Consider this:

Resolutions, Redux.

Note: This Newsy! is an edited version of my very first issue. Enjoy! (And if you’ve already read it, you’ve just saved yourself a few extra minutes to do … something else!)

Since launching Newsy!, some curious folks have asked what inspired me to start writing Ideas + Recipes + Books And More! By way of any answer, I’ve decided to share a version of the very first Newsy! I created back in May. It was a beta issue of sorts and thus, very few people saw it.  (If you were one of the few, you can stop reading. Right now.) But it does explain how I got here from there. And in this case, “there” is (or was) January 1^st, 2016. That’s the day I wrote myself this note:

In 2016 I will:

1. Be bold
2. Be generous
3. Find my voice

(Actually, I made four resolutions. Number four: begin again, again. My parenting mantra. A topic for another day.)

On this particular May morning, I was thinking about how I’d managed to achieve exactly none of my resolutions as I sat cross-legged in mindfulness meditation. (Meditation is another journey I’ve (re)embarked on, thanks in part to hearing Jack Kornfield’s conversation with Kelly McGonigal at City Arts and Lectures and my sister sending me a link to, plus her rave review of, www.Headspace.com.) Anyway, I was comfortably seated on my purple meditation pillow, focusing on my breath, when it hit me: Maybe I can achieve all three of my goals at once by creating a newsletter-type-of-thingy, some sort of friendly, regular(ish) update where I can share thoughts, ideas, book reviews (I read a lot), recipes (I cook a lot) and, who knows, maybe even a funny pet video or 30 (I record my dog and cat, a lot) – really, anything I think you might enjoy or even find helpful.

Of course, by now I’d completely lost track of counting ten breaths in a row and was lost somewhere around breath number 127. I tried to resettle my mind, but it was too late. I had stopped non-judgmentally watching as my thoughts floated by like clouds scudding across a blue sky. Worse still, with ninja-like stealth, my critical conscious mind was starting to sabotage my creative subconscious: You’re going to start a newsletter thingy? That’s dumb. You don’t have anything interesting to say. No one will want to read your random emails. Besides, 2016 is half way done. You should wait until January 1^st 2017. Or wait until never. How about never?

But just as my inner critic was about to KO my creative impulse, a tiny question bubbled up: Willow, what’s stopping you from chipping away at the old resolutions starting T-O-D-A-Y?

The silence of the following moments, as I tried to come up with a single good reason not to get my A into G, was deafening. And then I heard something else:

Kapow. Bam. Splat. The sound of my inner critic getting walloped.

Sweet.

So now, just a few hours later, I’m unexpectedly writing this essay and this disclaimer: Everything you see and read here (format! Schedule! Content! Title! Everything) is subject to change. Think of this newsletter thingy as an experiment, an excursion, an exercise, an expression. Without doubt, it’s a work in progress. Because if I’ve learned anything in my 20+ years as a writer, it’s this:

1. I can’t get it right until I’ve got it written.
2. I’ve never met a deadline I haven’t met.

Thanks for reading (and, if you’re so inspired, sharing). Now I’ve gotta’ go. I’ve got a deadline to meet.

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Also from the very first Newsy!: a recipe for delicious Roasted Sweet Potato & Coconut Soup, plus a review of Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie.