You're Doing Great!*

I say to myself and you

Cat gouache in “gothic” style by Louis Wain, ca. 1925–1939, of the Welcome Collection (free museum in London), via Public Domain Review

This is Emily Writes Back, a newsletter for brilliant people (you), by Emily Sanders Hopkins.

My friend Megan Shull, author of some of my favorite books (even though they are for teens), which I have read and reread and reread, assured me once that someday, when I least expect it, I will get that push of inspiration, that idea, confidence, whatever, to finish my book. And I think I got that last night, while watching this video.

Which is fortunate, since I promised a few people to give them my first draft this month.

You may remember from reading a past letter from me that I love to watch NDE (near-death experience) video testimonies from people whose hearts stopped and whose souls temporarily left their bodies and went on a journey that included (often) an encounter with the divine and a learning about how life really works and what it is for.

Spoiler alert: life, according to these near-death people, is for learning to be loving and kind and hopeful, and for experiencing suffering and learning to be powerful through the control and proper directing of our own thoughts, words, and deeds, but maybe most especially our thoughts, since those have such an immense impact on our words and deeds and even on other people, whether we speak or act on our thoughts or not!

Phew.

Anyway, next time you get a letter from me, I will have completed my first draft and given it to my Project Lab peeps. I think I’ll wait until I have a second draft to share it with Megan and my shortlist of writer-readers. (Melanie, Ange, Shannon, Jason, Lizzie, you know who you are!)

I will leave you with a series of haiku:

Worlds Inside

Black cat on table:
She is a breathing knick-knack
hiding burbling spring.

A husband who lifts
weights, spirits, reluctant cats:
protein drink mustach.

Roller dolly cam
slides by sky, trees, yards, houses--
civilized era. 

Every last woman
dreams of walking into surf
past chance of footing.

Awakening. 

But for now, the beach!
Striped ball. Sky sings us, "Lie back."
Shells surround our towels. 

Feel the planet spin
cluttered with remnants of all
the creatures who ever lived. 

Love,

Emily

* “You’re Doing Great” is my favorite (erstwhile) Substack publication title. It’s by funny and smart New Yorker cartoonist Sophie Warren, but she hasn’t added to it in two years. She’s too busy teaching college cartooning classes and writing books, I think.