This month, I’m thinking about healing. I took a six-week Climate Wayfinding course through a community centre in Vancouver this past spring, and we touched on concepts like deep joy and authentic power in our weekly discussions. We also returned, again and again, to the word healing. For ourselves and for our ailing planet.
Healing makes me think of the many hours I’ve spent in therapy, both individual and in groups. To heal is a brave act. It’s vulnerable. It’s honest. It requires us to show up, as our authentic selves, and to keep showing up even when it hurts (maybe especially when it hurts). And healing does hurt. Until one day, you realise the pain has faded, and now you have a scar to remember what that healing process felt like.
In writing and in life, I’m realising how many intersections I have with other people. No one works or lives alone. We need each other. And this needing feels vulnerable and raw, but also necessary and beautiful. I’m looking for ways that healing can flow through me and into my networks. I want to thrive, to enjoy my daily experiences here on earth, to notice the areas and people that can become so familiar that I fail to appreciate them. In what ways are you seeing healing in your life right now?
One-Word Feeling Check-In
How are you feeling right now, in one word? I’m feeling rejuvenated. I used to hate the summer, because I felt so untethered without a predictable routine to rely on when the kids were not in school. But since I’ve been practicing better rhythm and rest, and no longer subscribing to our culture’s abusive belief that rest must be earned after exhausting ourselves with work, I know how to work and then rest with zero guilt. And in the summer, it’s lovely to be intentional about healing and restoring my energy by crafting a more relaxed pace.
How are you feeling?
Book Corner
This month, I read two darkly comic novels and one historical war romance to balance things out. Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson is a murder mystery in reverse. As a writer myself, I found this story about a wife who murders her husband to ensure he doesn’t publish a novel revealing their past secrets quite fun.
The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons is set in London during the blitz and I loved the relationship between the widow and the teenage girl who flees Germany as they run a book club together. It felt comforting to immerse myself in their world.
After The Favourites, I wanted to read Layne Fargo’s other novels. I started with Temper, about an actress slowly going mad during rehearsals for a play, and then I read They Never Learn, where a female professor murders a series of horrible male students and faculty members who prey on women. I have a soft spot for dark academia and this book was enjoyable.
Write Your Novel or Memoir Online Class
I’m taking registrations now for my next Write Your Novel or Memoir class beginning October 19, 2025! If you’ve always longed to write a novel or a memoir and you want to do this work in a supportive and flexible literary community online, please come and join us. More info is on my Classes page and please email me if you have questions or would like to sign up!
Intuitive Courage Podcast
Episode 14 is called Joy at the End of the World. It’s about the Climate Wayfinding class I took this spring, and the workshop session I’m developing for teachers’ conferences and libraries on what we can do with our big feelings about the unfolding climate crisis. For a long time, I felt despair and nothing resembling hope in this arena, but now I’m grateful to be on a path to imagining a better, fairer, more sustainable world for everyone to live in.
Please have a listen on July 21st. What are some ways that you cultivate deep joy or connect to your authentic power?
Nurture Starts with You Online Class
The next Nurture Starts with You online class begins September 2nd and I really hope you’ll join us! Info is on my website under Classes. You deserve to make yourself a higher priority in life. When we nurture ourselves first, we can give care to others out of abundance, not out of a sense of resentment and lack.
Process Notes
Since March, I’ve been trying to work on my mystery novel A Body at the Fair, but in reality I’ve mostly been avoiding it. And I wasn’t sure why. I had ideas sparking for a new series of memoirs, based on my writing tagline of Author, Innovator, Nurturer, but I resisted this idea because I already have a work in progress.
But it wouldn’t leave me alone, so I opened three separate documents and brainstormed topics for each of those books. I enjoyed that process so much that when I had an essential framework for each memoir, a couple of fresh ideas dropped into my brain for my novel.
I’m amazed at how the creative process functions. I’ve been writing for decades, but allowing space for projects to bloom and grow, and then following those sparks wherever they lead, feels like magic every single time. I’m writing again, nearly every day, and feeling excited once again about this story.
TV Recs
We suddenly found ourselves with free Apple TV+ for two months when I redeemed an Apple gift card, so we’ve been enjoying a deep dive into several new shows. Ava came home for a brief visit, and we watched Dept. Q on Netflix with her, and this Edinburgh crime show starring Matthew Goode did not disappoint. The writing is razor sharp, along with the performances, and the mystery had me guessing right up to the end.
Over on Apple TV+, we watched The Studio with William when he was home on his off-weeks for his summer job, and while I usually love anything about the process of filmmaking, this show is something special. It’s funny and biting and satirical and technically challenging and gorgeous to watch. It’s a treat.
And so is Your Friends & Neighbours. For me, it’s been a balm to our current North American political nightmare landscape. Watching Jon Hamm, a rich asshole on the skids who steals from other rich assholes he knows, has been medicine for my soul. It’s clever and entertaining and hilarious. I love Jon Hamm and I love this show.
The Best Cats on the Planet: Ted & Pip
We’re well into summer lounging season here, for me and for the cats, and Pip is a world class lounger. Both Ted and Pippin spend several hours at a time on our front deck, laying on chairs or sitting on the table. They chase bugs and attempt to intimidate birds who sing in the nearby trees.
At ten months old, Pip is in quite a naughty stage, where he makes mischief at all hours of the day and night, often keeping us awake with his antics. But he makes us laugh as often as he frustrates us, which is a good thing. And on hot summer afternoons, just watching him sleep makes me feel more relaxed.
From our house to yours, Teddy and Pip wish you a wonderful and rejuvenating July.
Libraries forever,
Julianne and Ruby Finch Books