62 Comments
Sep 8·edited Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you for holding space for this, so nice of you.

My piece, “Maple Trees Teach me to Grieve” here: https://trivarnahariharan.substack.com/p/maple-trees-teach-me-to-grieve?r=ed1vk

Why am I proud of it? It was around the time I was writing this that I started to see my pain as a gift. As something that isn’t separate from grace. It hit me, almost like an epiphany. That pain too, can be graceful. I was thinking of the softness of fallen autumn leaves, and felt how much they mirrored my grief. There was a freedom in their swaying, how they would sweep across the floor. That gave me insight into my own grief. A way of holding it more gently, lightly.

And this one too, “Imagine your Heart in your Beloved’s Hands”: https://trivarnahariharan.substack.com/p/imagine-your-heart-in-your-beloveds?r=ed1vk

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This was such a beautiful piece to read

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So beautiful, thank you for sharing

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you for this.

I wrote this last week after a weekend working at Islay book festival - on creativity:

https://fionamcderment.substack.com/p/wrapped-in-words-and-light

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I loved reading that, and have restacked it

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Lovely, and definitely a bit more than ‘here and there’.

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Sep 8·edited Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

One of the things I've been working on is to be available for my own medicine. Something about this post, "On Solitude" helped me receive myself in a new way. I think it had something to do with having professional photos of myself taken and including them for the first time in this post. Since I got a little older, I've been avoiding seeing myself, and in this post, I came to a reckoning of who I am now.

https://jenlighty.substack.com/p/on-solitude

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Wow, just wow, what an amazing piece of writing!

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Thank you, Esther! So grateful you took the time to tell me this.

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you for this!

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about the fear of the blank page/blank canvas, and offered a way to reframe that fear…a way to show up for our creative work despite the fear.

https://shinjinim.substack.com/p/the-fear-of-the-blank-canvas

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I loved this, thank you!

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you, I’m sharing a post I wrote in the spring on why I’ve found it hard to feel at home anywhere.

https://moorlifewriting.substack.com/p/writing-yourself-home

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This was such a moving read. I'm so glad that you're doing so well on your healing journey

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Thank you for giving such a space here.

Sometimes, as I assume it is for a lot of us, the days are more gray, dull and less inspirational - but the pressure to be creative is still hanging over me. One such day, I found Aurora:

https://open.substack.com/pub/childlikesoul/p/the-greatest-impact?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=38668a

Here I have written some words and shared a philosophical mindset I believe have made the greatest impact on me. I hope it can be of aid for more people out there.

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Thanks so much for this space to share my work.

In a world where we are constantly measuring stuff - from likes and subscribers to GDPs and financial gains, I wanted to share the idea that there is so much in this universe and our lives which is beyond the limiting ideas and finite definitions of success and happiness. The pleasure that I got from writing this piece 'Embracing the Immeasurable' is truly beyond measure. Do read and let me know your thoughts

https://open.substack.com/pub/minazansari/p/embracing-the-immeasurable?r=223s19&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Lovely piece!

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

I love this piece and it's got a video of some humpbacks bubblefeeding :)

https://open.substack.com/pub/brandonsaiz/p/spring-and-solitude?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=ogdzn

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This is about a deeply personal incident during a family discussion over breakfast. It felt so relevant to share when there is so much division and different perspectives on what is going on in our world.

I am proud to be questioning , researching and paying attention to the winds of change that are underway, because they are effecting us all.

How we build our resilience and capacity for life is my reason for Courageous Conversations here on substack .

Thanks for this opportunity to share

https://open.substack.com/pub/courageousconversation/p/copy-how-being-a-conspiracy-theorist?r=a9nqc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Thank you for sharing such a personal piece 🧡

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you Holly for creating this space <3 I am a professional travel writer, and so am always writing about 'other' places, and telling other people's stories. But there is one piece that is way more personal than any I've written before – and while I was apprehensive about bringing such a personal aspect to it, it's still a story about something so much bigger than me. It's about connection, culture and tradition – and memory, endangered birds, and rural Zimbabwe – and it's a story I'm particularly proud of:

https://narinaexelby.substack.com/p/between-the-rocks-and-hard-places

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Thank you for the opportunity to share our work here. I recently wrote this piece on what home means to me.

