Some of you have mentioned that your libraries don’t have this book. Don’t go out of your way to try and buy this book. It is just one of many many books that you might look at. I looked though and here is an old video flip through that will give you a better look at the inside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3JFAaQIJRQ
Since I discovered you last year, I have always felt like every one of your posts has been written to me and for me (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) that everything I have read of yours has had a strong synchronicity and that we have a LOT in common. I kept asking myself, "Who IS this woman?"
As a lifelong journal keeper of mostly the solid text block type, I have been awed by your illustrated journal, and also, as an artist, have wanted to use more illustration/art in my own journal. You keep tossing out these lifelines to that desire, both from the examples of your own that you share and the references to those of others. The questions, worries, and fears you elucidated in today's letter I have been going through with my own blog and actually have not done anything in about two months with it because I hit a wall and just could go no farther.
I would never want to say that any of us readers of your work can replace the main reader you lost last year, but know that for this reader, at least, your work is an inspiration and a beacon (yes, a lighthouse) to keep going, keep sharing, keep believing that it IS important, it IS needed, and DOES matter. Because it does.
Thank you for this comment. I am really glad that you have started drawing with us too, although I also realize that the way we read people is often very different than how we experience people in community settings. (The Proust quote from today’s post is really apt.)
I think hearing that when you read, you read as if the letter was written specifically to you is a wonderful compliment. I hope that you are able to push through whatever is stopping you from moving forward with your own publication. If that is something that really means a lot to you, then I really hope that you just sit down and write.
I need the letter. I need the weight of a blanket studded with stars. I need the lighthouse and the sword and the astounding mind that connects them. I am beyond delighted with the recursive footnote.
Thank you. I knew you would appreciate the wanna-be recursive footnote and might see the ways in which it might be folded. I wasn’t sure if anyone would click to the footnote, but I think this is a structure I can work with! Thanks for commenting.
None of us will ever replace the reader you lost, but I assure you, you do have readers!
Unfortunately my library does not have the book. I did request a book by her called Gardens of Awe and Folly, because I couldn't resist that title, and because I think the art will be inspiring.
In week two, all three shows are things I have seen! This might be a first.
Not being able to make my coffee (which I always make exactly the same way) would be a personal crisis for me. A friend gave me a monthly coffee subscription that sends me coffee from around the world. So I have managed to to branch out with the actual coffee, but otherwise exactly the same.
I have been feeling untethered and alone since 2025 started, it has even affected my journal. I don't know how to shake it.
Wait… what? I thought things were opening up for you… branching out and so on. I clearly need to read comments before our group, but I force myself to wait. The journal is a good place to go, so I hate to hear even that isn’t helping. I was glad to see you this morning. I think we all need it. But I also know it is only an hour out of a long week. Sorry about the book availability… that used to happen a lot on the podcast because I often talked about library books that then turned out hard for people to find. I didn’t realize that would be the case with this one since my library has always had it. It will be interesting to see what you think of the gardens. Having a good coffee routine sounds like a good thing. I had a professor once whose coffee game was special… thanks for reading and commenting. You also gave me some food for thought.
Thanks, Bri! I just realized your account is new - and separate from your main substack. Thank you for reading and continuing to read. I hope things are going well!
I found the book on Amazon.ca. It is $29 Canadian plus taxes etc. The pages you shared are so beautiful. Our library is across the street but has few books I want. A book like this I’d want to hold and hold onto but have sworn off buying books.
I still have so many books I should give up or give away.
I was asked to join a book club. I need to get out and socialize however I have not read much lately at all. Nothing could compare to a book club years ago in Maryland that I attended.
Amy your words are always enjoyed and your illustrated journal pages have always been delightful and mesmerizing. Please keep writing and sharing. I love the stories of your appliances and cooking adventures. I still have not bought an air fryer. I doubt I ever will. I did get myself a new glass kettle. It is small and has a blue light when it boils! Also occupies less space on the counter.
When I am out of milk or coffee I have 5 coffee shops within a block walk from my house. Trying to save money I tend not to have coffee out anymore. I always want a treat or pastry too!
I had a splendid Christmas gift from my daughter, a regift really. We don't do gifts. It was 2 tins of amazing tea from Fortnum and Mason in London. The tins are beautiful and the tea in silk tea bags is very flavourful. A friend and I contemplated the cost and when I googled…..these tins were sold via Holt Renfrew a posh store in Vancouver. $35 for each small tin with 15 bags. the price in the UK was 11 pounds, about $19. Holts is able to mark up to whatever they want. Turns out the tea was in a gift basket to my daughter from a real estate developer she works with.
