Happy Birthday, Sated Soul!

Commemorating Courage, Committing to More

In preparation for Sated Soul’s first birthday, I asked you all how you engage with the essays here. Your responses have stayed with me, shaping my thoughts about where we’ve been and where we’re going.

According to the poll you generously answered, you resonate most with personal reflections and thought-provoking questions.

You’re here for it all, the writing style, the topics and themes, and the way it feels to be here. Thank goodness for that!

You’re split between having a morning ritual with me, and reading when you can.

Many of you have shared these essays multiple times. THANK YOU. If you’ve thought about it but haven’t yet-please consider it, the best expansion of work like this comes from trusted recommendations.

The majority of you are subscribed. It’s free to be, so please do so if you haven’t.

Reading your responses, I found myself reflecting on why I keep showing up here. What makes this space meaningful—for you, for me?

What I discovered is that the essays that resonate most here, are shared most, read most, and engaged with most - are the ones that have required the most courage from me to share. And isn’t that just the damnedest thing?

"Write hard and clear about what hurts." — Ernest Hemingway

I asked myself similarly - why do I keep showing up here? Why now, why here, why this? And the answer that came surprised me too. Writing is saving my life. The act of putting words to the page and sharing them here keeps me from drowning in the overflow of my own sensitivity in a sharp world. Being a “sensitive person in a sharp world”¹ is painful, and writing, especially here, and sharing it with you all (I know many of you are also sensitive in this sharp world) has allowed me to take a needed break from reality.

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." — Ray Bradbury

I think we all need to be a little drunk on art right now. I listened to this powerful podcast episode on being a writer while the world is on fire. I’ve thought too, about the experience of writing while things are - well- a little insane around here. This podcast episode and my reflection highlighted that not only is writing, creating, and imagining permissible right now, but it is essential right now. Creatives are carving out spaces of refuge and rest, and when we are rested and regulated, we are better able to respond to the world around us in meaningful and values-aligned ways.

In my first essay here on Sated Soul, I shared Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s promises to herself when writing, and committed to making them my promises too:

1. I will write

2. It doesn’t have to be good, but it has to be true

3. I cannot know the end when I start

4. I will share it

I’m proud of myself for how I’ve embodied these promises in my writing. And while I’ve worked to hold these as a lighthouse with each essay here over the last year, number two could be expanded. I have certainly written what is true, but I have not always written my whole truth. I have, for some time, feared what my most loved people would think, feel, believe, or experience if I were to write what is my whole, raw, in-process truth.²

In my writing group recently, I was checking in, sharing aloud that I’ve been working on being braver in my writing - and braver in the sharing of my writing.

“My deepest fear is that I won’t be loved, but I guess if they don’t love me after I share my truths in writing, they never really loved me at all.” as I spoke, I felt the words forming a shield—protecting me, but also keeping me hidden. Then a wiser version of me stepped in, held me by my shoulders, turned me towards truth, and said “Actually, no, it’s all a delusion that love is on the line.”

"What would you write if you weren’t afraid?" — Mary Karr

“What would I write if I knew love wasn’t on the line?” I guess we’ll see.

So in Sated Soul’s second year, I add a few new promises for myself in this space:

1. I will write hard and clear.³

2. I will embody writing as an essential refuge.

3. I will remember love is never on the line.

As we step into Sated Soul’s second year, I’d love for this space to continue growing in the ways that matter most—through connection and shared resonance. If there’s someone in your life who might find solace or inspiration here, I’d be honored if you’d share this with them.

I want to close with a deeply sincere “Thank You.” Thank you for reading, for writing, and for opening the emails that come to you on Wednesday mornings. Thank you for commenting, emailing me, and sharing my work. Thank you for texting and telling me when things land or resonate. Thank you for letting me write about you and us. Thank you for letting this matter to you.

1. Should my business cards simply say this?

2. It’s always fascinating to me when I find myself believing I could ever control something like what someone else believes.

3. About what’s hard and about what’s healing