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Apr 18, 2023·edited Apr 19, 2023Liked by sha

thank you for your letter. i'm in a slightly lonely phase of my life -- you know the kind where you don't hv enough in you to make the effort day-to-day to connect -- and i think connecting to your letters is something so effortless, given how easy your words of warmth flow from one to the next

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so so beautiful, thank you for this letter !!!

"In order to be real, the present only ever needs the past to exist. It doesn’t matter what happened, or how, or why. It need only have happened. If it turns out that someday that friend shows up on my doorstep and demands to be reimbursed with interest for what she paid for that muffin, then that won’t make the note and the muffin from back then any less real." aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhggggg and also "A home, even if just a concept of it and the fantasies we long to fulfill should it become more, is the perfect container for those daydreams. A home only ours makes anything not just possible but also ours by default." !!!!! how do you do it!!!

this all really resonated with me... sometimes i'm afraid of wanting/wishing for a home too earnestly because i know that i'll be bad at seeing the truth in that present-ness of day-to-day domesticity while it's happening. as in, i don't "deserve" it because i never really understand it until after the lights have been turned off, until one day i stumble upon the memory again and only then do i recognize it for what it was, for the snapshot of love it was. for example those "places" you talk about—like a passing whiff of a familiar perfume—i know well, but the times they remind me of are often times i didn't know would end up being so precious, so true when i was living them. even though i know the mundane is something to treat preciously i guess it's hard to do in the moment, precisely because it's the mundane :')

this letter has really inspired me to leave more small (or maybe even large) artifacts in the world for myself and my friends to discover and read!!! thank you!!

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i've been catching back up on reading my subscriptions after a busy period of my life, and your newsletter is always one i get excited to see in my inbox. i know it's been a bit since you've posted this, but it doesn't dull the potency or resonance of your words. i love the way you describe home and intimacy, and this newsletter reminded me of the true human capacity to love. reading the section on domesticity and intimacy, your quote about sunlight in the living room reminded me of the song "Last of the Loving" by Coco. i've never read any official analysis of the lyrics or the chords, but it always makes me rediscover the feeling of falling in love recklessly. the quiet safety you feel when you're discovering a home in someone, and just feeling satiated? with love.

thank you for sharing your thoughts with us :)

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what a wonderful letter! it gave me such a warm and nostalgic vibe and the part about the love being there once, that will never have not been there is so raw and relatable ahhh!! (also if you wouldn’t mind, i’d love a bit more info on the anima locorum concept and the only home you get is memory line because i am a little silly and my brain just can’t get it right now :’) have a lovely day!

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