My brain hurts.
A cozy nook with a pink blanket, an open notebook, and a pen.
Lately my brain feels like an abandoned car, quietly rusting in a field off the side of a highway.
Small tasks feel epic. Afternoons fill with thick mental fogs. I lay in bed at night, mind tumbling like a freight train, trying to find something on my phone to distract me enough to fall asleep.
Clearly there are a lot of issues here. But I know that one of them is the amount of information I’m consuming. Emails, headlines, podcasts, social media, text messages — days have become so noisy, and my mind is exhausted from sorting and processing all this input.
On one hand — wonderful, right? As writers (yes that’s you), we are engines of exchange. Pour one thing in, another thing comes out. This is what we’re made for.
But in recent years, the amount of input has spiked. I know this part isn’t just me. Research in 2022 showed that the average person consumed around 74 GB in information every day — about the same amount as 16 movies. And it was on the rise by 5% every year, so we’re at nearly 18 movies now.
To put that in historical context, 500 years ago, a very educated person might consume this much information in their lifetime. Now it’s a Tuesday.
Goodness gracious. Are you even still reading?
I think we forget that we come from nature. We are nature. And everything in nature needs breaks. We need slow seasons, dark nights, hibernation. It seems like for us humans, that’s the hard part.
Even when we know we need to rest, it can be very hard to actually do it.
So, we’re trying a new thing this winter.
It’s called “Write, Read, Rest.” The idea is to use the power of community to slow down together, right in the heart of February.
This will be a space to breathe deeply, read for fun, phase out, write letters, write slowly, doodle, and do nothing. It will be a way to make little pockets of ease away from the pressures of winter and everyday life.
It’s on Zoom, open to unlimited participants, and sliding scale.
No accountability. No responsibility. No deadlines.
Shall I say hello to the elephant here?
Yes, it’s a little weird that we are doing this on Zoom. And also that we’re charging for it.
In our ideal world, we’d be in a beautiful big lounge room with soft blankets and unlimited pillows and no screens in sight. We’d do it for free because we would be able to give our labour away freely without requiring exchange.
But we’re working with what’s possible, what’s here, and what’s ours to give.
These days, rest is sadly a privilege as well as a right, so we’re donating 10% of proceeds to Sistering.
This is a hardworking organization that provides services to women and gender-diverse people in Toronto who are homeless or precariously housed.
We’re excited about this new experiment, and we would love to meet you there. And of course, we also have workshops, coffee sessions, a weekend online retreat, and much more… Read on.
Small group workshops
These are where we do our favourite work. They are hugely encouraging, compassion-rich, very fun experiences for small groups of people who want to dive into the ocean of words and see what they find.
We have beginner classes, memoir classes, a poetry class, and lots more.
Read, Write, Rest
Here it is again: Our new large group winter offering, our silly experiment, our chance to meet you in softness and space.
Last minute gift idea?
Gift certificates are such a sweet way to share the good tools of writing and social connection with loved ones.
And a poem for your heart.
This poem, “The Way It Is,” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, feels appropriate for this one.
Wherever you are right now, I’m wishing you rest.
A softer moment. A shimmer of self-trust. A breath that goes all the way to the bottom of your lungs and finds a little place to curl up.
The days are short, and December is a sad month for many of us. May we all remember how nature moves through these times, and give ourselves the space we need to unfold into our realest, truest selves this month.
In it with you,
P.S. There were some big facts in this newsletter! They came from this research, and was summed up well in this article.
We’re also grateful for the many people who inspired this program, including but not limited to Tricia Hersey whose books Rest is Resistance and We Will Rest! have been transformational for our ability to reclaim rest as an essential part of life and work.