And I loved some of the experiences that folks shared in the comments

https://open.substack.com/pub/everydayknitter/p/finding-home?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3li7j

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Great piece Louise! Shared so more people can find it.

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That’s so kind, thank you.

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Much of my posts on matters to my father are incredibly vulnerable. I have the belief that the more people that hear dads story the more will hold him in their hearts and the longer we will have.

This post was about a time when we felt we had little hope.

https://letterstomyfather.substack.com/p/dear-dad-i-think-we-have-found-our

Thank you so much for this space. Xx

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

I wrote about how dancing helped me heal my grieving heart and rebuild my life after loss.

Thank you for this invitation to share our writing.

https://jackiedaly.substack.com/p/finding-grace-by-dancing-with-grief

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This is such a nice idea. Thank you! I wrote about the difficulty of making friends as a “crone.” I like it because it’s short but true (for me).

https://open.substack.com/pub/amillionstarsamillionwishes/p/croneliness?r=2a14bs&utm_medium=ios

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Sep 8·edited Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Always the case that the posts I care for most, put the most care into, are the least read. Goes for here as well as in print. One of the reasons why I record them here is to lower the barrier. Just listen! There's a lesson about sincerity and swinging for the fences herein. I try to leave hooks enough but risk laying it on thick.

https://swingthoughtsandroundabouts.substack.com/p/attente-i

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

What a great opportunity to share and read new pieces!

My piece I’d like more people to read is this piece I wrote on joy. Intentionally finding or creating moments of joy can boost our wellbeing and help us live better lives.

https://open.substack.com/pub/humansleading/p/creating-joy?r=msmog&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

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I just found this post while scrolling my Notes feed and someone had restacked it. What a beautiful idea.

The post I'd like to share is It'll Be OK - a post I wrote trying to harness some of the emotions I had as the parent of a child who spent so much time in hospital and in operating rooms. When I think back to that time, I can still feel it, the tears still spring forth, and I am back there holding my beautiful son wishing it could be over, that it would be the last time. He's 26 now and had more surgery last year, but it's better, and I hold onto that mantra "it'll be ok".

https://open.substack.com/pub/kayleidogyn/p/itll-be-ok?r=ixduh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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That brought tears to my eyes and pain to my heart, I felt for you so much. I'm so glad that it's better now, even though I'm sure you went through all the same emotions last year when he was an adult as you did every time when he was a child.

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Thank you, Esther - last year was so awful. When he was a child, I could go into that room, and this time, as an adult, I had to drop him at the hospital then wait at home. For the first time I wasn't in my routine in hospital of praying and waiting by his bed, and it spun me into this awful superstitious angst. It's a horrible, horrible thing. Thank you for reading and for your kind words

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That sounds so hard. Our babies never really stop being our babies do they, no matter how old they are?

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No, never. I still love to pull out his old photos, then look at him hulking about.

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Me too! It's so funny to remember how small they once were isn't it?

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It’s so weird, and they were so cute! I read ages ago (and seen it re-hashed a million times) that there is a last time that we pick them up, but we won’t know that’s the last time. Why am I crying???

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What a generous invitation, thank you. I'm going to go through this thread and read all the pieces that are shared here once I've written this.

This is my piece. I wrote it during a very difficult time earlier this year, when I was fully surrendering to depression, and doing my best to heal and learn from all I was experiencing, and had experienced on the way to it. It was inspired by Wintering, by Katherine May, a book I cannot recommend enough as we move towards winter, I'll be reading it for the third time as soon as it arrives for collection at my local library.

https://returntoyourtrees.substack.com/p/life-isnt-all-summer-sun-we-have

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

How lovely of you to open your doors, Charlene. Here's a little ode to the tender, healing power of verbal caresses -

https://lindastoll.substack.com/p/verbal-caresses

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This is such an amazing thing to do thank you so much for sharing this opportunity. I’d really like to share this article - because it’s something new I’m exploring

https://knowingselfknowingothers.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/145210704?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you for opening this.

