I would love to tell lots of people I love them! I think it might be harder as a large and shambling man; you can see how it might be taken in the wrong way. There’s always the fear that “I am glad you exist in the world!” becomes “I desire to possess you,” and of course the second of those is not very pleasant at all. But as I write this I realise I can just *say* “I’m glad you exist in the world!” so that’s what I’ll do from now on
I love the list so very much. Everyone resonated with me. Every….damn…..one! I’m going to refer back to it on a daily basis and pick out the “winner” I need for the day. So Thank You!! And that T loves to draw monsters makes me happy and hopeful that there are indeed small “seedling souls” blooming which do and will make this world a much lovelier place. 💐
happy birthday! for my birthday today, i rested my body when my brain thought "it would be good to go for a walk" and my body was like "it would ALSO be good to NOT go for a walk right now." maybe i'll go for one now, but for the past hour, i rested.
dear everyone reading other than sophie,
follow sophie! she is great! for her 38th birthday, she shared 38 true things, and these are some of my favorites (and i love them all):
"Love is not a finite resource. Don’t be stingy with it. The world really needs it right now."
"'Apology' is a language we all should take pains to learn how to speak — and that includes also knowing how to accept one."
"It isn’t going to feel this way forever. It will move."
"The thing you want to wear is at a thrift store"
"Aging is a gift that isn’t guaranteed."
"No one is only the worst thing they ever did."
"If you practice enough, you’ll have the opportunity to experience change, which is very interesting and fun. But you’ll never land, and this is lucky: practicing is at the heart of joy."
"You are strong enough to ask. You are brave enough to hear the word ‘no.’"
"Under capitalism, humans are not given sufficient time to grieve. They are not given sufficient time to rest. They are not given sufficient time to get their periods, or go through menopause."
thank you for all of this, sophie!
i love you!
myq
PS i don't know the original source, but i heard a poem that involves a rhyme for "orange" that goes like this: "four engineers wear orange brassieres"
Happy Birthday Sophie. And thankyou for this wonderful list gift!
I have sat with an iced tea, and wallowed in it - my gift to myself before starting on dinner.
I send in return this article, which has me imagining all kinds of wonderful interactions where wombats leave welcome trays for the next visitor, and echidnas paint one wall an accent colour while they visit. (OK, I only skim read the article, but got enough to fuel my imaginings!)
I am birding all weekend, with two sets of friends, and feeling absolutely blessed (and also a bit socially anxious about all that chat, but I have a week to recover after!). Amy. x
PS. Housekeeping bit: the recordings of these newsletters haven't been showing up in the podcast feed like they were. This is a really minor thing as they are here too, but I mention it incase it's an easy fix!
Happy Birthday, Sophie! Thank you for choosing amazing words to describe so many wonderful things! I love letting them soak into my soul. Reading this was a great ending to my friYAY!
It's my birthday, too! Rhubarb pie for breakfast and desert 🥧 Congrats on the tanager, they are such a treat - last month I was far enough south to see a SUMMER TANAGER greeting the dawn and it was glorious. Hope you had a lovely, lovely birthday 😊
happy birthday sophie! yesterday was the birthday of one of my dearest friends, seems like many of my faves are tauruses! tauri?
today i got myself a big cold brew coffee with some fancy flavored cream on top. and i took it into the ceramics studio where i threw 6 little bud vases. it was a great afternoon. even though i kind of regret drinking that much coffee that late in the day.
oh and i meant to reply to a different post you made that mentioned kelly link! the day i read that post by you was the day i finished her novel, the book of love. it was so good! and so now i’m reading the short story collection you mentioned, thank you for the recommendation! and thank you for being you 💖
This morning’s second cup of on-the-chilly-morning-porch coffee is in honor of Sophie’s birthday! 🧁
“Keep practicing, if you like doing the thing. There are no endings; practice will always be the point. If you practice enough, you’ll have the opportunity to experience change, which is very interesting and fun. But you’ll never land, and this is lucky: practicing is at the heart of joy.”
This one particularly resonated with me, as a reminder that I can pick goals where the *practice leading to the goal* is what makes me joyful/fulfilled/enriched, rather than those where I will only feel fulfilled after achieving the goal. 💕
And this…. “You must daydream. You must live, at least sometimes, as though you are an animal, and you don't need to eat right now, and nothing is chasing you.”
Dear Sophie, I loved this whole list and I thank you for it. The one that most hit me today is aging is a gift that isn’t guaranteed. For about 12 years I did highlights and balayage in a salon. I loved it. Then I had a much longer and wished for baby and I didn’t want to spend the money or the hours away from him coloring my hair. So I decided to embrace my light brown hair and say bye to blonde. Now I’ve got greys and that’s been a bit harder for me to embrace, but I’ve been trying to say hey I GET to live long enough to have grey hair. Not everyone does! Also…I went and got my hair cut at super cuts and the stylist referred to my grey hairs as my “sparkle.”
I would love to tell lots of people I love them! I think it might be harder as a large and shambling man; you can see how it might be taken in the wrong way. There’s always the fear that “I am glad you exist in the world!” becomes “I desire to possess you,” and of course the second of those is not very pleasant at all. But as I write this I realise I can just *say* “I’m glad you exist in the world!” so that’s what I’ll do from now on
i'm glad YOU exist in the world!
