001—Welcome & Happy Earth Day!
Welcome, welcome! I’m so grateful you’re here! And I am so excited to start this newsletter, like a public journal of sorts. A place for (sometimes) long-winded updates and goings-on that I occasionally share with close friends and family, when we’re not caught up in the day to day. Each week I’ll mostly be writing about my thoughts, observations, musings, insights, things I saw, did, learned, all of which generally falls under writing, books, photography, art, nature, travel, poetry, music, philosophy and spirituality. In photography, to make an exposure, the camera’s light is balanced between aperture (the opening—small to large—through which the camera allows in light), shutter speed (how long the shutter will stay open to absorb light) and ISO (the sensitivity to light of the camera’s image sensor, or how easily it can gather light). Not unlike how humans are balanced between mind, body and spirit. And how they, too, are balanced with varying levels of being open and sensitive to light. Humans and things of the world yearn to be exposed, to be seen. I’ll be writing about how I personally balance the light within and without.
~Hello~ I am Jessica M. Castillo, 34, and a writer and photographer based in Miami. I've been a reader and writer since I could first do both as a little girl growing up here in sunny South Florida. I exhibited (my award-winning!) first book in the third grade at my county’s youth fair: a pop-up book about trees. I’ve been around cameras and photography my whole life through my dad and late grandfather, both big hobbyists. And I took my first class—a black and white film photography course—when I was 16.
I built a career in sustainability, international development, climate governance, and disaster recovery through my undergrad in psychology and grad degree in international politics, and my dozen-plus years in NGOs and government consulting in Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and northern California, with a stint in higher education in Miami. When the pandemic arrived, it shifted my priorities and provided unexpected yet much needed clarity. While visiting me during a lonely pandemic birthday in 2020 in Alexandria, Virginia, where I was living at the time, my friend Megan noticed I invented a whole backstory about a stranger we saw eating ice cream alone outside Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. I usually kept these invented backstories and dramas to myself, living in a whole other world in my head, but this time I wanted to share it with Megan to hear her thoughts on this imagined plot. Shook by my overthinking (LOL), she suggested I channel my active imagination into creative writing courses. I signed up for UCLA Extension’s Creative Writing Certificate Program shortly thereafter.
By January 2021 I started attending Zoom creative writing courses, Zoom author readings, Zoom poetry readings, all of it, soaking up everything. In August that year I went on my first writing retreat (or retreat of any kind) in Mallorca with Trust and Travel, where I met and wrote and grew with an incredible group of women, and made life-long friendships. In October I started taking on photography clients. By February 2022 I incorporated my LLC and in March I wrote my first paid freelance story, a science-based article on meditation. In August 2022, I quit my consulting job to dedicate my time to my passions of writing and photography. I traveled for the next month as I transitioned to this new chapter of my life—I went on a writing retreat in Paris, took thousands of photos and videos in Iceland (top of my bucket list), and started a street photography program through the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. That October, I joined the Jackrabbit Studios team to support storytelling for the artist residency desert sanctuary: Letters from Jackie and photos and videos for the web and social media. And in November I wrote the first draft of my forthcoming debut novel, Julia’s Orchids. Everything in its time. Kismet, if you will.
I love to read, pretty much anything. But on any given day I will read the news, poetry, magazine articles, nonfiction books on spirituality or personal growth or trees or financial literacy, fiction books on interwoven lives across time and space, a la stories by David Mitchell and Emily St. John Mandel, as well as magical realism stories by authors such as Salman Rushdie and Isabel Allende, and stories with descriptive characters, vivid imagery, and engaging plots by the likes of Ann Patchett, Anthony Doerr and Elizabeth Gilbert. I like to go down Wikipedia rabbit holes such as learning about the Lost Generation and its American expat community living in Paris in the 1920s. Or down reddit rabbit holes learning about time slips. I notice when someone has a new haircut, and I like to tell them. I sometimes get shy about smiling at strangers (out loud, not just in my heart) and saying hello walking down the street because I get intimidated looking at them in the eye (though this has gotten easier as I’ve gotten older). I can really feel their soul and it can be a lot to take in when walking to yoga or the beach. I really love sourdough bread, it’s top of my desert island foods. And almond croissants and this chocolate hazelnut torte that my mom makes for me every year on my birthday, it’s my absolute favorite. I’m very close with my immediate and big extended family. When I asked my parents what were some activities they remembered I used to love doing as a kid, they said having family get-togethers. It’s loud and hectic and crazy when we’re all together, and grounding and filled with so much love. My parents, brother, and I got our first family dog, Wilma, from the shelter in 2015 and she’s exponentially multiplied the love in our house.
