These words from you mean a lot Vanessa. I know already (from when I stepped away from my first much-loved & richly-connected career in HE at 40) how strangely quiet and empty my days may feel for a long time and that I won’t be fully using what’s best in me for a while either. But I trust/hope that in a year or so I will grow back into connection in a refreshed or wholly new form of service! In the meantime I will have more time to read your & others’ substack which is a fully good thing! Xx
Ah!!! This is magical, marvellous and inspiring news Tanya. After meeting you across the miles during the year of Hagitude I can say I feel huge excitement for you heading off down this new forested path into who knows where. Which Hag or Hags will be there to meet you?? I'm sensing a tingling of anticipation. Go well and may our paths cross again some day. It nearly Samhain here in NZ and the idea of you going deep into a new adventure is quite special to me. Blessed be! xx
I have such an ongoing sense of you, Jane, living your life in NZ - goats, motorbikes, art, writing, more. And feel we may meet one day there or here… Ever glad Hagitude brought us into deep shared work together. xxx
As always I am late to the party, this does not detract from my gratitude for the immensely giving and tender work you have achieved, neither the inspiration you have spread like a gentle veil over so many of us… I send you my heartfelt thanks and wishes for a future as bright and kind and beautiful as you deserve ♥️xx
Ah! Remember I will be keeping the project open to submissions a while longer yet, only not sending out monthly prompts on individual themes. I’m also looking forward to more time to read your and others’ Substacks now I won’t be spending so many hours each week curating pieces and doing writing teaching work away from home. You write beautifully and so I hope to see more from you by end of year if you have time and interest xxx
Thank you Tanya! I know have responded to the prompts (and I know there is no pressure to do so either!). I only relatively recently realised how much writing is a part of my life not just something I do related to contextualising my art art work or writing for college. In fact it's only just dawned on me that writing might be about more than regurgitating facts and that what I have to say personally might be unique and even interesting. That might sound a bit strange (many people who know me might not recognise those words as mine....)and it certainly feels strange to write it down here but I'm quietly working through my stuff at the moment as the wheel turns again!
That’s so good to hear, and I hope to see more of your writing on here via your own Substack presence (one of the pleasures of doing less here myself is that I have more time to read everyone else in this project beyond here).
Wow! Tanya, once again leading the way for all of us to honor our callings and intuitions. Your book and this space you created here have changed my life in ways that continue to unfold and my heart truly swells with gratitude. I can still remember the day I got my first response from you. I think that was the first day I really thought of myself as a writer. I loved having to keep the word count low....that was a lesson so new to me, I never thought I could do it. I learned so much here and had so much fun doing so. I hope you take some time today and put your hand on your heart and let the recognition for all that you have done for us here and let the love and gratitude we have for you sink in. I cannot wait to hear what unfolds for you. Much love to you! XX
I hope you know that I have never forgotten the thrill of receiving your first submission and knowing absolutely that here was ‘the real thing’. And that you and your kitchen feel so very close to me despite the distance between us. I do really hope to visit next year or the one after - and don’t need you to accommodate me. I quite like the thought of travelling so far to arrive as an afternoon guest at your back door! xxx
Sorry, very late to this! But as a quiet, shy person myself, I fully understand your reasons for stepping to one side for a while & gathering your thoughts. So, so grateful for all you have done so far for me personally & in generously creating this warm and inspirational community of writers - glad it will continue for a little while longer too. Wishing you all the very best as you consider your next steps and looking forward to whatever comes next on your writing journey x
Thank you so much Davina… and I love that your message came through in the very short daily window I now allow myself to be online reading other people’s work. You have contributed powerful work to the project and I will be so very happy to receive more from you before I turn my substack into either a new offering or a read-only archive site next year. Once I’ve had a good long rest I will also think of ways to do more with the wonderful work you’ve all created for the project - inviting those who’d like to take part to have their pieces be read aloud and go on here via notes and on Instagram perhaps… But that’s for next year. For now I’m reapprenticing myself to a very obscure and quite town- and home-based life that helps my own stories come into shape once more. xxx
So lovely that my message happened to pop up in your brief window of time online! Thank you for your kind and generous words and for encouraging me to keep going with my writing - one of the greatest gifts I have ever received tbh! I would love to continue contributing to this project in written pieces or other directions you may decide upon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this quiet re-apprenticeship period at home to rest and reflect - may it be a wonderfully creative and regenerative time in your life xxx
Tanya! While many parts of me will miss your presence here — your call, so that we can return — more parts of me are rejoicing in your choice of contraction, cultivation, and regeneration. I await eagerly your return!