Thank you! I’m glad that you exist too ☺️
This is a beautiful phrase.
Sophie, what is a Music League? Is it a book club, but with music?!
I love the list so very much. Everyone resonated with me. Every….damn…..one! I’m going to refer back to it on a daily basis and pick out the “winner” I need for the day. So Thank You!! And that T loves to draw monsters makes me happy and hopeful that there are indeed small “seedling souls” blooming which do and will make this world a much lovelier place. 💐
💗”pick out the winner i need for that day.”
Wishing you a very happy birthday! I will enjoy a slice of lemon tart and walking in nature 💛🌱 Grateful for your writing, art, and perspectives!
Happy birthday, Sophie! Thank you for sharing this list! <3
dear sophie,
happy birthday! for my birthday today, i rested my body when my brain thought "it would be good to go for a walk" and my body was like "it would ALSO be good to NOT go for a walk right now." maybe i'll go for one now, but for the past hour, i rested.
dear everyone reading other than sophie,
follow sophie! she is great! for her 38th birthday, she shared 38 true things, and these are some of my favorites (and i love them all):
"Love is not a finite resource. Don’t be stingy with it. The world really needs it right now."
"'Apology' is a language we all should take pains to learn how to speak — and that includes also knowing how to accept one."
"It isn’t going to feel this way forever. It will move."
"The thing you want to wear is at a thrift store"
"Aging is a gift that isn’t guaranteed."
"No one is only the worst thing they ever did."
"If you practice enough, you’ll have the opportunity to experience change, which is very interesting and fun. But you’ll never land, and this is lucky: practicing is at the heart of joy."
"You are strong enough to ask. You are brave enough to hear the word ‘no.’"
"Under capitalism, humans are not given sufficient time to grieve. They are not given sufficient time to rest. They are not given sufficient time to get their periods, or go through menopause."
thank you for all of this, sophie!
i love you!
myq
PS i don't know the original source, but i heard a poem that involves a rhyme for "orange" that goes like this: "four engineers wear orange brassieres"
Happy Birthday Sophie. And thankyou for this wonderful list gift!
I have sat with an iced tea, and wallowed in it - my gift to myself before starting on dinner.
I send in return this article, which has me imagining all kinds of wonderful interactions where wombats leave welcome trays for the next visitor, and echidnas paint one wall an accent colour while they visit. (OK, I only skim read the article, but got enough to fuel my imaginings!)
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/18/a-kangaroo-a-possum-and-a-bushrat-walk-into-a-burrow-research-finds-wombat-homes-are-the-supermarkets-of-the-forest
I am birding all weekend, with two sets of friends, and feeling absolutely blessed (and also a bit socially anxious about all that chat, but I have a week to recover after!). Amy. x
PS. Housekeeping bit: the recordings of these newsletters haven't been showing up in the podcast feed like they were. This is a really minor thing as they are here too, but I mention it incase it's an easy fix!
I didn't know you had a newsletter! Happy day to me!!!
I also love songs with horns. Yay!
Happy Birthday, Sophie! Thank you for choosing amazing words to describe so many wonderful things! I love letting them soak into my soul. Reading this was a great ending to my friYAY!
It's my birthday, too! Rhubarb pie for breakfast and desert 🥧 Congrats on the tanager, they are such a treat - last month I was far enough south to see a SUMMER TANAGER greeting the dawn and it was glorious. Hope you had a lovely, lovely birthday 😊
happy birthday sophie! yesterday was the birthday of one of my dearest friends, seems like many of my faves are tauruses! tauri?
today i got myself a big cold brew coffee with some fancy flavored cream on top. and i took it into the ceramics studio where i threw 6 little bud vases. it was a great afternoon. even though i kind of regret drinking that much coffee that late in the day.
oh and i meant to reply to a different post you made that mentioned kelly link! the day i read that post by you was the day i finished her novel, the book of love. it was so good! and so now i’m reading the short story collection you mentioned, thank you for the recommendation! and thank you for being you 💖
This morning’s second cup of on-the-chilly-morning-porch coffee is in honor of Sophie’s birthday! 🧁
“Keep practicing, if you like doing the thing. There are no endings; practice will always be the point. If you practice enough, you’ll have the opportunity to experience change, which is very interesting and fun. But you’ll never land, and this is lucky: practicing is at the heart of joy.”
This one particularly resonated with me, as a reminder that I can pick goals where the *practice leading to the goal* is what makes me joyful/fulfilled/enriched, rather than those where I will only feel fulfilled after achieving the goal. 💕
*practicing is at the heart of joy* 💛💛💛
And this…. “You must daydream. You must live, at least sometimes, as though you are an animal, and you don't need to eat right now, and nothing is chasing you.”
Dear Sophie, I loved this whole list and I thank you for it. The one that most hit me today is aging is a gift that isn’t guaranteed. For about 12 years I did highlights and balayage in a salon. I loved it. Then I had a much longer and wished for baby and I didn’t want to spend the money or the hours away from him coloring my hair. So I decided to embrace my light brown hair and say bye to blonde. Now I’ve got greys and that’s been a bit harder for me to embrace, but I’ve been trying to say hey I GET to live long enough to have grey hair. Not everyone does! Also…I went and got my hair cut at super cuts and the stylist referred to my grey hairs as my “sparkle.”
I loved it.