A Sunday letter...
Hi, hello, how are you?
Each time I want to write the word, hey, I think of my great-grandmother who when greeted would promptly reply, “HEY, is for horses. Are you a horse?” when I was a child. I have been thinking of her often these days when I’ve been deep in this editing cave. And of my family. Of how I may be better at mending fractures I didn’t cause, but distance I easily keep. Equally so, I have been in gratitude for what I like to call my chosen family. A set of friends and siblings who I speak to daily, religiously. The kind of friends/family that can pull me out of the editing deadline (four days away!) and head to a last-minute dinner for a few hours yesterday evening to laugh so hard I only produced tears. I needed that. We needed that. It is good to be reminded of your humanness and to also remind others of theirs.
There are many new faces here, and I would love to make a proper introduction of myself and this Substack. But the aforementioned deadline begs me to do otherwise. But soon enough. Here’s a little more about me and this letter. I hope you stay a while? You can visit The Mae House digitally and physcially right here. Grab a recipe or two, or read an essay or three, in the archives. Becoming a paid subscriber if you like supporting writers and their stories (and the ones they share), below.
In the meantime, here’s a list of links that I’ve enjoyed (this was supposed to go live on Tiny Thursdays) this week...
“There are far too many homeless people. Working-class people can’t afford basic housing in regular old American cities. Construction’s too wasteful. Houses aren’t energy-efficient enough. At the suburb scale, it’s dystopian, almost, what we’re getting, right? We’re supposed to be the most advanced version of humanity that’s ever existed and we can’t even meet this basic need properly. And that means the housing of our future can’t—not shouldn’t, but can’t—be like the housing we have now.”
The Shape Of Goodbye, a portion of my essay on my neighbor’s Suleika’s Isolation Journal. Thank you so much for having me.
And Affordable Child Care About Wellness via Erin too
The inside of our new apartment is still quite unpacked, so naturally, I am thinking of spring in our garden.
The Future Is Rest. The Mae House featured in The Future 100: Trends and Change to watch in 2023 “While the movement for rest is led by marginalized communities, in an age of hyperproductivity, its message has resonance for anyone who could benefit from honing their rest ethic.
What I’m reading in the evening; Bad Sex and how the sexual revolution left women desire’s behind.
What I’m reading in the morning…
Movement Song
BY AUDRE LORDE
I have studied the tight curls on the back of your neck
moving away from me
beyond anger or failure
your face in the evening schools of longing
through mornings of wish and ripen
we were always saying goodbye
in the blood in the bone over coffee
before dashing for elevators going
in opposite directions
without goodbyes.
Do not remember me as a bridge nor a roof
as the maker of legends
Anything of your own? Back next week. Thank you for being here!