Two things are bringing me joy so far this summer. First, I planted a ton of sunflowers, as I always do, but several are coming up in random spots I didn't plant and they feel like little gifts from the universe. Second, my oldest child is working their first job this summer as a lifeguard at one of our city pools and it has been so much fun to hear about how each shift has gone.
Your post and You Could Make This Place Beautiful bring back so many summer memories of Columbus and its environs. Though I’ve not lived there for 25 years now, my first real job out of college, in the early ‘80s, was circulation desk clerk at Capital University library. My husband was a member of the Columbus Symphony and taught lessons first at Capital University (and then later at Otterbein College). The Drexel Theater, the drugstore ice cream stand, were familiar haunts. The kids, when they came along, spent a couple of weeks each summer at Days of Creation, a summer arts day camp held at the Jeffrey mansion. So, your book had special resonance for me. I’ll be rereading YCMTPB this summer (thank you for your beautiful, powerful book), along with Katherine May’s Enchantment and Jenny Odell’s Saving Time. And hoping to make a couple of visits down to Cbus to visit family and old friends.
Not sure why I hadn't listened to The National album yet, but...phew. That's the broody-adult-breakup album I didn't know I needed! I was actually thinking the other day about songs/albums written or released in the wake of a divorce - Kacey Musgraves' star-crossed is another one that evoked a lot of resonance for me, especially since her 2018 Golden Hour was such a poignant testament to love. It's weird to have written (or produced art) about your happy family or relationship and then find yourself in a very different place a handful of years later - but that's how it goes, right? We tell the truth as best we know it at the time, and then the truth changes.
Thanks, Maggie, for sharing yourself and for this space.
OMG, I just bought the Exoskeletons book a few minutes ago! It's the Audible deal of the day! Looking forward to it. Also, hell YES to summer (says this teacher)--I'm starting to find my way back to human again.
Two things are bringing me joy so far this summer. First, I planted a ton of sunflowers, as I always do, but several are coming up in random spots I didn't plant and they feel like little gifts from the universe. Second, my oldest child is working their first job this summer as a lifeguard at one of our city pools and it has been so much fun to hear about how each shift has gone.
I am writing. Rewriting, rediscovering, revising. All the things that I teach to third graders have boomeranged back to me!
Your post and You Could Make This Place Beautiful bring back so many summer memories of Columbus and its environs. Though I’ve not lived there for 25 years now, my first real job out of college, in the early ‘80s, was circulation desk clerk at Capital University library. My husband was a member of the Columbus Symphony and taught lessons first at Capital University (and then later at Otterbein College). The Drexel Theater, the drugstore ice cream stand, were familiar haunts. The kids, when they came along, spent a couple of weeks each summer at Days of Creation, a summer arts day camp held at the Jeffrey mansion. So, your book had special resonance for me. I’ll be rereading YCMTPB this summer (thank you for your beautiful, powerful book), along with Katherine May’s Enchantment and Jenny Odell’s Saving Time. And hoping to make a couple of visits down to Cbus to visit family and old friends.
Happy summer Maggie! 🧡
Reading Ali Smith's Companion Piece.
Not sure why I hadn't listened to The National album yet, but...phew. That's the broody-adult-breakup album I didn't know I needed! I was actually thinking the other day about songs/albums written or released in the wake of a divorce - Kacey Musgraves' star-crossed is another one that evoked a lot of resonance for me, especially since her 2018 Golden Hour was such a poignant testament to love. It's weird to have written (or produced art) about your happy family or relationship and then find yourself in a very different place a handful of years later - but that's how it goes, right? We tell the truth as best we know it at the time, and then the truth changes.
Thanks, Maggie, for sharing yourself and for this space.
OMG, I just bought the Exoskeletons book a few minutes ago! It's the Audible deal of the day! Looking forward to it. Also, hell YES to summer (says this teacher)--I'm starting to find my way back to human again.