I started Gathering in October 2020 after deciding to take a months-long social media hiatus. First I posted little musings, and then I began writing about being away from social media. Socially Awkward was an attempt to give the newsletter a focus, but it hasn’t felt right, and now I am transforming Gathering/Socially Awkward into Smultronställe. Smultronställe is a Swedish word literally meaning “a place of wild strawberries.” An idyllic place overflowing with beauty.
Hey Stacy, I've been loving Kate Rusby's cover of "Manic Monday" because it somehow finds me where I'm at. I've been grateful for my limping-along garden because it still sees fit to reward me with gifts even though I can't control the weather (which has been awful for my garden!) and I can barely keep my head in the game this deep into a hot, distressing summer. I've been reading Cosmos and Psyche and loving my own feelings of fascination. And my best inspiration and source of joy right now is the 1911 clawfoot tub I just bought to build myself an outdoor soaking garden in my back yard. It's daunting, but I can't wait to prove to myself I can get it done. I love keeping up with your newsletter as I'm able... Keep on being your wonderful self!
I've really been enjoying Billie Eilish's new album these past couple of days, as well as Fiona Apple's album that came out last year. For most of this year and last year, I've been stuck at home and trying to engage in art that feels transportive.
A quote that I found earlier this year and that's given me comfort: "I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith but the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing."
It's from "East Coker" by T.S. Eliot.
Finally, I've loved the evolution of your newsletter and don't have any suggestions so far.
Hey Stacy, I've been loving Kate Rusby's cover of "Manic Monday" because it somehow finds me where I'm at. I've been grateful for my limping-along garden because it still sees fit to reward me with gifts even though I can't control the weather (which has been awful for my garden!) and I can barely keep my head in the game this deep into a hot, distressing summer. I've been reading Cosmos and Psyche and loving my own feelings of fascination. And my best inspiration and source of joy right now is the 1911 clawfoot tub I just bought to build myself an outdoor soaking garden in my back yard. It's daunting, but I can't wait to prove to myself I can get it done. I love keeping up with your newsletter as I'm able... Keep on being your wonderful self!
Hi Stacy,
I've really been enjoying Billie Eilish's new album these past couple of days, as well as Fiona Apple's album that came out last year. For most of this year and last year, I've been stuck at home and trying to engage in art that feels transportive.
A quote that I found earlier this year and that's given me comfort: "I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith but the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing."
It's from "East Coker" by T.S. Eliot.
Finally, I've loved the evolution of your newsletter and don't have any suggestions so far.