quickie post this week + mini update + gratitude

hello everyone!

No post this week as I spent my writing mornings working on an application for a grant (!). Please do keep all available fingers and toes crossed. I’ll find out if I’m a recipient at the end of July.

Next week you’ll get a double dose—A personal essay as per usual PLUS a new feature: A Friday morning topic-based open thread. I’m excited to experiment with this and looking forward to hearing your voices here in slow motion sober.

Something for the weekend: I read this quickie interview about “Coping and Creativity” with Liz Gilbert that I wanted to share with you. Creativity and sobriety are so intertwined for me, and the way she spells it out here hit me in the guts (in the best way!):

What generally happens in our culture is that first a few people get singled out as being talented and stars and then all the resources go into them and then everyone else is like, “Oh, you’re not a creative person,” which is why you hear people say. “I don’t have a creative bone in my body,” which is insane because we are the creative species. But the second thing that happens is that our culture has created shortcuts that we can do to not feel our anxiety. They are quicker and they’re also profitable for other people.

So shopping, and stimulants and sedatives and alcohol and drugs and nicotine and sex and all of these substances and activities that we do, usually starting around adolescence are a way to hot-wire our nervous systems so that we feel good. And so, what happens is that you become an adolescent and you find these other ways to do it. And that’s great. They actually do deliver a hit, but they also deliver pretty severe consequences on your pocketbook on your body and your self-esteem.

A friend of mine who is in 12-step recovery says, “If it’s not a man, it’s a martini. If it’s not a martini it’s a muffin. If it’s not a muffin it’s a MasterCard.” There’s always something that we can reach for to make us feel good. But what I’m really interested in right now in my life is the difference between doing things that feel good and doing things that make me feel well.

So, doing things that make me feel good — like impulse buying makes me feel good for a minute, like a martini makes me feel good. There are certain things that you can do but making creative work makes me feel well, and by well, I mean the quiet hum of well-being. I haven’t thought about my problems in 10 minutes. All the meditation practices and the dancing and the journaling and praying and all that that I do every day, I do it because it makes me feel well. And the more I can feel well, the more I can sustain and survive life on earth, especially right now.

Thank you all for being part of this community. I am so grateful to walk this path with all of you.

x