Dear Reader,
An idea came to me in the shower the other day. It’s where I get many of my best ideas. Under the hot water where no phones, dogs, or humans can distract me. The scalding heat calms my body, and I sit and think, looking for my next idea. On this occasion, I was thinking about my newsletter.
This newsletter, Snail Mail, has been around for quite some time. If you are reading this in your inbox, it’s because you signed up for Life in Slow Motion’s newsletter at one point or another. In the past, I sent it out on a monthly, or at least semi-regularly basis, and it included links to resources I encountered over the previous weeks. Book recommendations. Articles I had written. Any links I thought would be helpful for people dealing with chronic illness or pain.
Over time, I stopped writing because I stopped having links to share. I would sit down to write my newsletter and not have much to say. So, a few months ago I tried to revamp it. I called my new newsletter “Tools for Soul and Body Care” and thought that topic would compel me to write. I have lots to say about this, I thought. And I do. But when I sat down to write the second edition, it didn’t feel right.
Last month I joined a writing group called Hope*Writers. My first traditionally published book comes out in May, and I joined because I need help and motivation as I prepare for its release. Joining this group has helped me in a number of ways. Perhaps most importantly, it has brought me back to a basic question.
Who is my reader?
When I first started writing my blog, Life in Slow Motion, I was processing my own experience of life with chronic pain. I called it Life in Slow Motion because that is how I felt. It seemed that everyone else was progressing through life normally, and I was not. I was stuck.
People resonated with my early posts. I started the blog anonymously, and I started the blog for me. For my healing. For my growth. Because the blog was for me and because the people reading it didn’t know me, I wrote honestly. Something about my honesty was helpful and healing not only to me but to other people as well.
My blog is different these days. I no longer write for me but for you. I don’t share as personally or in the same way. And that’s ok. But today I am reminded of who I wrote for in the first place. I’m also reminded that people found my writing helpful mostly because it helped them feel less alone.
When I first started writing, I wrote for people (myself included) living life in the slow lane. People who, for one reason or another, felt stuck on the side lines. People with chronic pain and illness. People with depression, anxiety, and other mental health concerns. People facing limitations and struggles of various kinds that forced them to go slower than most of the people around them.
All this came back to me in the shower yesterday. I remembered my original newsletter, Snail Mail, and the new tagline I needed came to me: Letters from Life in Slow Motion.
Letters. That’s the key word. I don’t have ten links to share with you each week or even each month. I don’t have many of my own articles to point you towards any more. I don’t stay up on the pain science like I used to, or follow a million people so I can direct you to the best new stories as they come.
But, I can write you a letter on life in the slow lane that may help you feel a little bit less alone.
I hope it feels kind of like a letter you might get in your mailbox. A letter from a friend, sharing about life and what I’m thinking about and what my dogs are doing and the great book I read last week. A letter about what I’m up to, where you can find me online, and how my book is coming along.
Life has been busy these days. But like life always is for me, it has also been slow. I still live life in the slow lane, even though I don’t talk about it as much any more. I rest a lot, say no a lot, stay home a lot, and most days are not very exciting. Maybe you can relate. If so, I hope you will stick around. If not, and this isn’t the newsletter you thought you signed up for, no hard feelings if you choose to use the unsubscribe button below.
More on life in the slow lane next time and until then take care.
Warmly,
Esther
In the meantime, tell your friends!