Sunday Brunch

On Cults, Classics and Curiosity...

Hello lovelies,

This week has been all about research, reading and wild inner ramblings. My Trello topic list for Substack is growing daily, and with that the ADD tendency to tackle them all at once….

I thought to pick them linked thematically, but as my life and brain are more of a patchwork it is just a “first come, first serve” approach. Whichever topic pushes its way to the front first, is the one I write about. Which means this week is about dogs (snippet), woolly jumpers (both essay and journal), and the search for a simple life (column).

I couldn’t get the short story done in time, so I owe you that for next week’s newsletter. Which will also include the first Save It For Therapy. Finally!

I am also still looking or a (more steady) job to supplement the income I derive from freelance writing, which at the moment is slim pickings. This means browsing vacancies, posting on linked in, sending applications, and staring into blank space trying to identify publications to pitch to. Another Trello board is dedicated to very intricate world building for a fiction novel I am working on. Another is full of “projects” like “how to become a therapist” (as fast as possible but no shortcuts) or “clean up” which applies to everything from thousands of photos to sort or delete to a dozen pairs of summer shoes to clean and store.

After a month of our “on leash” life I already feel an itch. Like my dogs, I have gotten too used to roaming free, it becomes harder and harder to adapt to the suburbs each time we are back. My dad mentioned Avignon recently, when we were discussing the Santons for their nativity village (I am looking forward to Christmas!). Avignon is where I earned the nickname “La Tzigane Anglaise”. The English Gipsy. Maybe I am just a rambling rose. Or at least a wild one*…

Have a good one :-)

XXL

*PS I take my life advice this week from Dolly Parton

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

IT’S A BIT CULTISH

This week I went down two rabbit holes. Why are so many modern day spiritual gurus and pseudo psychotherapists (and hypnotists, time travellers) drawn to Costa Rica? The only reason I could think of to visit Costa Rica is the small island around there somewhere that has swimming pigs.

Retreats or cults, the lines seem to be getting increasingly more blurry. It is on the shelve for a deep dive, to kick off the new “Save it for Therapy” next week.

Along the way I found this podcast. It feels a bit flimsy and sounds a tad dismissive to me sometimes, but I am very curious to hear what you think. Here is Sounds Like a Cult on Teal Swan. It also lead me to the documentary The Deep End, which questions wether anyone should listen to Ms Swan at all…

SEX AND SO ON

I still am not sure if the new sex positive feminist wave of books and movies is a much needed antidote to neo-conservatism and tradwifery, or indicative of something else. But it does seem worth exploring, when there has been Halina Reijn’s BabyGirl, a remake of Emmanuelle, and the launch of Gillian Anderson’s book “Want” all just in a few weeks. For Babygirl we still need to wait a while, Emmanuelle is in the cinema now.

Want can be ordered here:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/want-9781526657893/