For this month, I’m returning to my second word I’m focusing on in 2025: Simpler. I’m longing for more depth and meaning. Less rushing, doing things just for the sake of doing them. I’m interested in intention. In purpose. In slowing down and noticing more.
A big part of that is living with more simplicity baked into my human experience. At fifty-two, I’m not impressed by anything flashy. I don’t give two shits about brand names or expensive cars or big houses or fancy filters on photos. None of that is real. It won’t last, and it won’t satisfy.
The simple things are the beautiful ones. Flowers, pushing up through the loamy soil to bloom this spring. Children laughing when they play outside. My daughter texting to ask about my day or tell me about hers. Coffee with a friend. How soft and warm my cat’s fur is under my hand. Snuggling on the couch with my husband and watching some excellent television. Reading a novel that plunges me into a separate world. Cultivating a small, stubborn piece of hope, even when the world has really hard edges.
One-Word Feeling Check-In
How are you feeling right now, in one word? I’m feeling determined. The entitlement and hate on display in the world at this time, particularly where it concerns Canada’s neighbour to the south, gave me a deep sense of sadness initially, but now I’ve tipped into rage. During the first few weeks of this nonsensical trade war, I felt afraid, but now I’m past that and I’m ready to fight. Canada is not for sale. I love my country, and I’m proud to be Canadian, and I’m in a new phase of determination. Elbows up!
How are you feeling?
Nurture Classes - Online & In-Person
In March, I did my first online Nurture Starts with You mini-class for 5 days. It was a whirlwind time, and I really loved working with people on self-care strategies in a supportive online community, but we all realised that it was too fast. So I’ve changed the format to 5 weeks instead of 5 days, and I’m offering new dates in May/June, September/October, and November/December to finish out 2025.
Similar to my online Write Your Novel or Memoir classes (now taking registrations for October 2025!), the Nurture class will have an active participation window of Tuesday & Wednesday each week, where you’ll drop in to read about nurture, messy emotions, and creative practices. Then you spend the rest of the week putting these gentle ideas into practice, until we come back together the following week to check in and learn some new strategies. It’s fun, caring, flexible, and supportive. I’d love for you to join us! Info is on my Classes page.
My Nurture Starts with You classes have begun in person at local libraries this spring and they have been so fabulous. I’m scheduling more now for the fall, but please drop in and join me and other nurtured ones on Friday, April 25th at Clearbrook Library and on Friday, May 9th at Port Moody Library. For the full schedule, see my Libraries page.
Book Corner
I told a few people that I’m looking for something lighter to read than the usual criminal/thriller fare in today’s political climate, so my friend Karen suggested the memoir Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan which was an absolute delight from start to finish. More like this, please! Keep those funny and light recommendations flowing my way.
In February, I spent some time with my high school pal Sue, and she introduced me to the charming Netflix rom-com Love at First Sight, so I grabbed the YA novel from the library and loved it. I did read one mystery this month that I enjoyed, If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin, about a mom worried about her seventeen-year-old son (for more like this, see Adolescence below!).
Intuitive Courage Podcast
For episode 11, I talked about a favourite phrase of mine that I learned from one of my MFA profs in Creative Writing: Process Not Product. I learned it in the context of writing, but lately I’ve been applying this phrase to all of life. I’ll be writing an article on this subject for Freelance Magazine this spring for publication in the Fall 2025 issue.
How we do anything is how we do everything. The process is the thing that matters. In our culture, we focus so much on our end goal (the product), but how we reach that product is where all the meaning is found.
Please have a listen on April 21st. How do you define Process Not Product in your life?
TV Recs
Wow, have we been watching some incredible TV this month. The best thing I’ve seen so far this year is Adolescence on Netflix, a limited series getting all sorts of buzz for each episode being a one-take shot. Technically, it’s impressive. But beyond the camera work, the writing, acting, themes, and overall storylines are SO GOOD. The ending literally broke me. I could not stop crying.
Before we cancelled Apple TV+ when Severance season 2 finished (and seriously, what a finish!), we tried Disclaimer because my son had been talking about it. What an intricate show—subtle, nuanced, layered, heartbreaking, deceiving. I just got the book by Renee Knight out of the library and look forward to diving in.
On Netflix, we loved The Breakthrough and A Nearly Normal Family for Swedish shows, and we’ve been breaking up a lot of this seriousness with lighter fare like Rita, Running Point, and Son of a Critch.
Process Notes: A Body at the Fair and Ruby Finch Pictures
I have excellent news: in March I finally jumped back into writing my novel, which stalled out somewhere around the end of the year with teaching and conference speaking and the kids home from university squeezing writing out of my regular schedule.
I re-read the 12,000 words I had, and I found myself pleasantly surprised by this work-in-progress. It remained as fun as I remembered. I felt a little creaky getting back into the swing, but now I’m in a good flow and trying to get words on the page almost every day. Slow progress is better than no progress at all.
And I’m trying to write one scene of Jamesy Harper’s Big Break as a screenplay every day as well. I’m about a third of the way through this adaptation, and that’s been just as fun as the novel. I’d love to start on my pilot TV episode of Post Civ, but I’m learning that three big writing projects on the go (in addition to freelance articles, plus this newsletter, my blog, podcast, and other creative projects like online classes) is one too many. I’ve decided to finish the screenplay first and then re-evaluate.
The Best Cats in the Universe: Ted & Pippin
I’m so happy that Pippin is finished his neuter surgery. He did well (what a good boy!) at the vet all day, but I felt such relief when we got the call that he could come home. He healed up like it was no big deal, and was back to terrorising his brother almost immediately.
Now that he’s nearly seven months old, Pippin’s fur has changed so he looks even more like a tabby. As a result, when we glance over, it’s easy to confuse Pip with Ted (even though Ted is significantly heavier and bigger than Pip).
Pippin continues to carry cat toys all over the house in his mouth and drop them in our bed while we’re sleeping. He loves his cat bed on the couch and still sleeps in the weirdest, non-cat-like positions. And he has a world class “monkey tail” - what we call it when he walks with his tail curled over onto his back like in the last photo. (Side note: I really need to take more pictures of Ted as these are all of Pippin! Whoopsies!)
Libraries forever,
Julianne and Ruby Finch Books