More tea talk waiting for a late gift from Taiwan of organic fresh Taiwanese tea from my sister. Nothing compares to that!
I have also felt out of sorts and not very hopeful even as the days have been sunny and bright.
Staying away from social media helps but no matter where we are he still hear it.
I love the story of your Christmas tea, Gail, and that your daughter regifted it in a way that puts it to functional use is perfect. I hope you enjoy those cups of tea. I am sorry about the availability of the book. I didn’t realize that it would be as scarce in libraries as it seems to be. I would not suggest going out of your way to buy it. There are so many wonderful books that libraries around you probably do have, and generally, I think most of these books are books that we look at and flip through and are inspired by and then return. Libraries are the way,
Your glass kettle sounds pretty interesting. And I do hope you are considering the book club you have been invited to. It sounds like it would be good for you! We all need to get out and be around other people. For some of us, social media is the only way we even get that. So while it can be fraught with problems, it can also be a really important point of contact. I hope that there are good things in this week and that you write down something every day that makes you smile. Sometimes we just have to reframe how we see what is happening around us.
I’ve been enjoying my illustrated journaling! I had to let go of the pressure to make it some sort of pretty family journal. I use it as a way to record “visual” ear worms, the images in my head for the week. So far it’s been a lot of cartoon characters from what the kids are watching but it’s satisfying getting stuff down on paper.
That sounds like a good approach, Lauren. It definitely doesn’t need to be a pretty family journal. I think that its most important value is for you as an individual in getting information down, including things you hear or see or do or eat. I love hearing that your journal right now has a bunch of cartoon characters! That is fantastic.
Yup. Thank you for getting that - and I loved doing it that way, knowing only a few would follow a footnote. Footnote letters may be my new way forward ;) If only the footnotes within footnotes had worked, I would have been all set. Lol
I'm thinking about how I don't wander anymore. I sometimes think about whether I ever wandered at all, because most of the places I went I brought my "house" with me -- a boat, a camper. I love what I can see of When Wanderers Cease to Roam, love how deeply the author explores what is right there, love what that teaches me about be okay with paying attention right here, and seeing the noticing as something worthy. I wonder where it is Vivian has landed, because I, too, spent some time in small towns on the edge of the Long Island Sound.
I also think about the mystery of "success." I'm not sure I like where my brain takes me when I do. I don't really follow the prescriptions I find for how to make that work here. Niche down. Give people something they don't want to live without. Blah-blah. As you note here, it all feels quite random, not discounting that some of what appears to rise above truly is superior writing. I don't want to feel that tug of competition or envy. Like you - like every creative - I love knowing that I've reached people here and there. I want that to be what matters most.
If you need the letter, then keep writing the letter. I can assure you that others of us appreciate it, too.
Also not a wanderer, but I am an advocate for the beauty and okayness in not wandering, in looking and seeing and rediscovering (sometimes again and again) from within familiar spaces and confines. I knew of your boating, but now I add a camper to your picture. (I would definitely see those things as wandering - absolutely.) The questions about success are hard ones and can be defeating. I know you stay positive, and that's good. Thank you, as always, for commenting.
Thanks, Amy, I'll take a look. I also wanted to thank you for your idea to use Post-Its for portraits! I'm drawing them daily and it's such fun, Post-It Portraits(c) inspired by Amy Cowen. 😁
Thank you for sharing this book, an inspiring reminder of the importance and beauty in the everyday little bits around us. Thanks also for sharing the link to the YouTube flip through.
With that little motivator, I did get my sketchbook out this week for a couple short little drawings…it had been a while, and it felt good. I also really enjoyed your whimsical description of your bundle of words left under a tree. I look forward to that bundle. ☺️
I’m so glad about your sketchbook. Your work in it is always beautiful. I like to imagine you work in it often! I’m glad the YouTube video was helpful. Thank you for commenting. I hope you are all faring the winter well.
Some of you have mentioned that your libraries don’t have this book. Don’t go out of your way to try and buy this book. It is just one of many many books that you might look at. I looked though and here is an old video flip through that will give you a better look at the inside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3JFAaQIJRQ
Since I discovered you last year, I have always felt like every one of your posts has been written to me and for me (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) that everything I have read of yours has had a strong synchronicity and that we have a LOT in common. I kept asking myself, "Who IS this woman?"
