Photo by Joey Genovese on Unsplash
“Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive.” ~Amy Hempel
Hello my friends,
I’m up before the rest of the household this Christmas Eve. It’s dark, still, and snowing, and I’m brewing the strongest possible pot of coffee that will get me through the day without landing me in the ER with heart palpitations. Though it’s been a(nother) sad and harrowing year for our world, I hope you have managed to find some lightness, too. I hope you have found some things to delight in. Last March, my sweet granddaughter, Lucia, came into the world six weeks early. I saw the Northern Lights for the first time. I took wonderful, inspiring workshops with Sabrina Orah Mark and Sara Lippmann, and wrote some stories I’m proud of. It’s been a year filled with good books and travel and tender, sustaining love. I’m grateful for all of it.
One book in particular I’ve delighted in this year in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig:
“The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is for anyone who enjoys a shift in perspective, pondering the ineffable feelings that make up our lives. With a gorgeous package and beautiful illustrations throughout, this is the perfect gift for creatives, word nerds, and human beings everywhere.”
One of my favorite words in the book is “heartspur.”
“n. an unexpected surge of emotion in response to a seemingly innocuous trigger—the distinctive squeal of a rusty fence, a key change in an old pop song, the hint of a certain perfume—which feels all the more intense because you can’t quite pin it down.
From heart + spur, a spike on a heel that urges a horse to move forward.”
I know it’s sappy and sentimental, but the song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a heartspur for me. I spent several Christmases living as an ex-pat in Australia. It was beautiful, but I missed my family and friends back in America. I missed Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie. I missed snow. The song pierced my tender, homesick heart in those years and still brings back such melancholy in me whenever I hear it now.
(By the way, here’s a bit about the science of why music is so nostalgic.)
YOUR PROMPT
Today, let’s wear our hearts on the page.