Something about this letter made me tear up. The way you write today feels crisp and fresh and precise and also gentle. I love this idea - of creating something that makes community. I was sitting here, wondering about where to turn to next. I'm missing my boyfriend, who has gone away for work. My little dog is on a sleepover. My son is off to see his dad. I love my days alone but also. I'm going to bake a cake and share it with my best friend and her son, who live nearby. Send some voice notes to friends far away to tell them I love them and have been thinking of them. Listen to some music that might make me feel a bit sad but also remind me of other people. Thank you Jami for putting this out here today. (PS I love your raspberry house).
Many years ago, in my youth, I read a children's book about a black sheep who didn't want his wool sheared. Instead he created gardens. Some sheep knitted beautiful sweaters from their wool. He said, at some point "a sweater is like a garden." Anything we do with love is beautiful. I love your raspberry house. I'm reading The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng and highly recommend it.
So sweet, thoughtful and generous of you to think of the people in the cars waiting for the train to pass. That’s why your books are so good! All those traits. I hope to see you in Baltimore if I can suss out the details!! So happy you are coming here.
I love that you manage to thread these three things together: the rose bush in your neighbourhood, the chicken sandwich, and the new colour of your house, into a story about creating community, and the suggestion you make that all of us can do these things - we can all 'brighten' other people through community-making. I'm trying to do a bit of that as well, and crazily enough have just created three separate posts entitled: A Splash Of Colour (In Your Day) Parts 1 - 3. I hope you might have some fun dabbling around in them. I invite you to do so, and thank you as always for your wonderful Substack and your fabulous book of #1000 Words which I've recently finished with a book group, all of whom loved it. Thanks Jami!
I love that you thought about others when you painted your house that lovely raspberry. Up here in Washington, D.C. so many people are painting their houses white with black trim around windows and doors. They all look alike and someday soon are going to look and feel dated at which time the owners will wish they had painted them raspberry!
oh man, that chicken sandwich with their table salad was my favorite meal and i miss it so much! that was a sandwich worthy of homer simpson-level adoration. sigh. thanks for the flashback...love this post and the raspberry too. :)
I too have been thinking about what got me through that first long period of isolation so I didn’t feel disconnected. Honestly, it was posts from some of my favorite writers and discovering new ones. As much as I’ve tried to follow everyone where they’ve gone, it’s not quite the same. I also have a small house, just under 1000 square feet, also perfect for me and my dog (who I sadly lost late last year), and with a mortgage that will outlive me. But every plant I add to the small garden or picture I hang uplifts my spirits. Love the color of your house!
I love all of this post! And that color! Raspberry Chalet. :) I'm about to round the bend on a creative project that's happening in the corners, but it's awash with color, too! Daily walks with flowers, blue skies for a few days, paint swatches on walls ready to be painted, those pink and green sneakers I'm coveting... Spring! I even wrote about flamboyant color in my latest Substack with a little shout-out to my seventh-grade self. Thanks for sharing the gorgeous color of your city and your ideas with us.
Dear Jami, your house looks amazing & also like that rosebush with its fearless, bright pink color. It made me think that maybe, if I were stuck waiting for a train to go by, worrying about being late or jabbing the radio into silence to put off knowing what's in the news, maybe, I would look out at a sort of miracle, a small, raspberry-colored house right there, & let go. & then, if I were lucky, I might see a little black & white dog, too, & my morning would, for a moment, be complete.
A little ways off in the distance, I've been thinking about these recurring dreams I have about houses/apartments, not places I've actually lived, but that keep coming back to me in the middle of the night, as real as if I had, & I think maybe there's an essay or a story waiting to be awakened--ha, if it were that easy!
So that's by way of saying, funny, your lovely piece about color, houses, food & community--& yes, mortgages--not only moved me, but may also have moved me down the road towards something I want to write about. Thanks for this interlude at 3:57 am & I'll see you here again at this time soon.
Thank you for the reminder to not only enjoy what's in our community but to talk about it, share it with others! I really enjoyed your letter today--I'll be better at sharing what makes me happy about where I live with those around me.
