End of May | 2024

A roundup of mundane magic, links I loved, and books I finished this month

**Hi friends! If you're reading this in the email, it might cut off due to length. Viewing in the browser or on the app can fix this.

Today's post has a bit of a reflection, followed by the end-of-the-month roundup of mundane magic moments, links I loved, and books I finished. The sections are clearly marked, so feel free to jump ahead.

---

What a month!

In some ways, it feels like May has flown by, but it's been rich with both growth and delicious slowness. I have been inhabiting the current moment much more often of late.

I am writing this from a big, comfy old chair we inherited from Jon's grandparents, which I've recently moved to the den to look out toward the back yard. It's a brownish colour, covered in variegated embroidered leaves.

I am looking out at the tiered beds that we've recently planted and thinking about my grandmother, Gladys, whose garden had beautiful tiered beds that these have reminded me of since we moved in.¹ I named our first home after her because it was surrounded by the most beautiful garden, but these tiered beds have her name all over them.

I have always wanted a garden like hers, and have stared across the yard at those beds for the last few years, without the energy to do anything with them. And now, it is finally beginning. I wish she could have seen what I am doing now.

I am willing the seeds we planted to grow, and hoping some part of her knows.

My head is full of poetry after a whirlwind month of writing poems (often more than one) every day and reading so many more².

I've also been keeping a copy of a collection of Mary Oliver's poems near my bed to read each morning. It was passed on to me, like the chair I'm sitting in, from my husband's grandmother, Lois.

She was a poet, too, and published this poem she wrote about Jon, and our relationship, years ago, in a collection featuring local poets:

Lois saw and valued parts of me that I wasn't able to access much myself, at the time. I wish she could have seen what I am doing now.

I am reading and writing poetry every day, and hoping some part of her knows.

I miss these two women in ways I'm not always aware of. I wish I'd had more time with each of them, but I'm so grateful for these gifts they've given me, whether they knew all they were passing along to me or not.

There's been a lot of magic this month, so, onward!

✨️ Mundane Magics ✨️

• Mapping my creative ecosystem;

  Sarah Shotts
  wrote a wonderful book called Discover Your Creative Ecosystem, and in it are prompts to support the flourishing of your creativity no matter your circumstances. My favourite so far (and one I've gotten very invested in) is drawing a map of your creative ecosystem. I've missed drawing and had recently begun pinning fantasy map tips to one of my pinterest boards, and then I read this chapter and it was all systems go for my brain. I'm having a blast. (Related: if you follow notes here, you may also have noticed that I've been following
  Susan Jimenez
  ’ Five Days of Flower Doodling - it's not too late to start if you want to join!)

A preliminary sketch - this is only one section (I'm going to orient the individual aspects better and put them all together in one large map later on), and I started with the less-than-fun parts. It won't all be gloomy!

• Oren pronouncing Sybil as "bubble": my almost-three-year-old has been slow to speech and has recently been trying out more words. This is one of my favourites.

• A new embroidery project: I'm adding some simple flowers to a pair of shorts that fit well but which I find boring, so I'll be inclined to wear them more often. Like so many of my other recent projects, it is slow-going, and I'm loving it.

• A new desk and rearranged bedroom: a lot of work we've planned for our house has gone slower than I'd like so I'm trying to find ways to progress where I can, and this was one of them. We removed the side-carred crib from our bed and moved the bed to a different wall so I'd have space for my yoga mat (in the room in which I'm most comfortable and able to be alone) and, as a bonus, there was room to move in my new desk in the space that will eventually become our craft/hobby room.

• A morning ritual adjustment: I have once again begun waking a bit earlier than everyone in the house, to spend a bit of time alone outside while I wake up, but now I'm also beginning with reading a bit of poetry before getting up, and it's so lovely.

• Getting things ready for a yard sale and going thrifting: I'm trying to be more conscious of what I'm purchasing and surrounding myself with. This is difficult for me with my ADHD and autism, because I'm prone to impulse buys and getting attached to things I never use, but I've been getting some things sorted for a yard sale we're going to have at my friend's house soon, and also went thrifting recently with my family and found a few small things for projects and decorating, and it's made me happy.

We have two types of forget-me-nots in our back yard, as well as a few other types of similar sized flowers I still need to identify. I put them into a small vase I found at the thrift store and stared at it for days.

• Flavoured salt: I recently decided that, since I needed to up my salt intake because of my POTS, I might as well have more fun with it. So I bought some flavoured salt, and it is a game changer.

