Between the sacred & the mundane | LISB
Thanks to the folks who reached out when I was out for two weeks - we had a death in the family and it threw all my schedules off. - HH
Hey y’all!
Summers are hot and humid here in Jackson, MS, and you will have month-long stretches where the thermometer does not go below seventy degrees. This can sap the gumption right out of a body, as my people would say - there is something demoralizing to go for a walk at dawn when it’s 76 degrees and 85% humidity.
But there is a night every year - often in September - where the low temperature for the day dips below sixty. That night was last night, friends, and the world feels a different place this morning. The birds outside my office window notice it for sure, and are telling all their friends as they sing songs only they understand.
As fall approaches, I feel the full force of this liminal space, a sort of thin place where the lines between the sacred and the mundane seem blurred. As a person with ADHD, transitions are hard for me (I’ve written about this here and again here), but I love a good season change.
Practically every mammal on the planet lives differently in the winter than they do in the summer except for we humans, who have created a system that demands the same productivity standards regardless of season. And my brain, if not my wallet, recognizes the shift in the light, the longer nights, and the cooler evenings as clues to shift gears, to prepare for the coming winter and rest.
Five Beautiful Things
I love a good list, and I love a good life hack (we ADHD’rs call them coping mechanisms, but you do you, boo), so of course I love this list of 100 small hacks to make life easier.
Here’s Nick Cave reading Lisel Mueller’s poem Joy, as a reminder of all that is kind and good.
Spell your name with Landsat images.
There is an instagram account that reviews sticks. This makes total sense to me, as I often come across interesting sticks while out walking, and wish I had someone to show it to.
Whenever I feel particularly down, I pull up this clip from the movie Stormy Weather, which features Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing Jumpin’ Jive. Then a minute and a half in, in the midst of a masterclass on scat singing, the Nicholas Brothers enter the chat and do what Fred Astaire called the most impressive dance routine ever.
Link inspiration this week from Kottke, Laura Olin, and The Marginalian
In case you missed it
The most opened link in the last issue was this lovely art nouveau greenhouse in Flanders.
For more than a decade, I worked with the chronically unhoused and the addicted - it was good work, and it also almost killed me. For the last six years, a combination of burnout and trauma made it hard writing about that time, but after some consultations with my therapist, I think I’m ready. So here is me writing more about that decision, and here is a story about my learning that I had a lot to learn about… everything.
Starting last month, people who support my work via our membership team in any amount now receive bonus essays every Saturday morning, in addition to other perks like occasional office hour calls, an archive of some of my unpublished work, the knowledge that they helped make my writing possible, and my sincere gratitude. Building out perks for members has been slow, but steady. You can learn more here.
Thank you!
This newsletter is my own little shot glass of hope and aspiration, put out into he world with the hope it makes your life a little brighter in the midst of a dark world.
Thanks so much for all the ways you support my work, from being a member to buying me a cup of coffee or just sharing this with your friends. If someone forwarded you this email, you can get your own subscription here.
Y’all take care of yourselves, OK?
HH
--
Hugh L. Hollowell Jr
he/him
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