Molly Simpson
@spagmol
Spaghetti-brained.
Googly-eyed.
Heart-first.
Molly Simpson
spagmol.substack.com
Dreamy But Disconnected
open.substack.com
There are the different versions of ourselves, the different lives we have lived, and perhaps even more dangerous, the ones we could have lived. The ones we feel bittersweet over having not pursued, the ones we could see ourselves in, if only just a few choices had been made differently. We wonder where the assorted paths would have led, dream about the hypothetical different realities other than our current one. For me, it’s not so much FOMO as it is feeling like there’s another version of myself out there which I may have abandoned.
Of course it’s a luxury to feel this way, to be able to choose where you live, what jobs you take. But there’s also something to feeling pulled to different realities, to feeling in-between. If you don’t tend to those sides of yourself, they easily feel like they’re disintegrating—firm ground eroding beneath your feet.
... See moreA myth is a patch of soil where we can plant the best practices of a community: how to relate to each other and to our shared ecosystem. The type of mythmaking we are called to do now is probably somewhere closer to composting. We live in a culture that is remarkably good at abstracting itself from waste and off-loading it onto the marginalized com
Sophie Strand
... See moreWriting has taught me to carry myself more lightly. I notice what patterns recur, I notice that I write things down and think I’ll believe them forever and I rarely do. Living lightly means: we have a long long life but it’s also really short and it’s okay to change our minds to live in the fullest, most vibrant way. I see that now we’re playing ou
if you don’t live the way you believe, you inevitably believe the way you live.
To let go, when you know you have to is like choosing both grief and hope. Hope that you have control over your life, hope that there is something that is more in alignment for you out there. But you are giving up the possibility of the known joy. There must have been something you are letting go of that is meaningful and beautiful. Letting go, for
... See morethe goal is not to separate the strands, it's to document the tangle.
(Ann Friedman)
... See moreTo enjoy life, we might have to stop thinking about what we will never be able to read and watch and say and do, and start to think of how to enjoy the world within our boundaries. To live on a human scale. To focus on the few things we can do, rather than the millions of things we can’t. To not crave parallel lives. To find a smaller mathematics.
How we can mean almost nothing on the scale of the universe and also almost everything on the scale of who we are to one another. (Which is to say, on the scale of the universe too, because we’re all a part of the cosmos when you get right down to it. Star-stuff in our bones and teeth.)
It’s hard to be soft when you’re panicked about how much you’ve lost. Mourning huge losses will warp your understanding of everything around you. Sometimes trauma makes a big thinker like you raise their expectations beyond what is reasonable or rational. You’re grappling with so much buried pain that you believe that you need perfection, you requi
... See moreAuthenticity is honoring yourself and others with equal sensitivity to the shifting conditions on the ground. When you are humbled, when you need to adjust your behavior, when you recognize that you’ve strayed from your ideals, those are the exact moments when joy is knocking on your door, asking to come in and light up your life in new ways.
Your m
... See more