Third Thursday Third Things — March Edition
"Do You Ever Just...Sit Down?"
When you get this newsletter, I will be on a plane to the Bahamas, living aboard a sailboat for a week and diving with my mom.
Earlier this week at the gym an acquaintance (who hasn’t met me THAT many times) asked, “Jesus Christ, do you ever just like…sit down?”
So far in this first quarter of the year, I have:
Survived (somewhat) a new administration that has greatly increased my day-job workload
Traveled to Cozumel, Mexico to dive
Traveled to Silverton, Colorado to watch skijoring
Traveled to Anchorage, Alaska for work
Bought a horse
Finished a book proposal (hahahah what????)
And soon, have spent a week living and diving on a sailboat in the Bahamas
It is so spectacular to have such a full life. And also, I may have gone a little overboard in these first three months of the year. I would like to just…sit down. I am deeply craving some time at home to watch the desert bloom into spring atop my trusty steed and new best friend, Tex.
I apologize for the unanswered emails, texts, faxes, and carrier pigeons. April is my month to ground and regroup.
In the meantime, I hope you’re cozied up with a cup of tea, ready for some good reads. I have so many recommendations from this month (and they’re all from Substack because traditional news outlets are a real bummer right now).
—They’re Stealing Colour from Your World
As a recovering Millennial Gray addict, I promise I am TRYING to add color back to my world
—Why do we consider traveling as “living” when it’s the opposite?
I have an ongoing internal struggle between feeling like I should be traveling but really wanting to be at home in the desert, and then feeling bad that I want to be at home. I don’t see my hometown solely as a “place to work” which is perhaps why travel doesn’t often feel as necessary to me as it seems to for others (ironic, I know, given I am currently traveling).
—Everyone is numbing out
“Thanks to the internet and our insatiably consumerist culture, it is finally possible to distract yourself for every waking minute of your life and barely even notice you’re doing it. When you mix all colors of paint together, you get black. Everything quickly becomes nothing.”
—My Five Year Plan
—Literally just do things
“Again and again, when things work out, I realize it’s a result of simply prioritizing getting things done.”
—Who owns our time?
—A Case for Doing Less and Living More
“When I cross paths with myself in the mirror, I’m always startled to see a clam staring back.”
—This Article Will Change Your Life and Everything Else that Needs Changing
“I struggle to offer solutions where none exist. We need to let go of the idea of solutions.”
“We love reading about solutions: the five-step guides, the linear processes, the neatly laid-out maps. Yet, many of us have grown wary of headlines promising, “This is how we solve all our challenges: degrowth, regulated markets, or ending fossil fuels.”
—Should we lower our boundaries?
—If you're feeling behind in life…
“What if this “maturity” we’re all supposed to attain is just another word to describe passivity, capitulation to an economic system that benefits someone, but most certainly not any of us?”
—Why life gets better when you stop fighting change
“Look at your body: it knows better than to stay the same. Right now, millions of your cells are regenerating. Your heart cells will renew themselves completely in the next few weeks. Your skin will be entirely new in a month. Your skeleton rebuilds itself every decade.”
“Here's the tension we all wrestle with: we want the thrill of novelty and the comfort of security.”
—Your 9-5 Job Is Cool
“In my industry, it's standard to change jobs every two years or to romanticize the daily existential manic love of freelance work, but I don't prefer either. I'm loyal and hard-working, and I love stability.”
—I helped build the digital world. Now I’m trying to escape It
“Over-optimisation treats life like a puzzle to crack rather than a beautiful mess to live. And no, we don’t need to streamline every part of our lives with technology just because we’re constantly told to by capitalist-driven companies that prioritise growth — often at the expense of our well-being.”