Days Like This Monthly Newsletter September 23 – Oh No! Not More September Fresh Starts and New Beginnings…

First of all, an apology – your inbox really doesn’t need me in it when it’s already filled with lots of other updates about new things starting, old things restarting, dates for your diary, over-enthusiastic people telling you about meetings and events and things to fill your evenings with from now to Christmas… but… I do have a few new things to tell you about…

Last week, I had a bit of a mood about September. I wrote about my terrible ennui in the last days of August and how I wanted to change everything about my life.

“September is coming at me thick and fast with its fancy talk of fresh starts and new beginnings and I feel strangely disconnected from it. I have no exciting plans or projects. I am not itching to get started on anything because I alone will have to start it and is likely to be thwarted by the demands of others…” I said.

Well, a couple of blue skies and ‘a lot of children exiting the house from under my feet to return to education where they belong’ later and I do have some exciting (well that’s up to you to decide) plans to tell you about. At the risk of being a cliché and bowing to pressure to refresh myself, my back-to-school enthusiasm has now officially kicked in and finding I had the house all to myself for the first time in months last Friday afternoon, I sat soaking up the silence and realised maybe it is up to me alone to start new things. However, I would also like you to join me!

New Things…

So, here they are. I am hoping these don’t make me sound like I am sad and lonely. Far from it. I hugely enjoy my own company (all those books to get through) but I am conscious that because of the writing I do and what I share, I meet a lot of people who are muddling through life same as me. I listen to you and I think many of you would benefit from meeting and talking to each other.

• Getting Some Monday Air (Mondays 7pm starting asap)

For some reason on Mondays, I tend to miss getting my daily dose of fresh air. Things can come at you from all directions on a Monday and suddenly it’s Tuesday. And so, I am planning to walk for an hour every Monday evening at 7pm, rain or shine. If you would like to walk with me to get some Monday air and can get to BT5 (that’s a postcode), I’d love to have you as a companion. Just get in touch (contact@deborahsloan.co.uk or via any other contact method you have for me) and we’ll arrange a date.

• How Do We Live Well? (Thursday 12 October at 7.30pm)

Most of the conversations I have with people are about how we are living today and the various angsts we have. Are we living well? Are we living good lives? Are we even living? Never mind life after death, what about life before death? When it comes to our parenting, our faith, our values, our relationships, our roles, our contribution to society, our happiness, our impact, often we feel that we are not quite hitting the mark.

Therefore, one Thursday evening a month (7.30pm to 9pm), I would love to gather people together who want to unpick living well. I will provide the tea and cake and a topic to start the conversation…

The first ‘How Do We Live Well?’ will be on Thursday 12 October (BT5 location again sorry but I am open to other venues), and the conversation starter will be “Tell us what you do on Sundays?”.

Again, please contact me if you’d like to come along…

• Autumn Pop-Up Book Club (Thursday 26 October at 7.30pm)

This time, the book for the Autumn Pop-Up Book Club is Anne Tyler’s French Braid. We will talk about ‘selfishness’, guilt and cats and how Anne Tyler is still living and writing well at 81.

At the risk of repeating myself, can you just let me know somehow if you’d like to come along?

So, what have I been writing about?

Well seeing as I was incredibly late sending out my August newsletter just two weeks ago, I only have two pieces to share with you this month.

I Want To Change My Clothes, My Hair, My Face (as mentioned earlier).

and

Honey, I Can’t Stand The Kids…

How is my reading going?

You will be glad to hear I have made it through my August into September pile of books and I have now selected my pile for the rest of September. It may or may not be ambitious (time will tell). Here it is…

What am I enjoying?

Something to watch…

This is one of the most unusual things I have ever watched. It’s a short documentary where the filmmaker discusses her grandmother’s extensive collection of salt and pepper shakers. It’s about memories and relationships and the importance of having something that different generations can talk about. It’s called “A Grandmother’s Salt and Pepper Shakers Take on a New Life”. It’s also on YouTube if The New Yorker link doesn’t work.

Something to listen to…

Recently, as I thought about September and the chance to start new things, I thought about whose life interests me, who would I like to be when I grow up and I just couldn’t decide between Judith Chalmers (if I’m going to do all this travelling, it would be great to get paid to talk about it) or Pam Ayres (getting both the chance to write and also read it out loud to an audience would be ideal). Both are ladies I recall vividly from my childhood. Neither of them could be considered particularly cool, yet they are living well and doing exactly what they want to do in life. Both also smile a lot! These clips are not really something to listen to, more to both watch and listen to (observe how they come across) but here’s:

Judith who has been appointed Chief Smile Officer for the Heathrow Express:

Pam reading her ‘A September Song’ poem on Countdown (this is also for anyone who has a child heading off to university):

Something to read…

It’s still Anne Tyler’s French Braid (as recommended last month) and please do come along to the Pop-Up Book Club on 26 October.

May you have a wonderful September, full of fresh starts and new beginnings if you so choose! Do leave a comment if there is anything at all in this newsletter that has struck you.

Love, Deborah