Monthly Edition | 14

Aging mothers, my COVID, a David Whyte book you should listen to, and links galore

The Monthly Edition is a curated roundup of recommendations for books, podcasts, interesting articles and more for paid subscribers, along with updates on my life.

Happy Sunday!

If you missed getting an essay from me this week, it’s because I’ve had a bit of a week. My 85-year-old mother got pneumonia and then COVID and has been struggling, so I went to Arizona to spend some time with her.

Arizona in July is an experience.

I’ll admit I thought of pushing through my anguish over my mother’s state and writing something for this week, but then I remembered the whole point of this publication is unlearning all of our conditioning, including what we’ve been told about making work our reason for living and pushing through pain and “making it happen” and all that other stuff that we need to let go.

But I no longer push.

I no longer force myself to ignore my own humanity—and the humanity of others—just to stick to a deadline.