I may come back with a completely different project/approach next year, and it would be lovely if that interested you to follow. I’m already enjoying more time to read all of you who’ve joined me along the way on this channel and instagram though - it’s important to be a good reader as well as a good creator I think! xxx
Hi Tanya, I just read your newsletter and can very much identify with what you have written about where you are at the moment. Growth isn't linear, its an "erratic forward movement" as Julia Cameron says in the Artist's Way. Enjoy your quiet time, every seed needs quiet time to prepare for the next stage.
Thank you Tanya. I can’t tell you how much I admire your decision. To understand yourself to the degree that you can step away from what might have been the obvious route, and honour what feels right to you is something to be greatly respected. I hope you enjoy some time playing with ideas while you live life comfortably. Xx
So bittersweet! I have only just found you and what a joy it has been, but equally, like so many have said, I am delighted to hear you are prioritising yourself and your family and about to embark on a new journey. I have faced similar forks in the road in the past and have found it liberating to trust my instinct. You are an inspiration in so many ways. Don't rush the metamorphosis. Revel in the cocoon. I can't wait to see you unfurling your wings and drying them in the sun. X
I’m still going to be curating pieces til end of year, just in a quieter way as and when they arrive with me instead of doing monthly calls for subs which had begun to result in an unmanageable amount of pieces to give the kind of attention to that I designed this for. So please do keep writing if any of the existing themes speak to you still! xxx
If you mean me (I can’t tell from the thread!) then I’ve been very much here for four years! But this post was about me being less present in future! But good yes to see you here too! X
Dear Tanya,it has been so inspiring writing with you (that’s how it felt!),meeting you and mostly having your generous and considered words next to mine .
This next phase of life will be all the better for your clear knowledge of what you need and your willingness to listen to yourself .
I will never forget the strong emotion I felt at Chip Lit Fest when I realised the Louise in the room that day was YOU! I’ve loved curating your work, and hope you might send more pieces before I close off this particular way of using Substack at end of year. xxx
O Wonderful Tanya. All the time and joy you have given to us, allowed us to set ourselves free and encouraged our own voices. Such generosity, and ability to embolden complete strangers. How exciting to see you off on a new path, all power to you. You have given me so much, I hope to be able to reciprocate one day. Fly and be free! x
What you say to me I need to say back - O wonderful Sally! The joy of doing the workshop at Ilkley and realising that YOU were there, who’d I chosen for mentoring - and Steve too! It was one of the highlights of the two years I was very intensively travelling place to place around the book. And I know we will stay in creative conversation over the years - I’m not going to stop using Substack entirely, just need a long rest to discover if there’s a different kind of exchange I’d like to be part of on here. It also means I have more time to read your and others’ work on here beyond this project and as/when you publish elsewhere… xxx
Dear Tanya, thank you so much for sharing what is going on for you, I have found your honesty and generosity amazing since I first came across you in Hagitude, and then thanks to this platform and your continued openness I eventually engaged with the collected stories in the Cure for Sleep and so appreciate your careful comments and encouragement. I think that it's wonderful that you are following your needs to come back to yourself, and I'm so glad that you are not going to cut yourself off completely from creative conversations. Wishing you all the very best xxx
I’m ever glad that Hagitude brought me into such deep shared work with you and others, and that I was then able to curate your writing here. And do remember I will be keeping the project open to submissions a while longer yet, only not sending out monthly prompts on individual themes - so keep writing for it if you have time/interest! I’m also looking forward to more time to read your and others’ Substacks now I won’t be spending so many hours each week curating pieces and doing writing teaching work away from home. xxx
A good decision, Tanya. You have given so much (for free) and although i will miss you, you are doing the right thing. Go, enjoy, stare and care...about yourself and your family. Something amazing will emerge and I will buy it then. Thank you for all your support.
