i love this and i thank you and i'm sorry i haven't yet sent you a drawing of my shoes!
to tide you over until i do, here are some pieces from your newsletter this week that i really enjoy:
"I used to smoke more than 10 cigarettes per day. (Do you think I’m cooler? Less cool? The same amount of cool? Ugh, never mind, don’t tell me.)"
"So I guess now I think you should keep your running shoes until they’re no longer working for you."
"What in your life can you enjoy without setting goals? What can you love without needing to improve? How would this change the way you walked through the world? I wish for you a life full of things about which you will always be an eager beginner."
This might be my favorite newsletter of yours so far. We’re all swimming in “get better at everything“ soup all the time in this country. It’s exhausting. I also love gardening and also have weeds and the wrong soil - BUT! Gosh! look at all the plants blooming! Look at the bees enjoying the lavender! What a miracle. I’ve decided that the rest of the year my goal is I’m gonna learn how to knit from YouTube. Just for fun. And I don’t have to be great at it. It’s taken my years to be “pretty good“ at gardening. Anyway, thank you. 🌸
I loved your thoughts! I've been an "eager beginner" in most things l do! Hemming curtains with a stapler, watercolor, gardening, pottery, sewing and on. I'm happy for a new perspective on this because l always felt l should 'do better', and it's great to know l can just enjoy! Thank you!!!
As someone quitting smoking, I was hoping you were gonna say, “I sat in the cold cracked-open-morning light with my coffee, wrapped in scarves and blankets, and…had a smoke”.
Do you ever have the occasional one? Nasty habit to kick. I find lane swim helps me.
Summer cloths? I went thrift shopping this year for summer gear. Basically whatever fit I got. Weird thing about the thrift store here is they have no change room, and you can’t return stuff. Only exchange. So I’ve been back like four times in two months. However, Ideally I’d love to just walk around in boxer shorts and bare feet. I should do more of that.
Woah, this entire newsletter hit home with me today. I’m truly a novice at all things and a master of none. I’m an adequate piano player, a mediocre poet/writer and a fairly nimble cross stitcher (front looks decent but the back looks like a drunk spider spun an erratic web of colors). I flit and float in and out of hobbies, activities, obsessions, blah, blah, blah like a bee at an all you can eat honeysuckle bush buffet. In a conversation I had with a friend just today I likened myself to dysfunctional toilet bowl water - always swirling at the top of the rim but never really going down (and this is kind of funny after reading about the blow job). So THANK YOU! BRAVO to all of us perpetual novices, the ones who find wonderment in things without complete commitment or improvement. You are my people. 😁
Sophie, your reflections on enjoying activities without the pressure to excel are so refreshing and relatable! It's a beautiful reminder that it's perfectly okay to be an eager beginner and find joy in the process rather than the outcome. Your storytelling, from bike rides to bird-watching, captures the essence of simply loving what you do. Also, your drawings of shoes are delightful! Thank you for sharing these heartfelt insights and lovely illustrations.
Thank you, thank you! Just subscribed to your newsletter and am reading it for the first time. WHAT A RELIEF! to realize I don't have to EXCELL at all the things I like doing. And that I don't have to get rid of my running shoes that are so comfortable and still (after 4 years) still offer plenty of support. Love the pigeon drawing.
Yay! My shoes!
I love your drawing!
Thank you!
dear sophie,
i love this and i thank you and i'm sorry i haven't yet sent you a drawing of my shoes!
to tide you over until i do, here are some pieces from your newsletter this week that i really enjoy:
"I used to smoke more than 10 cigarettes per day. (Do you think I’m cooler? Less cool? The same amount of cool? Ugh, never mind, don’t tell me.)"
"So I guess now I think you should keep your running shoes until they’re no longer working for you."
"What in your life can you enjoy without setting goals? What can you love without needing to improve? How would this change the way you walked through the world? I wish for you a life full of things about which you will always be an eager beginner."
thanks and love!
myq
This was the article I needed to read today, thank you!
I don’t know, that bread loaf looks pretty perfect to me.
Agree 100% 😍
This might be my favorite newsletter of yours so far. We’re all swimming in “get better at everything“ soup all the time in this country. It’s exhausting. I also love gardening and also have weeds and the wrong soil - BUT! Gosh! look at all the plants blooming! Look at the bees enjoying the lavender! What a miracle. I’ve decided that the rest of the year my goal is I’m gonna learn how to knit from YouTube. Just for fun. And I don’t have to be great at it. It’s taken my years to be “pretty good“ at gardening. Anyway, thank you. 🌸
I loved your thoughts! I've been an "eager beginner" in most things l do! Hemming curtains with a stapler, watercolor, gardening, pottery, sewing and on. I'm happy for a new perspective on this because l always felt l should 'do better', and it's great to know l can just enjoy! Thank you!!!
I now love shoes in a whole new way.
As someone quitting smoking, I was hoping you were gonna say, “I sat in the cold cracked-open-morning light with my coffee, wrapped in scarves and blankets, and…had a smoke”.
Do you ever have the occasional one? Nasty habit to kick. I find lane swim helps me.
Summer cloths? I went thrift shopping this year for summer gear. Basically whatever fit I got. Weird thing about the thrift store here is they have no change room, and you can’t return stuff. Only exchange. So I’ve been back like four times in two months. However, Ideally I’d love to just walk around in boxer shorts and bare feet. I should do more of that.
Woah, this entire newsletter hit home with me today. I’m truly a novice at all things and a master of none. I’m an adequate piano player, a mediocre poet/writer and a fairly nimble cross stitcher (front looks decent but the back looks like a drunk spider spun an erratic web of colors). I flit and float in and out of hobbies, activities, obsessions, blah, blah, blah like a bee at an all you can eat honeysuckle bush buffet. In a conversation I had with a friend just today I likened myself to dysfunctional toilet bowl water - always swirling at the top of the rim but never really going down (and this is kind of funny after reading about the blow job). So THANK YOU! BRAVO to all of us perpetual novices, the ones who find wonderment in things without complete commitment or improvement. You are my people. 😁
Sophie, your reflections on enjoying activities without the pressure to excel are so refreshing and relatable! It's a beautiful reminder that it's perfectly okay to be an eager beginner and find joy in the process rather than the outcome. Your storytelling, from bike rides to bird-watching, captures the essence of simply loving what you do. Also, your drawings of shoes are delightful! Thank you for sharing these heartfelt insights and lovely illustrations.
I love this! I love sitting in a coffee shop absorbing everyone’s conversational snippets. They light the fire in my brain.
There’s so much in this writing and picturing to love.
Thanks for making my day!
Thank you, thank you! Just subscribed to your newsletter and am reading it for the first time. WHAT A RELIEF! to realize I don't have to EXCELL at all the things I like doing. And that I don't have to get rid of my running shoes that are so comfortable and still (after 4 years) still offer plenty of support. Love the pigeon drawing.