I’m launching this newsletter on the heels of Earth Day, of a 22 (my birthday is September 22nd), and on the fifth-year anniversary of starting another big life adventure—solo road tripping across the country visiting 30 National Parks by the time I turned 30. More to come on that road trip, definitely. And more to come on birthday adventures over the years! I’m big into birthdays. And adventures. (I’m a Virgo sun, Aquarius moon and Gemini rising, if that means anything to you. It does to me. I’m into astrology and pretty much anything having to do with the stars and galaxies and outer space.) More to come, absolutely, 1000%, on Earth Days, which I strive to celebrate every single day. I like going on long walks and I often stop to listen to birdsong—from the loud caws of crows to the dainty chirp chirp chirps of wrens or warblers or chickadees. And I stop to listen treesong—their leaves fluttering and swaying in a sound like the ocean waves coming and going and coming from sea to shore. As if the trees, too, live by the moon’s tides. I also stop to watch butterflies—black and orange ones and blue ones and yellow ones and white ones. And to observe bees—single ones bumbling around in the sand, or buzzing tightly in a hive twice the size of my head, or swarming 20 feet in the air when they’ve chosen a new queen. And to spot little lizards of bright green or forest green or the color of soil and leaves combined. Plus, because I don’t yet know all of the fragrant flowers, I usually stop to smell them and find out. Lately I’ve been reveling in the blossoming gardenias in my building’s garden. This is all just in my neighborhood here in Miami Beach. To speak nothing (yet) of the incredible, distinct landscapes all over the world that I’ve been so fortunate and grateful to have visited, all in humble honor and respect for Mother Earth.
Above all, I’m starting this newsletter now because it’s felt long overdue as a way to consistently and broadly share my writing and observations with the world without getting in my own way. I’ve recently been overcome with the power and enthusiasm to share my light (we all have our own unique light to share) with integrity and without the need for permission or approval. So whether it’s one person or one hundred people or one million people reading this, I’m writing just to write and to share publicly what I write. So that it lives somewhere outside of my head and my journals and my Word and Google Docs. I suppose it’s like a modern-day blurty or livejournal (dating myself, here). So come along for the ride as I explore and take in the world around me. Or not. I’ll still be here doing my thing. ♾️🩵
This week I’ve been:
Reading: Letters to a Starseed by Rebecca Campbell; this is the last book in a little series of books I’ve been reading recently on starseeds and lightworkers (more to come on this!)
Writing: I’ve been drafting query letters to pitch agents on Julia’s Orchids! And have been doing lots of research on this (Kate McKean’s Agents and Books newsletter has been enormously helpful!!)
Listening: Dreamcatcher and Floating Through Space Spotify playlists and indigenous flute music and Indian sitar mixes for when I want to focus and/or meditate, and a Dancehall mix for when I go on a run and/or need to burn off a lot of excited energy (dancing around in my apartment)
Watching: I haven’t been watching as much tv or movies as I normally like to (I love storytelling in all forms), but I’m two episodes away from finishing The Last of Us season 1 and I recently finished Outlast season 1 with my brother Anthony <3
That’s all for now! This post is a good example of what will be included for paid subscribers: lots of photos, plus info on what I’m reading, writing, listening to and watching. Next post will be on Friday, our regularly scheduled programming :)
xo,
Jessica