Meeting you in this brief window of time, reading The Cure for Sleep and countless stories of others was and is a life changing gift for many, for me as well. I wish you all the best and all that's needed in the time of yours. Thank you and take care!
What a beautiful message Victor. I remember the excitement of reading your Substack and being glad you’d joined my project - and so do hold in mind that I will be keeping the project open to submissions a while longer yet, only not sending out monthly prompts on individual themes. I’d love to curate pieces by you this season. And I’m also looking forward to more time to read your and others’ Substacks now I won’t be spending so many hours each week curating pieces and doing writing teaching work away from home xx
I'm so glad you are being true to what you know is calling. It's not easy to step away from a project you have nurtured so tenderly and fiercely, but I hear you… I have made the same choice in the past few years… I wish I could drop a pot of soup and warm bread rolls on your doorstep, and walk away before you answered the door. You could experience this soup as love for who you are, with nothing asked in return, just as you have offered yourself to all of us.
Catherine, your message does feel like food, that same warm feeling. And I love that you’ve said it as that’s what began happening during the mile of writing at Pells Pool once people had come to accept the strange spectacle of me writing there day after day and lending my books: I’d get up to move my legs or use the look and when I’d come back there began to be offerings of fruit or coffee. Once someone even brought a plate of hot salmon and green beans from their nearby house! xxx
These words from you mean a lot Vanessa. I know already (from when I stepped away from my first much-loved & richly-connected career in HE at 40) how strangely quiet and empty my days may feel for a long time and that I won’t be fully using what’s best in me for a while either. But I trust/hope that in a year or so I will grow back into connection in a refreshed or wholly new form of service! In the meantime I will have more time to read your & others’ substack which is a fully good thing! Xx
May they be blissfully quiet and empty days that you revel in while pondering the next path! Xx
Ah!!! This is magical, marvellous and inspiring news Tanya. After meeting you across the miles during the year of Hagitude I can say I feel huge excitement for you heading off down this new forested path into who knows where. Which Hag or Hags will be there to meet you?? I'm sensing a tingling of anticipation. Go well and may our paths cross again some day. It nearly Samhain here in NZ and the idea of you going deep into a new adventure is quite special to me. Blessed be! xx
I have such an ongoing sense of you, Jane, living your life in NZ - goats, motorbikes, art, writing, more. And feel we may meet one day there or here… Ever glad Hagitude brought us into deep shared work together. xxx
As always I am late to the party, this does not detract from my gratitude for the immensely giving and tender work you have achieved, neither the inspiration you have spread like a gentle veil over so many of us… I send you my heartfelt thanks and wishes for a future as bright and kind and beautiful as you deserve ♥️xx
Ah! Remember I will be keeping the project open to submissions a while longer yet, only not sending out monthly prompts on individual themes. I’m also looking forward to more time to read your and others’ Substacks now I won’t be spending so many hours each week curating pieces and doing writing teaching work away from home. You write beautifully and so I hope to see more from you by end of year if you have time and interest xxx
Thank you Tanya! I know have responded to the prompts (and I know there is no pressure to do so either!). I only relatively recently realised how much writing is a part of my life not just something I do related to contextualising my art art work or writing for college. In fact it's only just dawned on me that writing might be about more than regurgitating facts and that what I have to say personally might be unique and even interesting. That might sound a bit strange (many people who know me might not recognise those words as mine....)and it certainly feels strange to write it down here but I'm quietly working through my stuff at the moment as the wheel turns again!
That’s so good to hear, and I hope to see more of your writing on here via your own Substack presence (one of the pleasures of doing less here myself is that I have more time to read everyone else in this project beyond here).
