NOVEMBER | News, views & a few things you don't want to miss (including our monthly "living in relationship")

Do you feel it? The quieting, the pull toward winter? I'm giving in, reading novels, drinking tea, going to ground. Check out the latest news, then join me in coming into alignment with the season.

I often make fun of the publishing industry, it’s seasonal quirkiness (during the summer, the entire industry takes Friday afternoons off. My agent and I send each other a snarky email at noon: time for margaritas!) but, right now, as I curl on the sofa with a blanket and book, I’m grateful nothing happens between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I have no more upward propulsion. I feel like a sprinter at the end of a race, panting and bending over my knees, walking it off as I try to catch my breath.

I’m in the descent.

If you are, too, and you’re a paid subscriber, lean into the living in relationship section below. Let the questions guide you to find your seasonal flow.

A few must-know notes and a beautiful message from my husband Andrew before I stick my nose back in my book:

Writing in the woods… with me… and author Steph Jagger: Craving a few days to get words on the page while in a supportive community that supports your writing? If so, please join us in January. Details here.

Brunch with me…and Dani Shapiro… and Steph Jagger: following the retreat, New York Times best-selling author Dani Shapiro will be joining us for a brunch and book talk at a top secret location in Asheville (you’ll get the details when you sign up). And Steph Jagger will be joing us. So if you’re a writer or reader, this is a chance to hang out with a bunch of authors and get inspired.

HappyWomenDinners with Dani Shapiro

Date: Sunday, January 21, 2024

Time: 11:30am - 2:00pm Eastern Time

Place: Asheville, NC

Cost: $125 registration includes brunch and a signed copy of Signal Fires

RSVP to Jill@HappyWomenDinners.com.

I’ll leave you, on this Thanksgiving week, with an excerpt from the gorgeous and thoughtful newsletter Andrew wrote this morning for Herbiary.

Recently I listened to an episode of the podcast Hidden Brain that was titled, "Life After Loss." In the episode the host interviews a resilience researcher named Lucy Hone who discusses how her own loss led her to further her research. You can listen to the podcast here.  

This is Andrew writing to you this week. The reason this episode interested me is because I volunteer with a group that helps people who are in crisis, often after a loss or a death. To some of you, I can understand how this may sound like incredibly depressing work. Sometimes, it can be. But there are also so many beautiful moments that I've experienced: someone saying goodbye to their partner of 55 years and telling her how much they loved her or fondly remembering how much of a jokester the deceased was and regaling about times they had spent together.  

Which brings me back to Lucy Hone and the work that she has done on bereavement research. Her professors at UPenn developed a resilience training for the US Army for over a million soldiers.  In the training, they use the phrase "Hunt the Good Stuff" or #HTGS.  

Dealing with a loss or trauma can be extremely difficult. This is in no way trying to simplify what can often be a complex task that someone is going through as different people grieve and recover in different ways. But as discussed in the Hidden Brain episode, part of the recovery is allowing yourself to experience joy when it comes into your life.  Not hiding from or being ashamed of enjoying life while still going through the grieving process. Hunting The Good Stuff, or allowing yourself to laugh and love while figuring out the next chapter of your life.

This feels like sage advice for the moment we are in right now. At a time when a new conflict in the Middle East rips open old wounds and sparks so much hate speech here in the United States, it can sometimes feel hard to find joy when so much of the world feels like it's burning.  

But hopefully that's what we can do this week.  We can Hunt The Good Stuff as we sit down and offer thanks for everything that we are grateful for in our lives.

Wishing you happy hunting and deep gratitude this Thanksgiving week—

xx Maia

P.S. Need an addictive read? I just finished What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez and am now rereading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros so I can jump into the sequel. Highly recommend all!

P.P.S. Continue on for your Living in Relationship journaling prompts!