode and they were talking about Olivia Rodrigo’s newest album and how she has bangers and ballads. One commentator mentioned her hits are in the ballads and I have to agree. I love the lyrics of this song and how the melody goes up and down in a swirly kind of way.
Sheec Socks has a new Kickstarter for the Ultimate Dress Sneaker Sock that looks so cushion-y and supportive.
Here’s a quote about love:
taken from Carolina Cala Donofrio’s Substack post
I taught my Art of Paper Collaging workshop yesterday at Paper + Craft Pantry. Participants made one abstract work and one object work, and I wasn’t prescriptive about it at all. I was a little nervous that I was giving too much freedom and that people would crave more guidance, but it turned out so well. There were swells of conversations and serendipitous, “I’m also from Michigan!” and “I also just dropped my daughter off at college last month!” conversations to absolute silence while everyone concentrated on cutting and sourcing paper.
Each participant received scissors, glue, a pack of decorative paper, tons of magazines, and cardstock. I’m really pleased with how it went.
👋🏻 Thank you for reading. Until next time!
Leave a comment, if you’d like. Send me an email, if you prefer. Please do not send over a carrier pigeon because my cat may do unpleasant things to it. On another note, please tell me what’s going on with college American football so I have something to talk about in the first 5 minutes of Zoom meetings.
