15 to 21 December 24 QOTW

Image description: a white painted chair with snow on top between a chain link fence and a hydro box with graffiti in yellow on the box. Lots of snow around and cars in the background.

Dear wonderful readers,

I was planning on continuing with quotes from books in my possession for the rest of the month, but I found I missed the community of engagement I have with Substack writers. I was reading Substack less. So here are Substack quotes once more! I also include quotes from other newsletters I receive and stuff that I happen to find in my day-to-day searches for things relating to my reading and writing. Thanks for all your kind comments. I’m glad the quotes resonate. And thank you to all who are writing on Substack and specifically to the folks I quote from here. Your work is important and I appreciate what you are doing.

Sunday

There is a bird, night-beaked and moth-bodied, that can withstand the fiercest of storms. It is the smallest seabird in the world, weighing one tenth of a human heart. It is called the storm petrel, and in the open ocean its leaf-light body survives the most violent of weather.

Once, it was thought that these tiny birds carried storms upon their backs.

rebecca hooper

, what we carry in between two seas

Monday

How human is it to forget that we are wind, we are water, we are sediment? To fear the one thing that is an absolute impossibility?

My Greatest Fear by

Holly Starley

in Holly Starley’s Rolling Desk

Tuesday

Just because somebody shouts loudly in your inbox does not mean that that they are entitled to be heard. Often, it is in fact a good indicator that they are not worth listening to.

Manifesto for posting online

Burn the old rule books. Keep warm by the fire.

Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Wednesday

Most of the time we fail to see the big wide real world at all because we are blinded by obsession, anxiety, envy, resentment, fear. We make a small personal world in which we remain enclosed. Great art is liberating, it enables us to see and take pleasure in what is not ourselves.

Iris Murdoch as quoted in The great women's art bulletin by Katy Hessel

“See the light pour through: how art can free us from the exhaustion of smartphone addiction” in the Guardian, November 24, 2024

Thursday

Here’s the thing: no one has to do this alone. Our strength has always been each other. Check in with someone. Share what you can. Be there to listen or just sit quietly over tea with a friend. You have permission to suck every ounce of joy out of any winter traditions with your people. Even the smallest moments of connection can make a big difference when everything feels so uncertain. The December Kind Space Newsletter ; by the way, if you are in the Ottawa area and are LGBTQ+, check out all of the great activities and groups that Kind Space offers. Volunteer or support them if you can.

Friday

We’re in the midst of a season that can foster either connection or a sense of alienation. And we rapidly approach a time when many people make new plans. For me, my plans have to include new ways to connect. New ways to reach others and to keep my own sense of connection to my readers, to the cosmos, to this planet, and to myself.

T. Thorn Coyle, from their newsletter, Keep Breathing.

Saturday

”Bossy.” “Bitch.” “Show off.” “Selfish.” “Pushy.” The list of epithets that serve as synonyms for women who are perceived to be ambitious is a reminder of the sin of ambition. Those epithets are about being liked: patriarchy socializes women and girls to want to be liked. I do not want to be liked; I want to be free. And to that end, my ambition is to destroy patriarchy.

Mona Eltahawy

, Feminist Giant, Daily Dose: 27

If you have inspiring and intriguing quotes to share, please reach out. I’d love to include them here.

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