Sometimes Bewildered, Sometimes Brave
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Wabi-sabi
14 min read
The article's meditation on imperfection, fragility, and finding beauty in brokenness directly echoes this Japanese aesthetic philosophy that celebrates transience and imperfection. Understanding wabi-sabi would deepen appreciation for the author's perspective on art-making from 'bruised materials.'
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Kintsugi
11 min read
The author's metaphor of pressing clay into cracks to strengthen emerging forms parallels kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. This technique embodies the article's theme that vulnerability and repair create something 'stubbornly beautiful.'
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Proprioception
12 min read
When the author describes how 'the human body is such a precarious marvel' that carries us 'all Steady Eddy like' until it falters, she's touching on proprioception—our body's sense of position and movement. This would illuminate the neurological basis of bodily awareness she reflects on.
Happy third birthday to Writing in the Dark!
What a strange and lovely thing it is to grow older: to keep waking up inside a life we’re still making, word by word, breath by breath, sometimes bewildered, sometimes brave. And the things we make grow older, too—like Writing in the Dark, which turned three yesterday.
I would have posted about it yesterday, too, but I was at the hospital with Jon for 15 hours for his sinus surgery, which was rough but went well. We are tentatively hopeful for better breathing (and overall health!) ahead. Thank you for your many well wishes. I haven’t had time to respond individually, but your words mean the world to me.
In fact, I’m thinking, as Writing in the Dark turns three, about how this community has become one of the truest gifts in my life—thousands of creative hearts gathered around the same strange flame, keeping each other warm.
To celebrate another turn around the sun for this community, I’m offering a birthday sale of 15% off new annual subscriptions. A small invitation, a quiet nudge, a lit match: if you’ve been hovering at the edge of this circle, maybe this is your moment to step closer. I would love to write into the year ahead with you. Especially since we’re kicking off January with a reprise of the incredible Essay in 12 Steps intensive. I can’t wait.
So, if you’re a free subscriber, you can use this link to take advantage of the sale now through December 9.
Meanwhile, back to Jon’s surgery. As I said, it went overall well, though we will not know for several months if addressing the chronic sinusitis will in turn clear up the adult onset asthma. The surgeon, when he consulted with me afterward, before Jon was fully out of anesthesia, said he is cautiously optimistic but also wants to manage our expectations.
The human body is such a precarious marvel. One minute it’s carrying us up the stairs or across the kitchen floor, all Steady Eddy like; the next it reminds us without permission how breakable we are. A vertebra slips, a heart stutters, a tendon forgets its job, a lung refuses its only task. We live inside this delicate machinery, aware on some subterranean level that it can falter at any moment. And yet, there’s a sweetness in that frailty too: the
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