I’d like to send you ALL the hearts, Emily, but Substack only allows me one. That’s not an invitation, Substack, to start changing stuff because I’ve only just got my head around the platform as it stands.
And on that note - YES! It will change. Of course it will. I just hope I’ve found and settled into my own consistent groove before it changes radically, so I’m not thrown off by those changes and stop using it.
Also, at what age do we start identifying as middle aged? I know I’m most definitely there. I just don’t FEEL it. A lot of the time, I still feel like an awkward teenager who doesn’t know the rules.
Haha!! Thank you Miranda! I resist calling myself middle aged because I don’t remotely feel it, but I’m 45, so mathematically speaking ... probably a little past it 😱 and it worked for the title so I gritted my teeth and wrote the words!!
I'm closer to 50 than 40, but can't really believe it. I feel like there must be some other version of me somewhere who's done all the things we're "supposed" to do by this age and just forgot to bring this version of me along with her.
Great post, Emily. I love the energy of it and have saved it for future reference. I agree with everything you say. I just need to work on feeling it too.
Me too 😂 I’m sure I should still be 35... I have to constantly remind myself not to hide. I’m glad you found it helpful!! I read something yesterday that I found quite annoying and I wrote this to make myself feel better!!! 🤩
I'm glad it wasn't just me - yes annoyingness is a great word for it. I felt unaccountably irritated by the language that was used and how it got so much traction, through the very thing that it was so vehemently criticising..
It’s scary - 45 sounds old, but I don’t feel it at all!! (Well, not in my head anyway!! She says peering at her phone through her reading specs that she didn’t need until recently 😩😩🤣)
Re the still feeling like a teenager, me too Miranda and all I can say is brace yourself, because I am looking at 60 next year… 60!!!! And I don’t feel a day older than 25… well maybe some days I do but mostly not!
Completely agree with Miranda, you do nearly 60 beautifully. And although every year that passes comes with extra wrinkles, it also comes with extra comfort and happiness and contentment in myself 😍
Well, you do nearly-60 beautifully, Susie. I hope I can be living on a hill, taking photos and writing as beautifully as you do in ten years time.
Seriously though, I feel like so much of life is constantly niggled by an low level regret at what’s passed and hasn’t yet been achieved. I’d really like to be better at looking forward and enjoying the now. I think that’s been a consistent niggle however young/old I’ve been. If I could achieve that over the next ten years, that’s be really worthwhile.
Thank you Miranda... you already write beautiful and enticing words, I don’t think this is an art we lose, rather the opposite, we refine them, they mature and become less noisy...
I actually probably look 60 today after a horrible sleepless night but tomorrow I will feel like me again, the younger me..!
Learning to live in the now is not always easy in this fast paced, have to think a head, make a list, attend a meeting/appointment life... but it really helps to delineate the time either side of the necessaries...
And... I am discovering that a few errors, grammatical or otherwise are not such a huge faux pas - as Emily says, we are all human and honestly... who needs it even wants perfect these days..? Isn’t that a little last century..?
This post made me giggle and feel like a little girl. I am not yet middle-aged at 33, but I nevertheless feel all of these things. I have been heartily recommending Substack to everyone I know as well. And I must confess to also drooling just a little over the fact that Margaret Atwood and Maggie Smith are here.
Yes Tiffany!! 33 is a great age, I think I’d like to have stuck around longer in my mid 30s, good years!! Glad it made you smile. I had to admit giggling quite a lot while I wrote it 😂😂
My husband and I talk about how being in our thirties is a good age; we’re more stable, financially and all, but still have enough energy to go out. Although bedtime is starting to get earlier for me haha.
Honestly this lovely post made me smile so much! And nod my head vigorously too. I feel the same about not feeling qualified as a writer because I consider myself a visual artist. (Like your Mum, my Dad was the one to pick me up on grammar and now I do the same to my kids 😂) sending you lots of love on this post from another ‘middle-ager’ still trying to figure it all out!
Thanks so much Georgie, I'm so pleased I was able to make you smile today! Lots of us middle-agers here. I was so hesitant about Substack when I first signed up for the very same reason - I'm a pictures girl, not a words girl. But I just love how they combine here to create something more than the sum of its parts!
Emily, you are a gorgeous and beautiful human! And… in common with Miranda, if I could send more hearts I would! I too am slightly embarrassed by the amount of time—I don’t have— that I spend on Notes… and I can’t even describe the joy a restack or a new subscriber brings!
We are all human, we all create for the love of creating ans sharing, and as humans with all the same emotional pulls and wotnot (I love that) why shouldn’t we! 🥹
Why not indeed Susie ♥️ thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed my little confession. I think I need to make more of a habit of it as it was very cathartic.
This was super fun to read, Emily! I was smiling all the way through!
I haven’t been on Substack a year yet… how does it feel, one year on? Has it really changed a lot? I think it probably has since I have myself already noticed changes since I joined in April…
Thanks for reading Sara, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had so much fun writing it and I got a notification from Substack today that it was a year ago today. Yes, it has changed, but it’s still my favourite place on the internet. Notes used to be much more fun, and less busy, and now so many people seem to be just playing the algorithm for attention, rather than just sharing what they love from the heart, which is a shame, and those who are just sharing what they love, just get lost a bit. Growth and interactions are much lower, which was bound to happen as it got busier ✨💛
Reading your posts make me feel safe and warm inside. I am a happy camper of your site. I am very glad to come across this post because I did not know Margaret Atwood is on Substack! Last week I was at a local library with only one bookshelf for English literature, and I saw The Testaments, and here I am hearing about Atwood again! It is such an intimate synchronicity given that my journey right now is is honing the feminine strengths I have within. I am still finding my words and my colors. You, including Atwood, are one of the women I look up to for inspiration. Thank you for accompanying me in my Substack journey. Sending you my warmest e-handshake.
