Hello!
Welcome to the second edition of Sunday Glimmers - a round up of things that have inspired me, brought joy or a glimmer of hope this week (I have added in joy since last week, because, well JOY!)
Sunday Glimmers is something a little extra from me for paid subscribers. Though I hope everyone will take the opportunity to have a read of all of it, at least once, with the ‘free post’ offer thingy.
Each Sunday, I’ll share a few of my glimmers - the things that have got me through the week and helped me look at life the way life should be looked at, I guess.
These might be conversations, other Substack posts, overheard pearls of wisdom, a memory, a good book….who knows.
And of course I would LOVE it if you shared your own glimmers in the comments.
I’d really like to know if you value this as a paid subscriber? Does it feel like something you’ll get value from? That’s really important for me to know. Do say.
Podcasts & People
I’ve realised that the three (main) types of pods I enjoy are:
Those on writing - so any that involve author interviews and naval gazing on the process of writing in general.
Slice of life interviews - those with a memoir style I suppose, in which the interviewee is reflecting on life and its lessons - My (current) faves are Young Again, The Adam Buxton Podcast, How to Fail….
And fiction podcasts - My faves are The NewYorker Fiction, The Writer’s Voice (From the New Yorker) and The Paris Review.
So, from the above mini list - this week I enjoyed listening to - and was given a kick up the ass by….
Melinda French Gates on Kirtsy Young’s Young Again.
I didn’t know lots about Melinda apart from the obvious (she’d been married to Bill Gates) so I went into this one thinking it would be a meander with Melinda through all of her philanthropic endeavors. That she’d be telling us about the state of the world and how she and her foundation were helping - and what the rest of us ought to be doing.
Not at all. Kirsty Young guided Melinda to paint a vivid picture of a woman who:
Despite her vast wealth has a grip on reality - and the depths of reality at that.
A woman who cares about the plight of women in general and has a deep understanding of all the ways women are disadvantaged, all over the world.
More than the understanding itself - it’s clear she has a deep need to understand and know as much as she can in order to help drive change - that quest for understanding and knowledge is inspiring.
She talks of all the noise in the world and how the heck we ficure out what matters to us and what it is that we have to offer, what it is that we want to do (this actually really chimed with me about the Substack space) but she said some great words on ‘honing in on your values, really knowing what they are so that you don’t get off track’. That was useful for me right now.
So were her words on pivoting, parenting and figuring out how bloody valuable we, as women, ARE!
Shout outs from other Substackers
This week the little well of hope was definitely topped up by a couple of my fellow Substackers. I was so thrilled to be mentioned and shared by
and . The kindness and cheerleading here is the bomb - and let me tell you, both David and Mansi have so much to offer. David’s pearls on writing for a living and Mansi’s calming words on so many subjects related to her theme of Unwind, are all uplifting and super valuable.A bike ride with my youngest child (with my phone at the bottom of a rucksack)
Easter Monday was my biggest glimmer day of the week. I can look back now and know it was so good because I was so in the moment.
I had a gorgeous one-on-one day with my younger child, riding bikes and getting cake. There was no plan, no time restriction, nothing but the two of us in the moment.
We fed a little Robin that visited our table, we laughed and we hugged a lot. You don’t get much more of a glimmer than when your kid keeps stopping their bike to hug you and say how much they love you - that’s what happens when you’re in the moment I guess. I need to remember that.
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