Wow! Tanya, once again leading the way for all of us to honor our callings and intuitions. Your book and this space you created here have changed my life in ways that continue to unfold and my heart truly swells with gratitude. I can still remember the day I got my first response from you. I think that was the first day I really thought of myself as a writer. I loved having to keep the word count low....that was a lesson so new to me, I never thought I could do it. I learned so much here and had so much fun doing so. I hope you take some time today and put your hand on your heart and let the recognition for all that you have done for us here and let the love and gratitude we have for you sink in. I cannot wait to hear what unfolds for you. Much love to you! XX
I hope you know that I have never forgotten the thrill of receiving your first submission and knowing absolutely that here was ‘the real thing’. And that you and your kitchen feel so very close to me despite the distance between us. I do really hope to visit next year or the one after - and don’t need you to accommodate me. I quite like the thought of travelling so far to arrive as an afternoon guest at your back door! xxx
I have felt the same connection and cannot wait to have you in the kitchen. Until then, take good care of yourself! Xxx
Sorry, very late to this! But as a quiet, shy person myself, I fully understand your reasons for stepping to one side for a while & gathering your thoughts. So, so grateful for all you have done so far for me personally & in generously creating this warm and inspirational community of writers - glad it will continue for a little while longer too. Wishing you all the very best as you consider your next steps and looking forward to whatever comes next on your writing journey x
Thank you so much Davina… and I love that your message came through in the very short daily window I now allow myself to be online reading other people’s work. You have contributed powerful work to the project and I will be so very happy to receive more from you before I turn my substack into either a new offering or a read-only archive site next year. Once I’ve had a good long rest I will also think of ways to do more with the wonderful work you’ve all created for the project - inviting those who’d like to take part to have their pieces be read aloud and go on here via notes and on Instagram perhaps… But that’s for next year. For now I’m reapprenticing myself to a very obscure and quite town- and home-based life that helps my own stories come into shape once more. xxx
So lovely that my message happened to pop up in your brief window of time online! Thank you for your kind and generous words and for encouraging me to keep going with my writing - one of the greatest gifts I have ever received tbh! I would love to continue contributing to this project in written pieces or other directions you may decide upon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this quiet re-apprenticeship period at home to rest and reflect - may it be a wonderfully creative and regenerative time in your life xxx
Tanya! While many parts of me will miss your presence here — your call, so that we can return — more parts of me are rejoicing in your choice of contraction, cultivation, and regeneration. I await eagerly your return!
I may come back with a completely different project/approach next year, and it would be lovely if that interested you to follow. I’m already enjoying more time to read all of you who’ve joined me along the way on this channel and instagram though - it’s important to be a good reader as well as a good creator I think! xxx
Hi Tanya, I just read your newsletter and can very much identify with what you have written about where you are at the moment. Growth isn't linear, its an "erratic forward movement" as Julia Cameron says in the Artist's Way. Enjoy your quiet time, every seed needs quiet time to prepare for the next stage.
So appreciate this from you, Brian. Thank you.
Thank you Tanya. I can’t tell you how much I admire your decision. To understand yourself to the degree that you can step away from what might have been the obvious route, and honour what feels right to you is something to be greatly respected. I hope you enjoy some time playing with ideas while you live life comfortably. Xx
So bittersweet! I have only just found you and what a joy it has been, but equally, like so many have said, I am delighted to hear you are prioritising yourself and your family and about to embark on a new journey. I have faced similar forks in the road in the past and have found it liberating to trust my instinct. You are an inspiration in so many ways. Don't rush the metamorphosis. Revel in the cocoon. I can't wait to see you unfurling your wings and drying them in the sun. X
I’m still going to be curating pieces til end of year, just in a quieter way as and when they arrive with me instead of doing monthly calls for subs which had begun to result in an unmanageable amount of pieces to give the kind of attention to that I designed this for. So please do keep writing if any of the existing themes speak to you still! xxx
Thank you, Tanya. So grateful for your time and tenderness. xxx
It is so lovely to have you here at last. I know you will love it!
