It is a start!
Hello there! (Finally)
January - the month of new beginnings. A month that is very special to me. The days are really cold, most of them really gloomy with no sunshine. For someone like me who likes the sunshine, the wintry days tend to be difficult. It seems like a strange time to mark the start of something new. Spring perhaps would have been a better time but then it is what it is. And there is no better time than now to start something new. So I am glad that I am finally writing this!
Why this, why now
I have liked writing since I was 9. When I was introduced to the world of blogging, I jumped right in. There have been weeks or even months when I have written daily. But in the last few years writing has taken a back seat. SEO and algorithms don’t seem be my things. I like telling stories(IYKYK), writing letters and writing just because I want to. And that is why I decided to start this newsletter. Start I did, but it took me a complete year to post this first post!
It all started with the idea of starting something new on my 30th birthday. I hadn’t written for a while but I knew that I had topics that I wanted to talk about, observations that I just wanted to share. But then I was struggling to figure out the format and what I wanted to write about. I did a lot of thinking and planning but I never seemed to be satisfied with the outcome. I wanted it to be perfect and so I procrastinated!
My 30th birthday came and went by. Well I did do something really nice for myself(that is perhaps a story for another day) but this newsletter was here with no post written. I don’t remember the number of times I changed what I wanted to call this newsletter. In the quest for it being perfect, I felt overwhelmed and didn’t post anything!
But a few days ago, when reading through the newsletters I subscribe to, I stumbled across this quote from James Clear’s newsletter:
The imperfect project you actually complete is worth more than the perfect project you never finish.
That quote stuck with me. I knew that it was what I was doing. I was trying for everything to be perfect and I didn’t write. That was perhaps the push that I needed! And so here I am writing this first post.
What will I be writing about?
I like the little things in life. I like being surrounded by nature and I like doing more of the things that make me happy! I love books and I believe that reading them and collecting them are two different hobbies! So my newsletter will be about all of the things that I like. About books and travel, about my adventures and misadventures and most importantly the lessons I have learned from them. I also plan to share quotes and poems from the books that I read. I hope that you will find something of value in it. My plan is to make this a weekly newsletter and I really hope that I can stick to this frequency. So I really hope that you subscribe.
January seems to have gone by pretty quickly. But it was good. I am grateful for all the people in my life who made my days better and for all the little things that have brought me joy.
You can find out what I am currently reading here.
I have been enjoying my commute to work and back a little more lately. It is because of the amazing sunrises and sunsets that I get to see on days when it isn’t cloudy or rainy. The gorgeous sky and the warmth of the sun hits a little different when you are braving the cold. So I’m leaving you with a couple of picture that I have clicked and a link to a poem by Mary Oliver called ‘Why I wake early’ which really inspires me to wake up in the morning.
So what made you happy recently?
Happy to know you are on substack :)
The second picture reminds me of on the way back from Hogsmeade to castle grounds, looking forward 🫶