• Gardening and poetry: as mentioned above, these are both taking up a lot of my days lately. I've had more energy than I expected and am relishing every bit of it. Rather than staking my happiness on the outcomes, I am mostly reveling in the doing (but the sprouts coming up in the hanging pots are pretty exciting).

• Birds: idk, need I say more? I can't get enough of them. I listen to them first thing in the morning, and when we're working in the yard. We bought new birdseed to start feeding them again, and I'm hoping to attract some new friends.

• Hobbit hike: as you may know, I am, in essence, a Hobbit, and as such, my husband and I took the kids on a short Hobbit hike in the woods nearby our house. This kind of hike is meant for meandering, for stopping to look at interesting things and possibly pick up pocket treasures. My son picked me these flowers while we were out:

Flowers my son picked in a tiny vase from a thrifting trip.

• My new instant film camera: this was a bit of a splurge, and I'm glad I did it. There's just something different about capturing a moment on film and having it in your hand in seconds. I still need practice, but I am using it to start a personal photo/nature journal, and for keeping track of what we're doing in the garden, and it's bringing me a lot of joy.

My fujifilm Instax mini camera and photo journal.

Links I Loved

• This recipe for midlife by

  Luisa Skinner
  is so delightful (and a very quick read).

• This essay about sonder by

  Charlie Rewilding
  felt very relatable:

It is something about seeing the vastness and individuality of life all at once - my mind opening itself to the multitude of realities existing in one moment, my heart feeling the hurt and joy and loneliness and uncertainty of life as a truly human experience.

• This validating post by

  Girl With Antlers
  about being “just” a stay-at-home mom:

It’s absurd that our culture has devalued motherhood to the point to that I have to do mental gymnastics just to recognize my own worth.

• A new Substack called

  SmallStack
  by
  Robin Taylor (he/him)
  as a library for small publications.

• This post by

  Julia
  about being postpartum and not having it all figured out and making peace with it is so beautiful:

Truth is, I am lost in a dreamland of my own. Since becoming a mother for the second time now, I have felt like a dry leaf caught in a loose thread of a spider’s web on a windy day. Swinging, twirling, spinning. Suspended. Untethered. Hanging halfway, neither rooted nor quite free-falling.

• This post by

  Lisa Olivera
  , (specifically - especially - part three):

The simplicity of the question almost makes it easy to gloss over or skip past, but I’ve been trying to stay with it lately. I’ve been trying to look for what’s going well, what’s gone right, what isn’t hurting, what isn’t wounded, what has never experienced harm, what has pleasantly surprised me, and it’s creating some necessary space in my heart.

• I loved this post by

  D.L. Mayfield
  about “vampire time”:

But as soon as I can accept my disabilities, I can also start to listen to what my body is demanding from me. And most days, what it is demanding is a chance to dream about pleasant things.

• And finally, this one by

  Jennie Agg
  about when everything feels a bit much.

Books I Finished

• Little Weirds by Jenny Slate: this is, as the name suggests, a book of little weirds. I am not sure how better to explain it, but it is quirky and heartfelt, and I loved it.

• Everything, Beautiful: A Guide to Finding Hidden Beauty in the World by Ella Frances Sanders: an absolutely gorgeous book. I added it to my list to purchase a hard copy so I can look through it again and again.

• How to Walk into Room: The Art of Knowing When to Stay and When to Walk Away by Emily P. Freeman: I recommend this with some (expected) qualms - the author is well known for being a Christian (albeit a progressive one) and this reflects in her work, which almost always rubs me the wrong way due to my own religious trauma, but I really appreciated some of her tips for discerning how to know whether to stay or leave a situation. The metaphor of the room felt a bit stretched at times, but generally I enjoyed the message.

• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: this has been on my list for a while, and it checked the boxes for romantasy that I often enjoy. I fear I will be waiting forever for the second book to come in through my library hold, but I will be reading it eventually.

• The Clackity by Lora Senf: this was such a wonderful creepy middle grade read. It was part ghost story and part faerie tale. I loved it on audio, and look forward to the second whenever I can get my hands on it.

• The Art of Crying: The Healing Power of Tears by Pepita Sandwich: I really enjoyed this comic-based book. I like the art style, and the mixture of facts/research about crying and tears with the author's own experiences of crying.

I hope your May was filled with magic. If you'd like, please share some of yours in the comments. And as always, feel free to share if this resonated with you!

1. I wrote a bit about my grandmother and her garden in this post.

2. On top of the year-long

100 Poems

community by

Lisa Jensen

, I've once again joined

Kaitlin Curtice

for her Poem a Day in May, the combination of which has had me so hopeful and excited and giddy, even.