If you mean me (I can’t tell from the thread!) then I’ve been very much here for four years! But this post was about me being less present in future! But good yes to see you here too! X
I have only just found you here and was so pleased to see you, I got a bit overexcited! Thank you and sorry for being a noodle x
I was excited to see you too! And me posting less this year means I can be a better reader/restacker of your and others’ work on here! xxx
Thank you for being so sweet about my mistake, I felt dreadful about it. But I am very glad to see you here x
Dear Tanya,it has been so inspiring writing with you (that’s how it felt!),meeting you and mostly having your generous and considered words next to mine .
This next phase of life will be all the better for your clear knowledge of what you need and your willingness to listen to yourself .
Thanks
I will never forget the strong emotion I felt at Chip Lit Fest when I realised the Louise in the room that day was YOU! I’ve loved curating your work, and hope you might send more pieces before I close off this particular way of using Substack at end of year. xxx
O Wonderful Tanya. All the time and joy you have given to us, allowed us to set ourselves free and encouraged our own voices. Such generosity, and ability to embolden complete strangers. How exciting to see you off on a new path, all power to you. You have given me so much, I hope to be able to reciprocate one day. Fly and be free! x
What you say to me I need to say back - O wonderful Sally! The joy of doing the workshop at Ilkley and realising that YOU were there, who’d I chosen for mentoring - and Steve too! It was one of the highlights of the two years I was very intensively travelling place to place around the book. And I know we will stay in creative conversation over the years - I’m not going to stop using Substack entirely, just need a long rest to discover if there’s a different kind of exchange I’d like to be part of on here. It also means I have more time to read your and others’ work on here beyond this project and as/when you publish elsewhere… xxx
Dear Tanya, thank you so much for sharing what is going on for you, I have found your honesty and generosity amazing since I first came across you in Hagitude, and then thanks to this platform and your continued openness I eventually engaged with the collected stories in the Cure for Sleep and so appreciate your careful comments and encouragement. I think that it's wonderful that you are following your needs to come back to yourself, and I'm so glad that you are not going to cut yourself off completely from creative conversations. Wishing you all the very best xxx
I’m ever glad that Hagitude brought me into such deep shared work with you and others, and that I was then able to curate your writing here. And do remember I will be keeping the project open to submissions a while longer yet, only not sending out monthly prompts on individual themes - so keep writing for it if you have time/interest! I’m also looking forward to more time to read your and others’ Substacks now I won’t be spending so many hours each week curating pieces and doing writing teaching work away from home. xxx
A good decision, Tanya. You have given so much (for free) and although i will miss you, you are doing the right thing. Go, enjoy, stare and care...about yourself and your family. Something amazing will emerge and I will buy it then. Thank you for all your support.
Thank you dear Rosalyn. I have been astonished by each of your pieces for this project and look forward to the day your novel is ready to read. xxx
Meeting you in this brief window of time, reading The Cure for Sleep and countless stories of others was and is a life changing gift for many, for me as well. I wish you all the best and all that's needed in the time of yours. Thank you and take care!
What a beautiful message Victor. I remember the excitement of reading your Substack and being glad you’d joined my project - and so do hold in mind that I will be keeping the project open to submissions a while longer yet, only not sending out monthly prompts on individual themes. I’d love to curate pieces by you this season. And I’m also looking forward to more time to read your and others’ Substacks now I won’t be spending so many hours each week curating pieces and doing writing teaching work away from home xx
I'm so glad you are being true to what you know is calling. It's not easy to step away from a project you have nurtured so tenderly and fiercely, but I hear you… I have made the same choice in the past few years… I wish I could drop a pot of soup and warm bread rolls on your doorstep, and walk away before you answered the door. You could experience this soup as love for who you are, with nothing asked in return, just as you have offered yourself to all of us.
Catherine, your message does feel like food, that same warm feeling. And I love that you’ve said it as that’s what began happening during the mile of writing at Pells Pool once people had come to accept the strange spectacle of me writing there day after day and lending my books: I’d get up to move my legs or use the look and when I’d come back there began to be offerings of fruit or coffee. Once someone even brought a plate of hot salmon and green beans from their nearby house! xxx
Food is one of the universal languages of Love! Go gently dear Tanya xx