Something about this letter made me tear up. The way you write today feels crisp and fresh and precise and also gentle. I love this idea - of creating something that makes community. I was sitting here, wondering about where to turn to next. I'm missing my boyfriend, who has gone away for work. My little dog is on a sleepover. My son is off to see his dad. I love my days alone but also. I'm going to bake a cake and share it with my best friend and her son, who live nearby. Send some voice notes to friends far away to tell them I love them and have been thinking of them. Listen to some music that might make me feel a bit sad but also remind me of other people. Thank you Jami for putting this out here today. (PS I love your raspberry house).
Feeling empowered now to go out into the world and be a bright raspberry colored house.
A lovely letter, and your house looks great!
Many years ago, in my youth, I read a children's book about a black sheep who didn't want his wool sheared. Instead he created gardens. Some sheep knitted beautiful sweaters from their wool. He said, at some point "a sweater is like a garden." Anything we do with love is beautiful. I love your raspberry house. I'm reading The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng and highly recommend it.
So sweet, thoughtful and generous of you to think of the people in the cars waiting for the train to pass. That’s why your books are so good! All those traits. I hope to see you in Baltimore if I can suss out the details!! So happy you are coming here.
I love that you manage to thread these three things together: the rose bush in your neighbourhood, the chicken sandwich, and the new colour of your house, into a story about creating community, and the suggestion you make that all of us can do these things - we can all 'brighten' other people through community-making. I'm trying to do a bit of that as well, and crazily enough have just created three separate posts entitled: A Splash Of Colour (In Your Day) Parts 1 - 3. I hope you might have some fun dabbling around in them. I invite you to do so, and thank you as always for your wonderful Substack and your fabulous book of #1000 Words which I've recently finished with a book group, all of whom loved it. Thanks Jami!
https://matthewcurlewis.substack.com/p/a-splash-of-colour-in-your-day-part
I love that you thought about others when you painted your house that lovely raspberry. Up here in Washington, D.C. so many people are painting their houses white with black trim around windows and doors. They all look alike and someday soon are going to look and feel dated at which time the owners will wish they had painted them raspberry!
I'm interested in color too. This weekend I finally started in again on a painting I'm trying. I'm not a painter. But I want to be!
“Raspberry house” is the energy I want to bring and give in my writing and life—thank you for expressing it.
oh man, that chicken sandwich with their table salad was my favorite meal and i miss it so much! that was a sandwich worthy of homer simpson-level adoration. sigh. thanks for the flashback...love this post and the raspberry too. :)
I too have been thinking about what got me through that first long period of isolation so I didn’t feel disconnected. Honestly, it was posts from some of my favorite writers and discovering new ones. As much as I’ve tried to follow everyone where they’ve gone, it’s not quite the same. I also have a small house, just under 1000 square feet, also perfect for me and my dog (who I sadly lost late last year), and with a mortgage that will outlive me. But every plant I add to the small garden or picture I hang uplifts my spirits. Love the color of your house!
I love all of this post! And that color! Raspberry Chalet. :) I'm about to round the bend on a creative project that's happening in the corners, but it's awash with color, too! Daily walks with flowers, blue skies for a few days, paint swatches on walls ready to be painted, those pink and green sneakers I'm coveting... Spring! I even wrote about flamboyant color in my latest Substack with a little shout-out to my seventh-grade self. Thanks for sharing the gorgeous color of your city and your ideas with us.
Dear Jami, your house looks amazing & also like that rosebush with its fearless, bright pink color. It made me think that maybe, if I were stuck waiting for a train to go by, worrying about being late or jabbing the radio into silence to put off knowing what's in the news, maybe, I would look out at a sort of miracle, a small, raspberry-colored house right there, & let go. & then, if I were lucky, I might see a little black & white dog, too, & my morning would, for a moment, be complete.
A little ways off in the distance, I've been thinking about these recurring dreams I have about houses/apartments, not places I've actually lived, but that keep coming back to me in the middle of the night, as real as if I had, & I think maybe there's an essay or a story waiting to be awakened--ha, if it were that easy!
So that's by way of saying, funny, your lovely piece about color, houses, food & community--& yes, mortgages--not only moved me, but may also have moved me down the road towards something I want to write about. Thanks for this interlude at 3:57 am & I'll see you here again at this time soon.
I love that you painted your house that color for others. Seeing it while driving would certainly brighten my day.
I love a beautiful rose. Love chicken sandwiches. Love the raspberry color. Love this post.
Thank you for the reminder to not only enjoy what's in our community but to talk about it, share it with others! I really enjoyed your letter today--I'll be better at sharing what makes me happy about where I live with those around me.