10 Things: fabric flowers, followed flowers, flow
My recommendations on what to read, listen to, look at, follow, make, and enjoy this week.
Even though it’s going to dip below freezing again this week, I feel like spring is my whole vibe right now. Although, I ran into a fellow teacher in the hall today and was like, “Why do you have that bag full of beach stuff?” And he said, “Because today is Beach Day. Because it’s so cold outside, and everyone needs something beachy, or they’ll die.” Something like that. And he’s right: this is a hard time of year, because it’s still so cold and a lot of days you have to stay inside. NEVERTHELESS, this list is full of springy things. The first three are free! If you want access to an epic list of meal-prepping tips and recommendations from 15 art school teenagers, you’ll have to move to the paid tier. (Which has other perks, too!)
Jessi Klein’s book, “I’ll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife & Motherhood”
Within the first 20 pages of this book, I was actually sobbing. This isn’t unheard of for me when it comes to a book, but nevertheless, this is a special book for a certain type of person. It’s about early motherhood, and in particular, early motherhood for a woman who is and was a working writer. I excerpted a little of one of the essays in my Wednesday post this week, but it’s hard to really explain how powerful this book has been for me in this exact moment of my life. I feel like I needed it. It has helped me access a deep loneliness that I didn’t want to admit I felt, and it’s comforted that part of me. I’m a big fan of Jessi Klein’s already, so I bought this book thinking that I would like it because I like HER; but I like it on a deeper level than I expected. She has an essay about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly that’s MASTERFUL. This is saying something, because aren’t there 30,000 essays about butterflies already? What could possibly be said that is new? But what she says is new. (I cried while reading that one, and while reading four others so far, and I’m only halfway through. To be clear: I could have finished this book this week, but I couldn’t stand the idea of not having more of it to read, so I have been portioning it out like it is the last strawberry cake on earth.)
(Alright: another note, having read two more essays. Yesterday, I realized that I was parsing the book out not only because it’s wonderful, but because it’s [I simply cannot think of a different word for this] kinda triggering. Like, it’s so exactly of the moment I’m living inside that reading it feels a little like getting a deep tissue massage, and at some point, it starts to hurt. So be warned, if you, too, are in early parenthood.)
OK. So these photos are incredible, rich, life-affirming, and so on and so forth. There’s nothing I can write about these photos that you can’t learn by clicking on that link and looking at them. But this link was sent to me by my friend
, who sends me SO MANY lovely little things; his text messages are the most like having a friend who sends you postcards in the actual mail from marvelous adventures that text messages can be. They’re always a delight, and he makes gentle offerings. Myq has his own Substack, and I’ve linked to it here, and it’s GREAT. Here are other offerings Myq has texted me:cool
line from a letter he wrote to a person seeking a book publisher (do you read his substack?): (note from me, Sophie: I do read it, and I like it. If you’re a writer, and you’re not reading it, read it, to write.) “I hope your book finds a publisher. If not, I really feel that always (even with published books) we are working, not on behalf of that book, but on behalf of the next one. In this sense, we are always, perennially, doing warm-up exercises, for that ultimate book that, we hope, we'll never quite get to.”From my friend Jacob about his 13-year-old daughter that I think is beautiful: “Sadie mentioned something interesting – that there are places on Earth where it's always winter, where it's always spring, and where it's always summer. But there are no places where it's always autumn, because the emptying of trees of their leaves can't keep happening indefinitely.”
Fun alert! A fan of mine on Twitter, to me:
“My 13-yr-old just made himself/me laugh with the following joke.
"I just came up with a word: plagiarism."”
My boyfriend Bob is a multitalented and mystical human being; the closest human thing to a sparkle that there can be. He loves to write Cryptic Crosswords (see what I mean?), and regular crosswords, and help people solve puzzles, and write his own puzzles, and watch videos from the early 2000s of MIT students solving integrals quickly. He taught me how to do cryptic crosswords, and they’re delightful (if a little tricky to get the hang of), and if you’re looking to bend your brain around, I recommend them! And then I recommend his blog, where he’s putting out his own with some regularity. On a separate note, Bob makes tie-dyed wares (see what I mean?), and he’s moving, so he’s selling them all at 60 percent off right now. You can buy them here!
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