Here’s a spell/incantation/wish/poem:

https://salrandolph.substack.com/p/this-paragraph-is-a-spell-for-you

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you for such a lovely opportunity, not only to share our own words but I've also enjoyed reading the posts others have shared and have found a few new people to follow as a result.

I have chosen to share this one as it is something that surprised me when I was writing it. I am much more comfortable writing fiction and poetry than I am sharing my own feelings and emotions, but on the day I wrote this it all just came spilling out and has inspired me to share more personal essays. It is a reflection on feeling empty and how emptiness may not always be a bad thing: https://leonamariewrites.substack.com/p/is-it-okay-to-be-empty?r=30cjc9

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I really enjoyed (and found it very cathartic) writing this post: https://alifemorecreative.substack.com/p/reflections-on-a-simple-past-05 It was very personal to me, and the first time I’ve shared so publicly my own struggles with mental health:

‘The last 15 years have brought a realisation that my relationship with the outdoors is essential and non-negotiable. It grounds me, and it roots me in something greater. These are all things I unknowingly felt and experienced as a child, but which were sapped out of me in adulthood.’

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Here’s a simple method for clarifying the underlying layers of a project. Bonus-- it’s analog. A lovely break from glowing screens!

https://open.substack.com/pub/72seasons/p/moveable-mind-maps?r=4r5a2&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you for this opportunity to share Charlene 💗

This is a post I wrote a couple of months ago. I am someone who has bouts of anxiety and I wrote about it and how meditating really helped with that ✨ https://open.substack.com/pub/mackenziecarose/p/the-space-between-the-breaths?r=4hbdb&utm_medium=ios

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Charlene! You made me want to stop…pause my endless online scrolling…it was a very refreshing moment and not a lot like this on the internet! Go girl! I will be out here reading and supporting you!

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Sep 8Liked by Charlene Storey

Hello Charlene! How lovely to discover a writer whose work I feel resonates with my own. (And thanks to Sal Randolph for posting about Haver and Sparrow in notes.)

My post "This Song: Red Red Wine" here: https://suemell.substack.com/p/this-song-red-red-wine

I stumbled into this memory while crossing an avenue on the East Side of Manhattan that had changed so much it was my body that registered where I was before my brain caught up. I've always held a soft spot for this song and its associations, and was surprised to discover I'm not the only one.

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I dabbled with posting flash fiction on here in response to the various genre days. This one was very meaningful to me, not because it is true, but because some day it MIGHT be true. https://accargillauthor.substack.com/p/thorny-thursday-the-box

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Thank you so much for creating space for this! I can't wait to discover more writers on this thread!

Here is the piece I want to share, "The (so-called) unimpressive life": https://souljournalingsessions.substack.com/p/the-so-called-unimpressive-life

This piece was hard for me to write and admit to, but it has been on my mind a lot as I go through significant changes in my life. I'm facing the fact that life didn't turn out the way I planned or expected when I was young (of course). And I think this is true for so many of us. We have to redefine what success is for us, what is an "impressive" life.

I hope this resonates with other writers out there!

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Thank you for the invitation Charlene. My selection takes me back to September last year, just a few letters into my Substack travels. What a year and adventure it has been. I realise that I have now in effect created a visual diary of the seasons here, and I’m looking forward to writing a second year of letters from the moss.

https://michelagriffith.substack.com/p/erratic

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Sep 9·edited Sep 9Liked by Charlene Storey

Thank you, Charlene, for giving us all the opportunity to share an old post to tease new readers. I'm going way back to my first post, "Jellyfish," https://suecauhape.substack.com/p/jelly-fish?utm_source=publication-search

which showed up on my FB Memories just the other day. I hope people will get something positive from it. And I also offer the whole smorgasbord of my Archive if they wish to peruse. (https://suecauhape.substack.com/archive.)