As a lifelong journal keeper of mostly the solid text block type, I have been awed by your illustrated journal, and also, as an artist, have wanted to use more illustration/art in my own journal. You keep tossing out these lifelines to that desire, both from the examples of your own that you share and the references to those of others. The questions, worries, and fears you elucidated in today's letter I have been going through with my own blog and actually have not done anything in about two months with it because I hit a wall and just could go no farther.
I would never want to say that any of us readers of your work can replace the main reader you lost last year, but know that for this reader, at least, your work is an inspiration and a beacon (yes, a lighthouse) to keep going, keep sharing, keep believing that it IS important, it IS needed, and DOES matter. Because it does.
Thank you for this comment. I am really glad that you have started drawing with us too, although I also realize that the way we read people is often very different than how we experience people in community settings. (The Proust quote from today’s post is really apt.)
I think hearing that when you read, you read as if the letter was written specifically to you is a wonderful compliment. I hope that you are able to push through whatever is stopping you from moving forward with your own publication. If that is something that really means a lot to you, then I really hope that you just sit down and write.
I need the letter. I need the weight of a blanket studded with stars. I need the lighthouse and the sword and the astounding mind that connects them. I am beyond delighted with the recursive footnote.
Thank you. I knew you would appreciate the wanna-be recursive footnote and might see the ways in which it might be folded. I wasn’t sure if anyone would click to the footnote, but I think this is a structure I can work with! Thanks for commenting.
None of us will ever replace the reader you lost, but I assure you, you do have readers!
Unfortunately my library does not have the book. I did request a book by her called Gardens of Awe and Folly, because I couldn't resist that title, and because I think the art will be inspiring.
In week two, all three shows are things I have seen! This might be a first.
Not being able to make my coffee (which I always make exactly the same way) would be a personal crisis for me. A friend gave me a monthly coffee subscription that sends me coffee from around the world. So I have managed to to branch out with the actual coffee, but otherwise exactly the same.
I have been feeling untethered and alone since 2025 started, it has even affected my journal. I don't know how to shake it.
Wait… what? I thought things were opening up for you… branching out and so on. I clearly need to read comments before our group, but I force myself to wait. The journal is a good place to go, so I hate to hear even that isn’t helping. I was glad to see you this morning. I think we all need it. But I also know it is only an hour out of a long week. Sorry about the book availability… that used to happen a lot on the podcast because I often talked about library books that then turned out hard for people to find. I didn’t realize that would be the case with this one since my library has always had it. It will be interesting to see what you think of the gardens. Having a good coffee routine sounds like a good thing. I had a professor once whose coffee game was special… thanks for reading and commenting. You also gave me some food for thought.
I am always a reader. You’re actually the only weekly blog I look forward the most.
Thanks, Bri! I just realized your account is new - and separate from your main substack. Thank you for reading and continuing to read. I hope things are going well!
I found the book on Amazon.ca. It is $29 Canadian plus taxes etc. The pages you shared are so beautiful. Our library is across the street but has few books I want. A book like this I’d want to hold and hold onto but have sworn off buying books.
I still have so many books I should give up or give away.
I was asked to join a book club. I need to get out and socialize however I have not read much lately at all. Nothing could compare to a book club years ago in Maryland that I attended.
Amy your words are always enjoyed and your illustrated journal pages have always been delightful and mesmerizing. Please keep writing and sharing. I love the stories of your appliances and cooking adventures. I still have not bought an air fryer. I doubt I ever will. I did get myself a new glass kettle. It is small and has a blue light when it boils! Also occupies less space on the counter.
When I am out of milk or coffee I have 5 coffee shops within a block walk from my house. Trying to save money I tend not to have coffee out anymore. I always want a treat or pastry too!
I had a splendid Christmas gift from my daughter, a regift really. We don't do gifts. It was 2 tins of amazing tea from Fortnum and Mason in London. The tins are beautiful and the tea in silk tea bags is very flavourful. A friend and I contemplated the cost and when I googled…..these tins were sold via Holt Renfrew a posh store in Vancouver. $35 for each small tin with 15 bags. the price in the UK was 11 pounds, about $19. Holts is able to mark up to whatever they want. Turns out the tea was in a gift basket to my daughter from a real estate developer she works with.
