portable thinking
and finding time
Ah yes, the biweekly turned bimonthly newsletter update. Let’s do this…
To start, a podcast update: as of this week, 7 of the total 11 episodes in season 2 (parent artists) have been published. Check out the website, read the newsletter, and follow and listen on Apple Podcasts or your streaming platform of choice. 4 more episodes between next week and mid-December. If you like what you hear, leave me a rating and/or review!
My blog turned 20 last month! I wrote about the month and the milestone here.
“I take comfort in the fact that this process of self-discovery has been felt by millions before me, and that there is nothing original in finding consolation and inspiration in nature. It is there for all of us, perhaps our one true shared heritage and source of hope for regeneration in our own, hard-pressed lives.”
The above quote is from the wonderful memoir, Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton, but it could just as easily apply to the monarchs I wrote about on my blog.
High school mountain biking preseason is well underway (in Northern California our season starts on December 1st, with races in late winter through early spring). While I haven’t yet managed to squeeze in the suggested minimum of 2 to 3 rides per week, I’m definitely riding more frequently and feeling more in bike shape with every ride. Timely, then, that I think I’ve finally figured out a phrase to describe how creative advice works for my more physical pursuits, and vice versa. Maybe it’s due to portable thinking, a link in Jocelyn K. Glei’s wonderful newsletter update from a couple of weeks ago.
“I think when you’re doing something new, whether it’s a new sport, a new art, or you’re traveling somewhere for the first time, it requires all of your attention. I feel like we’ve used that word a lot. This is a theme. Pay attention.”
Poet Sarah Kobrinsky and I talk about the similar “beginner’s mind” phenomenon in the latest episode of Artists in Offices as well.
Following #4 nicely, this is a cool exhibit right now at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, open through January 2026, should you find yourself in Bentonville, Arkansas.
In Jocelyn K. Glei’s newsletter this week, a really great article by Bud Smith about his truck desk (portable thinking, indeed!):
“Most artists I know are like this. Finding time to make art while working another job, or taking care of loved ones. They improvise. They get better. They get worse. They get better again.”
A lot of writers I follow have recently moved from Substack to other platforms and I get it (one recent example of maybe part of the reason why?). One that I paid for (they only charged $30 a year) moved to beehiiv, which was fine, but it was a really unsettling experience having my subscription - contact and payment info - moved to a whole ‘nother platform without my consent. I was almost immediately charged for another year and it was quite the process to figure out how to access my own info and update my subscription and payment details. I hate to say it, but the experience really soured me on that writer, at least their newsletter. I’ll still buy their books, but I guess I’ve crossed some weird tipping point in reading very few of the many newsletters I subscribe to, especially now that so many have moved to different platforms.
Not Nancy Friedman, though! I found her money update from last month super interesting and I was afterward inspired to buy her a couple of coffees. I thought the idea was so cool I’ve set up my own buy me a coffee page, if you’re feeling inspired to support me (I do love coffee and visiting coffee shops…it is, after all, on the relatively short list of things that make me happy).
Time will tell, after all, if I’ll continue the podcast beyond season 2. It would require paying for Zoom Pro and Adobe Audition indefinitely, and of course the time to research and prep for interviews, have and edit those conversations, and promote the episodes every week. If someone could invent a “buy me time” website, that’d be swell. Sign me up!
Thanks so much for the kind words (and the coffee)! Don't know how you find the time to do all you do -- podcasting too?!