Ali! This is exactly why I continue to chase wild spaces. The goal keeps me ‘on track’ to manage my health and well being to be at all times ‘adventure ready’. There is no relevance to the goal when you are in the mountains and it ‘punches you in the face’ with cruel weather or multiple discomforts. It’s at that time our strength comes from how we respond.
Yes, exactly this, Frith! It's all in balance, right? We have goals, and then they chuck us sideways, and we just have to adapt. I so hope to be in a wild space with you again one day soon!
I keep thinking about this beautifully written piece. And if you were here to meet up for a coffee, I would say this: the book is big! The book is really worth celebrating! The celebrations may even open up some surprising thing in your life. (My second book tour actually convinced me out of the blue to move across the country!) And also, yes, the book is not some kind of punctuation point that resolves anything or everything else. The book becomes PART of the story of what you've said and what you make. Part of the path of a career that will go many different directions. And then: a time capsule that you feel tender toward, as the years go on. As you write more books. As you choose which ways are the ways you want to spend your days. I think about this a lot because a lot of people here on substack appear to be striving for a book as if that is the destination, when in fact, the hours writing may be the destination we really need.
Ooof, Maggie. I just read your comment aloud to my husband in the car and we both nodded quietly. That the process is the destination — yes.
I wish I could just paste this right into the article. Hoping to also look back on this first book with tenderness, especially the parts I already wish to rewrite! Sending hugs from afar, and thank you so much for reading this. <3
Great essay. I also hope you can see how truly remarkable and incredible it is that you wrote — and sold — a book. A force of nature you are ❤️
Thank you sweetness! I am proud and so excited, just a little more zoomed out these days. Big hugs to you!! <3
Ali! This is exactly why I continue to chase wild spaces. The goal keeps me ‘on track’ to manage my health and well being to be at all times ‘adventure ready’. There is no relevance to the goal when you are in the mountains and it ‘punches you in the face’ with cruel weather or multiple discomforts. It’s at that time our strength comes from how we respond.
Yes, exactly this, Frith! It's all in balance, right? We have goals, and then they chuck us sideways, and we just have to adapt. I so hope to be in a wild space with you again one day soon!
I keep thinking about this beautifully written piece. And if you were here to meet up for a coffee, I would say this: the book is big! The book is really worth celebrating! The celebrations may even open up some surprising thing in your life. (My second book tour actually convinced me out of the blue to move across the country!) And also, yes, the book is not some kind of punctuation point that resolves anything or everything else. The book becomes PART of the story of what you've said and what you make. Part of the path of a career that will go many different directions. And then: a time capsule that you feel tender toward, as the years go on. As you write more books. As you choose which ways are the ways you want to spend your days. I think about this a lot because a lot of people here on substack appear to be striving for a book as if that is the destination, when in fact, the hours writing may be the destination we really need.
Ooof, Maggie. I just read your comment aloud to my husband in the car and we both nodded quietly. That the process is the destination — yes.
I wish I could just paste this right into the article. Hoping to also look back on this first book with tenderness, especially the parts I already wish to rewrite! Sending hugs from afar, and thank you so much for reading this. <3
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