You are right about Substack. It's enriching, vibrant, intelligent, and most of all kind and safe. I've learned proper etiquette on this platform as well as improving my writing. It gives me comfortable place to go every afternoon after all the chores are done, to relax and visit my Substack friends. Thank you for being one of them.

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Thanks Charlene for this space. I'd like to share my first short story in English: https://hajeesun.substack.com/p/a-short-storythere-is-no-place-without

It's a story about hope and anticipation of a better life ahead. I had a great time writing this story.

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This thread is an Aladdin's cave. I'll make space to read a few that caught my eye at the weekend.This is one I wrote that felt important

It's called I want to be more ordinary

https://open.substack.com/pub/themoonshedtarot/p/i-want-to-be-more-ordinary?r=15g85d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Sep 9Liked by Charlene Storey

Several months ago I wrote thus poem about the paradox of motherhood-loving every little moment while also wanting to run from it all. I really loved it and wanted it to reach more people because I feel it really captures the inherent wildness of being a mother. https://open.substack.com/pub/rainesillito/p/it-is-raining-and-i-want-to-dissolve?r=4h8st&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Mine certainly has to be the announcement of serialising my great great great great grandmother’s memoirs— which is historically important for many reasons, first but not in the least because she was the first woman of her times in Bengal to write a memoir and it’s still taught at universities. Incidentally she learned to read and write in her own in hiding , stealing her sons’ school books. https://substack.com/@bukus/note/c-68319055?r=9brcu&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

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Morning Charlene, what a generous thing to do. Thank you so much.

I would love more folk to know about our Encouragement Sessions, free 1-hour mentoring calls that inject positivity and enthusiasm when it is needed most. It takes a lot of trust and courage to book in for a chat with a stranger but we’ve hosted over 200 calls and the lessons keep flowing from them. This post is a great introduction. I’d love for more folk to book themselves in.

https://open.substack.com/pub/encouragementmanifesto/p/lessons-in-encouragement?r=56lr6&utm_medium=ios

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I'd love for more people to check out my latest sketching adventure on Tiger Canyon Trail: https://www.bluemtnheatherarts.net/p/tiger-canyon-trail

I am proud of it because I did all the video editing myself and learned a whole bunch of stuff about filming and recording to put it together.

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Thank you for doing this. My first post. Being new requires people to take a chance on you and your writing, I'm very happy with it. Its about joining Substack in a way.

https://open.substack.com/pub/rickysrockinreviews/p/a-romantic-leaves-his-pen-and-paper?r=37bxhe&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=post%20viewer

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This is such a beautiful idea! I look forward to reading through the comments and finding new newsletters.

One post of mine that has gotten a little buried, but which says and shares so many of the things I want to say and share is this one about shame and high school and feeling different and Dorothy Sayers: https://rebeccadmartin.substack.com/p/strange-lady

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So happy I stumbled across your beautiful Substack today! I am looking forward to reading all these posts. I have only been here on Substack about a months so I don't have a huge archive yet, but this post about Simple Living in a Cost of Living Crisis seems to have resonated with my readers: https://katielivingsimply.substack.com/p/simple-living-in-a-cost-of-living

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Thank you for this and to everyone who is sharing. My choice is the first essay I wrote in my notebook, although it wasn't actually my first Substack post! Initially I was too scared to put out my honest and passionate views about education, but after showing a few friends they encouraged me that others felt the same and this needed to be said. After all, I can't ignore my own words: One voice can make a difference, but many voices together can make a change.

The post sums up why I write on Substack - there are many many problems with our education system but we can only make a better future for children if we keep sharing good ideas and standing up for what we know is right.

https://teachingagainstthetide.substack.com/p/everything-has-changed-yet-nothing

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Sep 22Liked by Charlene Storey

A little late to the party here, but thought I would share this one anyway as I was explaining the concept I wrote about to someone recently, and they seemed to find the idea really useful. It's also something I'm trying to return to this season - taking my own advice for once!

(It's also a nicer way to get around having a "list" for those who just can't help ourselves 🤷🏻‍♀️)

https://laurenkatepowell.substack.com/p/methods-for-making-the-time

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