Sweet friends, hi!

Here we are on a typical Monday. I just finished Margaret's feeding, and now I am sitting down to work for a couple hours until lunch.

Do you ever feel under pressure to be creative? I have these limited windows of time to seize before my brain gets foggy, and sometimes it feels like someone is yelling at me: be creative, GO! I shut down, or if I'm lucky, I push through.

Here are some things that have been on my mind lately:

I had a hard time reliving Sept 11 through my news and Instagram feeds this weekend, but this article that I read, about students making poems from the lead NY Times article published that day, was really moving.

Speaking of poetry, I loved this idea that "joy is not made to be a crumb." Because sometimes I have a hard time admitting happiness.

On the topic of crumbs... my friend Vera moved to Italy, which means that I can now only pick up crumbs of her baked goods through photos and texts. She used to put them on my doorstep. She made a cake I wish I could eat right now.

What TV series are you watching? I am fresh out of shows, but I have heard really good things about The Chair. Have you seen it? I loooooooove Sandra Oh. (p.s. You can reply to this email and we will look at all of your recommendations :)

I also just really want to have a huge pizza party with everyone I know... maybe one day!

Last week on Instagram, I asked people to describe this feeling. The responses blew me away. Here are a few:

• "like running into your best friend at the grocery store over and over"
• "a kettle at full boil and soft morning light at the foot of your bed all at once"
• "like finding surprise money in your pocket"
• "like a field of fireflies, or the northern lights, but if they were only shining on us"

Also last week, I wrote about the pain of others.

And, in case you need one, a hand to hold.

Lots of love,

Carissa xo