More tea talk waiting for a late gift from Taiwan of organic fresh Taiwanese tea from my sister. Nothing compares to that!
I have also felt out of sorts and not very hopeful even as the days have been sunny and bright.
Staying away from social media helps but no matter where we are he still hear it.
I love the story of your Christmas tea, Gail, and that your daughter regifted it in a way that puts it to functional use is perfect. I hope you enjoy those cups of tea. I am sorry about the availability of the book. I didn’t realize that it would be as scarce in libraries as it seems to be. I would not suggest going out of your way to buy it. There are so many wonderful books that libraries around you probably do have, and generally, I think most of these books are books that we look at and flip through and are inspired by and then return. Libraries are the way,
Your glass kettle sounds pretty interesting. And I do hope you are considering the book club you have been invited to. It sounds like it would be good for you! We all need to get out and be around other people. For some of us, social media is the only way we even get that. So while it can be fraught with problems, it can also be a really important point of contact. I hope that there are good things in this week and that you write down something every day that makes you smile. Sometimes we just have to reframe how we see what is happening around us.
I’ve been enjoying my illustrated journaling! I had to let go of the pressure to make it some sort of pretty family journal. I use it as a way to record “visual” ear worms, the images in my head for the week. So far it’s been a lot of cartoon characters from what the kids are watching but it’s satisfying getting stuff down on paper.
That sounds like a good approach, Lauren. It definitely doesn’t need to be a pretty family journal. I think that its most important value is for you as an individual in getting information down, including things you hear or see or do or eat. I love hearing that your journal right now has a bunch of cartoon characters! That is fantastic.
Me giggling at the footnote that is itself a post 😂
Yup. Thank you for getting that - and I loved doing it that way, knowing only a few would follow a footnote. Footnote letters may be my new way forward ;) If only the footnotes within footnotes had worked, I would have been all set. Lol
I'm thinking about how I don't wander anymore. I sometimes think about whether I ever wandered at all, because most of the places I went I brought my "house" with me -- a boat, a camper. I love what I can see of When Wanderers Cease to Roam, love how deeply the author explores what is right there, love what that teaches me about be okay with paying attention right here, and seeing the noticing as something worthy. I wonder where it is Vivian has landed, because I, too, spent some time in small towns on the edge of the Long Island Sound.
I also think about the mystery of "success." I'm not sure I like where my brain takes me when I do. I don't really follow the prescriptions I find for how to make that work here. Niche down. Give people something they don't want to live without. Blah-blah. As you note here, it all feels quite random, not discounting that some of what appears to rise above truly is superior writing. I don't want to feel that tug of competition or envy. Like you - like every creative - I love knowing that I've reached people here and there. I want that to be what matters most.
If you need the letter, then keep writing the letter. I can assure you that others of us appreciate it, too.
Oh...and Sisyphus. :sigh:
Also not a wanderer, but I am an advocate for the beauty and okayness in not wandering, in looking and seeing and rediscovering (sometimes again and again) from within familiar spaces and confines. I knew of your boating, but now I add a camper to your picture. (I would definitely see those things as wandering - absolutely.) The questions about success are hard ones and can be defeating. I know you stay positive, and that's good. Thank you, as always, for commenting.
I requested that my library purchase this book - I hope they do! Thanks for sharing good reads, Amy. I love your art, btw.
Thanks, Mary! I posted a YouTube video in one of the comments that offers a flipthrough — a pretty good look. I think it may be hard to come by now.
Thanks, Amy, I'll take a look. I also wanted to thank you for your idea to use Post-Its for portraits! I'm drawing them daily and it's such fun, Post-It Portraits(c) inspired by Amy Cowen. 😁
That is awesome! They are great for so many aspects of drawing and gridding art!
Thank you for sharing this book, an inspiring reminder of the importance and beauty in the everyday little bits around us. Thanks also for sharing the link to the YouTube flip through.
With that little motivator, I did get my sketchbook out this week for a couple short little drawings…it had been a while, and it felt good. I also really enjoyed your whimsical description of your bundle of words left under a tree. I look forward to that bundle. ☺️
I’m so glad about your sketchbook. Your work in it is always beautiful. I like to imagine you work in it often! I’m glad the YouTube video was helpful. Thank you for commenting. I hope you are all faring the winter well.