“I drank coffee and read old books and waited for the year to end.”
- Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing In America.
Hey, hey remember that it’s okay to feel like you’re growing out of books or authors you loved. Even if those books or authors really had an impact on you. We’re constantly changing as individuals and with that, our tastes change as well. It’s okay to grow out of things. That doesn’t mean you’re betraying them or yourself - it just means that you’re an ever changing human and liking those things was a step in your evolution.
At the same time, it’s okay to NOT grow out of certain books or authors. It’s okay to still be excited over someone’s new book, even if they published 20 before it. It’s okay to still be reading YA, for example, even if you’re way past the “target audience” for this genre.
I’ll repeat something that I’ve said times and times before: you do you. Read what makes you happy and fulfilled and what brings you joy. Always unapologetically.
Tag your favourite flower, fruit, colour, scent, season and tea!
December 24
In a piece of Scottish folklore from Selkirk it is described how a woman was able to protect herself and her baby from some malicious fairies that had snuck into the house by wrapping her husband’s waistcoat around them both
Isn’t that just the softest concept? Isn’t that just a most peculiar, domestic kind of magic? Such a simple, intuitive kind of protection. And we do this all the time!
“Your shirts are nicer to sleep in.”
“It’s cold out, take my coat.”
“I miss you, so I’ve stolen your sweater.”
“Borrow my blazer for your interview!”
“I wore this when I was your age, it is just your size.”
All the clothes we lend, steal and hand down so affectionately! All the fabric we wrap around us that is full of another person’s thoughts of us! It’s all magic. Magic so old that we don’t even remember that it is
It’s a lovely Christmas party in Camelot, and you are a horrible Green Knight.
The Shortest Day. Words by Susan Cooper, illustrations by Carson Ellis.
For everyone with social anxiety, this is a reminder that you don’t have to be perfect in your interactions with others; you just have to be kind and that’s literally it. That’s all that’s necessary of you. You don’t need to say the perfect thing or anticipate what they would want you to say or even exude confidence if you can’t.
Social anxiety tells us that we have to be perfect in in our social interactions, but no one is. Social anxiety sets us up for a level of expectation in our social interactions that we have no choice but to fail at, and then fall into a cycle of self-hate for failing and striving even harder for perfection.