11/12/2024
A thank you letter from me to you as I put it in my latest newsletter:
THANK YOU. I mean it, thank you. ♥ I really appreciate everybody here for being in my life whether it's just once a month, once a year, or every day. Recently, I started working a new part-time job that is quite lovely but is still work. It takes up most of my energy/spoon count. Resting at home and writing has been deeply therapeutic for me as I advance with my Biblical research while I gather myself again and learn how to rebalance my schedule. I want to continue to do my best as your host for Speak Out, but I also want to show up and support what you're doing as well, and then I'm working to support online communities that I've met in their creative endeavors, all while doing my own. I bemoan my lack of energy and time to do it all at once and worry I'm not there the way I want to be.
But then, you've all reminded me that the key is to just be there in the first place. I've had a lot of you reach out to check on me if I haven't made an event or ask 'where were you, we missed you' and it brings me tears (of joy) to feel the camaderie. I've spent 3 years doing events now and the work I put in towards community building started to burn me out when I wasn't finding a sustainable way to care for myself, first. I'm learning how to re-negotiate my boundaries without being a total hermit who doesn't tell anybody how I'm feeling in worry that it's imposing, especially when none of you make me feel that way for a second.
And now, now with everything going on, I am reminded again the necessity that showing up can be emotional, too. You are my cohorts, my friends, my community. You've given me rides, bought me food, said 'hello.' I remember the work that I'm doing isn't possible without you and I don't know if I'd even have liked staying in Seattle without having met you. So really, when I say thank you, I pour it from the bottom of my heart.
