🪟 Registration is open for QUILT CAMP September 5-8 in Cedar, MI. Sunset swims, radical quilt lectures, and improvisational patchwork. Housing right next door to our classroom space, up the road from my house. Presented by Green Door Folk School. Use code QUILTCAMPWAITLIST to access the webpage - 10 spots total / 8 spots left

🪞 Tomorrow Sunday June 29 12-4EST in Landscapes : CAVE DAY where we write for four hours together in the zoom room

🪡 My first solo show The Quilt As Archive opens July 12 5-8 at Cedar North. I will also be hosting community sewing hours July 7-11 from 1-3 pm at the gallery to work on a group raffle quilt. Free + drop ins welcome, no sewing experience required and sewing machines provided.

Welcome to Yes Yes - my advice column tucked into the Monday Monday newsletter.

I write to you from a dreary morning in Northern Michigan. It has been overcast much of the days with pops of glorious sun. I have been throwing my body into the water as much as I can, sharp in the way that Lake Michigan is most of the year, but baptismal in the way I long for.

Today’s question is right in line with what I am thinking about as I explore domestic partnership for the first time in three years and prepare for my first solo show.

If you have a question for the next Yes Yes Advice Column you can ask it here. It’s anonymous and you are welcome to ask professional and personal questions.

I am not a therapist and I have no training in advice giving. I am an artist, a writer, and a teacher of creative practice with a devotion to how we live. These are my opinions, my best shot at hope, and what I know from 37 years on the planet. As always, may you hold a gentle spirit while reading, take what you like, and leave the rest. Let’s dive in!

Dear Cody, this is a question about aloneness and valuing your own work and journey. As a recovering codependent, I really struggle to choose myself and my solitude over whatever else is happening (my partner wants to watch a show? morning pages can wait - the simplest of examples). The problem is I’m finally at a point where I’m tired of not choosing my inner world and ideas and can feel the frustration with myself building. Part of it is I avoid time with myself and stillness so I’m glad for the distraction, but part of it might also be that I don’t value my own mind enough to want to dedicate time and space to what comes from it. How do I get unstuck from this place and move towards creation?

Dear reader,

First, I want to say: you are not alone in this. In fact, I am right there with you today. Even people who appear deeply committed to their practices and inner worlds still struggle to choose themselves when the tiny, everyday invitations to drift arrive—a partner asking to watch a show, a notification blinking on a phone, the gentle pull of “just one more thing.” It’s tender work to notice this pattern, and it sounds like you’re at the exact, uncomfortable threshold where real change begins: tired of your own avoidance, curious about the “you” that’s waiting in the quiet. In 12 steps we see “I was sick and tired of being sick and tired”.