A Nourishing Year

Plus: Books in the public domain, writing that moved me, etc.

Post-holiday Sunday, I didn’t feel like cooking. I subsisted on two leftover chicken fingers, a bit of cornbread, and a creme brûlée cookie baked by T. By evening, I was driven by a compelling need to have real food right away. The best (and quickest) that I could do was fried egg with bread chased down with calamansi juice and a fresh banana. My whole body felt instantly better, flooded with relief on a cellular level.

I don’t remember ever craving for “real,” whole food quite as much before. This may be what happens when a body hits middle-age: suddenly, it knows exactly what it wants. Suddenly, it has little tolerance for bullshit and wants not just what tastes good, but what is truly nourishing.

Nourish is my new favorite word.

Being nourished is not just about feeling satisfied. It’s being in balance, the feeling of being enough. When I feel nourished, it feels that I am enough in my body, in my mind, in my spirit, just as I am—no ifs, buts, or shoulds.

What Nourished Me Lately:

• Baked goodies made by T. who taps into his baker self during the coldest times of the year.

• A beautiful new mechanical keyboard and mouse.

• The Ostara oracle deck and journal from Juliet Diaz.

• Holiday gifts from family and friends:

  • a painting of one of my favorite books (via Carolin Wood)

  • shearling slippers (incredibly luxurious and warm)

  • handmade mini-bunny doll (which I think I might fashion into a brooch!)

  • fleece-lined helmet liner for winter bike rides

What I’ve Been Editing

Starting off the year with these projects:

• A much-anticipated second edition of a best-selling book for Rockpool Publishing

• A collection of essays on decolonizing family therapy co-authored by my cousin (!) to be published by Routledge

• An anthology of essays from women leaders and entrepreneurs

• A serialized Lit-RPG novel (reimagining of a storybook princess)

• A historical fantasy novel (reimagining of a literary villain)

Writing that moved me

• Pencil magazine: Everything from the writing to the art in the magazine are entirely created using graphite pencil and paper. It looks, feels, and reads amazing. Buy a copy.

• Off Assignment Journal’s Letters to a Stranger series: I spent an afternoon diving into these compelling epistolary essays (“missives to unshakeable passersby”). It’s impossible to read just one. I started with the latest one (Steven Tagle’s “To the First-time Porn Star”), then shed tears while reading this and this.

2025: Books in the Public Domain

this is from Center for the Study of the Public Domain

A Room of One’s Own (Virginia Woolf), the German version (only) of Letters to a Young Poet (Rainier Maria Rilke), A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway), The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner), and the parody book Is Sex Necessary? or Why You Feel the Way You Do (E.B. White and James Thurber). This last one is something I’m really curious to read!

Aside from books, early comic book versions of Popeye, Tarzan, and Herge’s Le Aventures de Tin-Tin are now free for us to use or include in our creative work. For cartoon characters, the Steamboat Willie-version of Mickey Mouse is officially public domain—not surprised if this will feature in new apparel and stationery brands.

For film, I’m interested to see how (or if) artists and filmmakers might use Luis Buñuel’s surrealist masterpiece, Un Chien Andalou (co-written with Salvador Dali). Singin’ in the Rain (the song, not the movie) and Happy Days are Here Again, are now also copyright-free.

For a more comprehensive list and nuanced explanation of what constitutes public domain, go to Center for the Study of the Public Domain or watch Steve Shives video.

Taking Small, Impactful Action

I’ve started a page compiling links and toolkits of the issues and campaigns which I actively support and have personally participated in. It’s a good option for those like me who can’t join those who are out in the streets (for immigration and other reasons) and want to do their part. Or for those who simply want to learn more about these campaigns and issues:

• Campaign against book banning

• The need for continued funding of libraries and parks

• Fulfillment of the Five Point Plan for Park Equity

• Call to end Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians and invasion of Lebanon

• Call to end the humanitarian crisis in Congo and Sudan (caused by exploitation and resource extraction by the US and other developed nations).

• Letters Against Isolation to connect with seniors who are in care facilities

These community actions are more oriented towards emailing, letter-writing, calling, and signature drives to appeal to representatives and relevant leadership. The focus will be on raising awareness and digital “noise” about these issues, to disrupt the established false narratives, and encourage people to think more critically and independently about the information they see in mainstream media and online. I plan to add more to this every two weeks.