Some News for 2025!
Making friends with my weird writing self
Well, it’s the end of 2024. I’ve been working on myself, learning
To be a better mentor
To to gel print
To give myself an hour every day to exercise— and to listen to my body if it wants to nap instead
To make tuna noodle casserole (the kids love it?)
That there is never a perfect time to do something difficult
Unpack this with me. There is a never ending amount of friction between you and that hard thing you want to do. And you can always, always point to at least 19 1/2 reasons why you shouldn’t do it. Or should postpone it. Or let it slow fade out of your life until you hardly remember wanting to do it in the first place.
The truth is: There is never going to be a perfect time to do that stupidly hard thing you dream about achieving.
I wrestled with this exact process over the past few days. After publishing my piece in the fall, the EIC at Yellow Arrow Journal asked if I wanted to be their guest editor for the spring issue. Can I tell you how excited I was— before I started listing out the reasons why I should turn it down. Kids, texts, toilet training, work, holidays, no time… a suburb mom’s primal chant, to the tune of Danny Go, obviously. “It’s not a good time,” I found myself saying over and over in that hushed, overly apologetic tone women use.
Then, I remembered She was still there. She — the Writing-self I try to forget when I am Being A Normal Adult. Writing-self Sara’s around, lurking under the piles of laundry, skittering between obligations and bills and texts and lists and small talk. She has too many books and jots down things like, “in the interest of body parts” or “hamburger blood.” Oh yeah, she’s a weird one. Frankly, I really wish I could forget her and move on. But this drive to share a vision, to be able to guide another human through an emotional experience, feels bigger than me. It’s a feeling that’s urgent and eager and it’s not going anywhere. Both writing-self Sara and normal Sara know it.
So, what I’m trying to say is—I said yes! And I’m over the moon. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be working with Kapua, YAJ’s EIC, on the next issue’s theme and will even be releasing a blog post and video. I hope you’ll submit. It’s going to be great.
Sending peace and love to each of you. Free Palestine.