This Week—September 30
Hello! It’s the last day of September, which is mind-boggling to me. I’ll be writing some deeper reflections on the whole month of September next week for my monthly post.
This has been another good week! I try to focus always on the positive things, always maintaining gratitude for the days I experience. Everyday, I give thanks to my family, including Wilma of course, and to friends, a safe apartment with beautiful gardens, my warm and cozy bed, my hot shower and bath, and a kitchen filled with yummy food. And, to this list I add on gratitude for the things I did that day, for example, a voluminous but tender rain during my daily walk, my encouraging painting teacher and classmates, a zany and caring writing teacher, my writing group and our Slack channel, rooftop yoga and ice cream with an old friend, professional encouragement and support from a newer friend, birds and butterflies and colorful sunsets.
I’ve noticed that just this simple act of gratitude at the end of each day, it’s been putting me on this positive feedback loop of having more and more experiences of things to be grateful for. This, of course, is not to say that I don’t experience ‘negative’ experiences—walking in the pouring rain that has drenched my leggings and shoes and socks, sharing a paper-thin wall with loud neighbors with young children who express themselves primarily through screeching and wailing at all hours of the day, kitchen spills and messes, lulls in work projects, and more—but rather it’s been helpful for me to reframe these, to see them in the larger scheme of things, and to lessen their importance. Acknowledging the ‘negative’ experiences, observing them for anything positive I can learn from them, and then letting them go; focusing more of my attention to the more ‘positive’ experiences I have. As they say, where your mind goes, attention (and energy) flows!
This week I’ve been:
Reading: I finished reading The Book Bible: How to Sell Your Manuscript—No Matter What Genre—Without Going Broke or Insane by Susan Shapiro. I’ve also been researching lots of things on online forums and websites related to usage licenses, copyright and intellectual property rights, and commercial photography licensing agreements. As my creative business grows, so do me and my knowledge!
The recent articles I’ve been reading are:
On Day 146, Screenwriters Reach Deal With Studios to End Their Strike from The New York Times
Ancient Arrow Is Among Artifacts to Emerge From Norway’s Melting Ice from The New York Times
Thinking about an iPhone 15? There is a hidden cost to that new camera from The Washington Post
This red dye was so valuable it built cities. One family in Mexico is still making it the old way from AP News
Mike Brodie’s polaroids of American runaway kids in the 00s from i-D of Vice Media
Photographing the chaotic birth of 70s British subculture from i-D of Vice Media
As climate change and high costs plague Alaska’s fisheries, fewer young people take up the trade from AP News
The Unspeakably Sad Reminder of the ‘Other Paris’ from The New York Times
The Turtle Mothers Have Come Ashore to Ask About an Unpaid Debt from The New York Times
Fossil fuel workers have the skills to succeed in green jobs, but location is a major barrier to a just transitionfrom The Conversation
Why you should divide your life into semesters, even when you’re not in school from Vox
Does a woman’s fertility really plummet at age 35? from National Geographic
Lots of indoor farms are shutting down as their businesses struggle. So why are more being built? from AP News
The Best Thing About Amazon Was Never Going to Last from The Atlantic
They Wanted a House in the City for $1 Million. Would They Find It in Brooklyn or Queens? from The New York Times
The Parents Trying to Pass Down a Language They Hardly Speak from The Atlantic
Last living suspect in 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur indicted in Las Vegas on murder charge from AP News
Book Tour: At home with Jennifer Egan from The Washington Post
Writing: I’ve been revising my query letter for pitching my novel Julia’s Orchids. Kate McKean from the Agents & Books newsletter is reopening queries starting on October 2 so I’m very excited to pitch her on my new book! I am also planning on submitting an excerpt from Julia’s Orchids to the Kenyon Review by September 30 (today!), so wish me luck! And I’ve been drafting up my first photography licensing agreement, woohoo!
Photographing/Photo Editing: We took loads of family photos during birthday celebrations last weekend :)
And I took some photos of old photographs of my dad’s side of the family. He and I went through boxes of these incredibly preserved black & white and color film photographs and long-ago documents from Cuban ministries and a bygone era.
I also attended a StayFit305 sunset yoga event taught by Julianne Aerhee Byun at 1111 Lincoln Road. The building is a parking garage and they hold private events on the top floor (very Miami lol). The views were incredible and I got to hang and yoga-flow with my childhood friend Chovitta! We got ice cream at Salt & Straw afterwards because ~balance~.
Painting/Drawing/Crafting: I started my next painting in painting class that I take at Oolite Arts, sketched it out from the original copy, and started with the more prominent colors (yellow, blue). I’m not going to paint the floor red, as in the original, but I haven’t decided which color yet! I forgot to take a photo of the progress made by the end of class, but this is the drawing before I slathered up the canvas with color.
Watching: I watched the Super Mario Bros. movie. It felt so nostalgic and appropriately targeted to millennials, I loved it. It took me back to my first memories of playing the game, on a clunky desktop computer where I maneuvered the characters with the up/down/right/left arrows and space bar. I also watched most of the In Pursuit of Happiness event virtual broadcast at The Atlantic Festival 2023, specifically the interviews between Julie Beck and Robert Waldinger, Arthur C. Brooks and Cheryl Strayed, and Megan Garber and Cleo Wade. I love Arthur C. Brooks, a Contributing Writer from The Atlantic and a Harvard Professor and co-author (with Oprah Winfrey) of Build the Life You Want, and Cheryl Strayed, writer, columnist and author of Wild, one of my favorite books and one that inspired me to go on a big solo cross-country road trip in 2018. So hearing them discuss various aspects related to happiness was really great and interesting to me. I also really enjoyed the conversation between The Atlantic’s Megan Garber and author and poet Cleo Wade! Wade is so cool and grounded and I can’t wait to read her latest book Remember Love: Words for Tender Times.
Listening to: Still listening to YouTube nature ambience videos I play on my Roku in the background while I work, and the natural outdoor ambience of local neighborhood sounds. I listened to the Jay Shetty On Purpose podcast episode 6 Step Plan to Block Social Media From Controlling Your Life And Mind. And, during the rest of my daily walks, I relistened to a recording of my session with a psychic, and to my Spotify YASSS Playlist and Global Playlist, or sometimes to nothing at all except the sounds around me. And when I get extra philosophical, I observe the mass and weight and volume of the total silence surrounding me, when and if there is one.
Have a great week!
Xo,
Jessica ♾️