I'm taking a summer sabbatical

but I promise there will still be cats

Photo by author

I last published here on May 7. On May 8, I started feeling a little under the weather. A baby cold, I thought, the kind I get a couple times a year. I’d take a weekend to rest and be back to normal the following Monday.

It is now June 4, and and I have only just emerged from a four-week viral fugue to discover that school’s out, my yard is exploding, and somehow, May is over (was May even real?).

I feel a little like Rip van Winkle.

One thing about illness—it sure is clarifying. With limited energy and bills to pay, I stripped my priorities to the bone. I worked. I rested. I fed my cats when my husband wasn’t around to do it and dragged myself outside when I could. Mostly, that was it.

I paid attention to what I missed (seeing my friends, gardening, reading at higher than a 2nd grade level) and what felt like a relief to set down (getting up early, replying to non-essential emails, maintaining a daily presence on Substack). And at the end of a very long yet dizzyingly fast month, I realized I need to change some things. My current routines aren’t working anymore, even when I’m healthy. I have new demands on my time and different professional and creative priorities.

So I’m taking a summer sabbatical to create a little space for myself. I won’t be writing this newsletter. I probably won’t be super active on Notes. You can still find me on

MeowStack

, which I co-publish with

Gabe Dreer

. We’re having a blast meeting all your cats.

I’ll see you in the fall!