Essay 4/30 in the series: 30 Essays in 30 Days; Pencil Eats First. This series is an invitation to move slowly. To listen for what’s happening in your body and in your mind before reaching for social media.
As you dive into today’s Substack, I invite you to put this Spotify Playlist on.
There is this cycle in life of always looking towards the next thing. In high school, you may be consumed by wondering where you will head to college. In college - you may be asking yourself, “What should I major in - what will I do in my career” After college: “Do I like my job? Where do I want to live? When will I meet my partner? Do I want to have kids?” On top of that, with social media and technology, we have access to seeing many different kinds of lives - and it is easy to wonder what we want for ourselves. It can feel like our life is on display in the way we post our milestones on Instagram and LinkedIn.
In this swirly mix, the pursuit of following one’s North Star requires a fair amount of blocking out the outside world:
“To be nobody but
yourself in a world
which is doing its best day and night to make you like
everybody else means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.” - EE Cummings
Furthermore, once you arrive at that place you have been working towards, it can feel as though the arrival dissipates, because in working towards it and achieving it (or not achieving it), inevitably there is another thing queue’d up right after it. We never fully “arrive” - or - with a simple and powerful reframe… In every moment, we have arrived.
Today, you are going to feel as though you have arrived. You are going to feel as though you have all the answers that you need in this moment. This prompt is taken from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Please do not underestimate the power of its simplicity.
Describe yourself at eighty. What did you do after fifty that you enjoyed? Be very specific.
Now: Write yourself a letter from your 80 year old self. What would you tell yourself? What interests would you urge yourself to pursue? What dreams would you encourage?
Please tailor this prompt to whatever age fits for you. For example, if you are over 80 or nearing 80, write a letter to yourself from version of yourself who has more perspective :)
Alternatives: as you can see in the video above, I was trying to process an experience - a big milestone - and really sink my teeth into the experience of arriving, so I wrote a letter to a younger self so that I could tell her everything that is going on
While it is so important to build connections with others in which we can share our life experiences, at the end of the day, it is you in your body - feeling all of the experiences. How you talk to yourself matters, and believing in yourself is a lifelong practice.
“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” - EE Cummings
Invitations:
Send this essay to someone you know would enjoy participating in Pencil Eats First: 30 Essays in 30 Days.
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Respond in the comments or via email with your experiences in reading these essays. Please share whatever tickles your fancy. Thoughts that can feel obvious to you can feel profound to others. Remember: when you show up unapologetically authentic, you invite others to do the same. We can learn so much from each other!
I am scheming a space where this giddy community can hear from one another. We’ll start with comments on these essays - and over the course of the next month, maybe another giddy forum space will emerge.
Keep an eye out for exciting upcoming Giddy by Nature workshops - available both online and on Zoom!
Follow along!
On Instagram: @giddybynature
On Spotify: Giddy by Nature
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Via email: giddybynature@gmail.com
Thank you so much for being here. See you tomorrow xxx
A letter to my 24 year old self