I didn’t know how badly I needed a prompting (and permission) to honor my sacrifice in motherhood... “To have been so brave, without escape. To have stayed so wide open to the demands of my family, to have had no where to hide for a little while.” So grateful for this mini life-ruiner.
I’ve also been wanting to get back into reading more.. yet find myself contemplating whether it’s a good use of my ever so fleeting/infrequent spare time as a mother of a wild 4 year old.
Your words have inspired me to ditch that thinking and just enjoy. Bibliophobia sounds like a really interesting one!
Ahhh, this is the first time I've come across your Substack and I think it was meant to be because I'm just having a cry at your beautiful lines - "In this time when my children are growing and very little else is happening, this time of little drama and little movement and no plot at all but so much loving effort and energy — this long summer of my life —I want nothing more than to soak it all in" you've put into words exactly how I've been feeling about motherhood and recently tried to explain it to myself but you've done it so much better. I have a full shelf on unread books still and really relate to your thoughts on how *productive* can reading novels really be? It is joy and that's enough, for sure! Thank you for writing this gorgeous essay, I'll be coming back to it again and again 💚
"What a privilege to be twelve in the summertime with a library card." TRUTH
I didn’t know how badly I needed a prompting (and permission) to honor my sacrifice in motherhood... “To have been so brave, without escape. To have stayed so wide open to the demands of my family, to have had no where to hide for a little while.” So grateful for this mini life-ruiner.
Yes!!!
You just put me onto The Wall! Sounds like something I would love so I ran to grab a copy, haha. Excited to read it.
Thanks for sharing :)
Yes! I think I can already tell that The Wall is going to be my favorite book of the year, I cannot stop thinking about it!
I’ve also been wanting to get back into reading more.. yet find myself contemplating whether it’s a good use of my ever so fleeting/infrequent spare time as a mother of a wild 4 year old.
Your words have inspired me to ditch that thinking and just enjoy. Bibliophobia sounds like a really interesting one!
Yes! If it feels like a big exhale in the midst of all the wildness then it is worth it!!!
Oooh, reading as a lifelong vocation is an idea I’ll be thinking about for a while
Ahhh, this is the first time I've come across your Substack and I think it was meant to be because I'm just having a cry at your beautiful lines - "In this time when my children are growing and very little else is happening, this time of little drama and little movement and no plot at all but so much loving effort and energy — this long summer of my life —I want nothing more than to soak it all in" you've put into words exactly how I've been feeling about motherhood and recently tried to explain it to myself but you've done it so much better. I have a full shelf on unread books still and really relate to your thoughts on how *productive* can reading novels really be? It is joy and that's enough, for sure! Thank you for writing this gorgeous essay, I'll be coming back to it again and again 💚
Wow, I really loved this and related to it. Thank you.
Also I adore everything Claire Keegan has written (except the story Antarctic…)
Small Rain just showed up from the library -- can't wait to obsessively (or neutrally) talk about it with my pal. <3