I’m grateful for.. ( 🎄 the unravelling edition)
Some thoughts & recommendations to start your weekend
I’m grateful for the man in a Santa Hat who I saw blowing leaves during my walk this morning. I’m sure he’s grateful that he was using a leaf blower, and not blowing each leaf individually. I’m grateful for the memory of this bit1 about David Oyelowo’s Nigerian Dad and his leaf blower. I’m grateful that someone blows the leaves away because if you don’t, they adhere to the paths and make them slippy which makes the park dangerous. I’m grateful to have accepted that sometimes we need to amend nature’s intentions, but wish we only did it to make the world bigger and more accessible for everyone.
I’m grateful that my reading list on having children was among the ten most popular lists published by Longreads this year. I’m grateful for the people who wrote to me after that piece was published, and for the way it made its way in the world. I’m grateful to be working from home today, when people from the countryside traditionally come to Dublin to do their Christmas shopping. I’m grateful to avoid the crowds, and to fondly remember a time when we got a day off school to allow for shopping. (It’s also the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, but that’s not why we got the day of school!)
I’m grateful to be taking things a bit more slowly at the moment. I’m grateful for the feeling of liminality that accompanies this time of year, and for the space to enjoy it. I’m grateful to have downloaded this year’s Unraveling notebook which will help structure my end of year reflections and planning. I’m grateful to have more than a decade’s worth of Unraveling workbooks on my shelf somewhere, documenting how my life has changed and developed since 2011.
I’m grateful for the question: Is this a December problem or a January problem? And, for how often the answer is: A January problem.
Recommendations
📔 Shout out to
, the creator of the aforementionned Unravel Your Life workbook.🎧 My podcast app recently reported that I listened to 11 days and 9 hours work of podcasts in 2023. This episode on revising your writing (& your life) is a favourite from 2021.
📚 Am reading lots at the moment and really enjoyed Naoise Dolan’s ‘The Happy Couple’. It’s funny, sharp, queer and very hard to put down. Here’s an extract.
📺 Re-watching The Diplomat which is also quite funny.
🚧 I love advice columns and got a lot from this installment on boundaries.
Bit starts at 7 minutes