Love your accent and transparency! I need to get back to writing but in January I’ll be short a couple body parts.... so we shall see! Hello from Minnesota btw
Thanks so much Marti! That's very kind of you to say. What body parts will you be missing if you don't mind me asking? I am missing my appendix and my gall bladder - so nothing essential!
They’re replacing my knees. One at a time with titanium ones! Sounds icky but I hear there will be a lot less pain right away. I can’t wait to read more of your work + love how you read what you’ve written aloud for your readers. I’d love to try that in the new year —especially with my poetry!
Thank you Kathleen, it is so lovely to have you here. Im pleased you enjoyed it. I sort of wrote it by accident so slightly worried if the expectations I’ve set 😱🤩🥰
Newbie reader to you and what a hoot and delight you are! I thought I'd start off with a grammatically incorrect sentence. 😉😅 Good Sunday morning Emily, I look forward to seeing you/reading you (sounds awkward) in my feed! Yes, I'm an exclamation abuser. Commas too. Cheers!
This is so lovely! Found your stack through a restack from Kathi Roach :) I look forward to your illustrations, and hope you’ll also visit me at Moments, where I share photography and stories about moments of connection in nature and everyday life :)
Thank you! I think we may be kindred spirits as well - the natural world really does connect us all, if we let it! :) Really enjoying browsing all your wonderful illustrations ~ you have such a beautiful & joyful style 🌸🧚🦋
If you could send some of your incredible unapologetic juju my way, just a pocketful to get me a little bit braver around standing behind my creative work, that would be super awesome. Loved, loved, loved this post. Lots of hearts sent your way in exchange :-)
Ah thank you sooooo much. Really pleased you enjoyed my post and I'm sending all the unapologetic juju your way! I have to remind myself constantly as well. Thank you for the hearts, here are some in return ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🩷
"I am supremely unqualified to be here,... I will continue to write and to draw and to use bad grammar and long sentences and break all the rules of proper writing because it is fun, and I like it." Brilliant! and I LOVE the grumbly sounds of your furry friend in the background.
Hahaha! Thanks Emily. I’d tried recording soooo many times and kept fluffing it up so when he started grumbling at the end I just accepted it and kept going 🤩 glad you enjoyed it.
I’d like to send you ALL the hearts, Emily, but Substack only allows me one. That’s not an invitation, Substack, to start changing stuff because I’ve only just got my head around the platform as it stands.
And on that note - YES! It will change. Of course it will. I just hope I’ve found and settled into my own consistent groove before it changes radically, so I’m not thrown off by those changes and stop using it.
Also, at what age do we start identifying as middle aged? I know I’m most definitely there. I just don’t FEEL it. A lot of the time, I still feel like an awkward teenager who doesn’t know the rules.
Haha!! Thank you Miranda! I resist calling myself middle aged because I don’t remotely feel it, but I’m 45, so mathematically speaking ... probably a little past it 😱 and it worked for the title so I gritted my teeth and wrote the words!!
I still perpetually feel like an 11 year old. I think thats why I write middle grade 😂
I'm closer to 50 than 40, but can't really believe it. I feel like there must be some other version of me somewhere who's done all the things we're "supposed" to do by this age and just forgot to bring this version of me along with her.
Great post, Emily. I love the energy of it and have saved it for future reference. I agree with everything you say. I just need to work on feeling it too.
Me too 😂 I’m sure I should still be 35... I have to constantly remind myself not to hide. I’m glad you found it helpful!! I read something yesterday that I found quite annoying and I wrote this to make myself feel better!!! 🤩
I think perhaps we may have read the same ‘annoyingness’ definitely not a word but I like it… I was irritable all afternoon!
Well done for finding a voice to shout louder Emily… 🙏🏽🌈✨😘
I'm glad it wasn't just me - yes annoyingness is a great word for it. I felt unaccountably irritated by the language that was used and how it got so much traction, through the very thing that it was so vehemently criticising..
I havé a ghastly feeling those words achieved the desired effects Emily... which is actually even more irritating! Grrr!
I’m 44 and my cousin is 46... we were just chatting about how we are halfway there....
It’s scary - 45 sounds old, but I don’t feel it at all!! (Well, not in my head anyway!! She says peering at her phone through her reading specs that she didn’t need until recently 😩😩🤣)
Re the still feeling like a teenager, me too Miranda and all I can say is brace yourself, because I am looking at 60 next year… 60!!!! And I don’t feel a day older than 25… well maybe some days I do but mostly not!
Completely agree with Miranda, you do nearly 60 beautifully. And although every year that passes comes with extra wrinkles, it also comes with extra comfort and happiness and contentment in myself 😍
Never mind the wrinkles Emily, I am assured they add character... the rest is the important stuff! X
Well, you do nearly-60 beautifully, Susie. I hope I can be living on a hill, taking photos and writing as beautifully as you do in ten years time.
Seriously though, I feel like so much of life is constantly niggled by an low level regret at what’s passed and hasn’t yet been achieved. I’d really like to be better at looking forward and enjoying the now. I think that’s been a consistent niggle however young/old I’ve been. If I could achieve that over the next ten years, that’s be really worthwhile.
Thank you Miranda... you already write beautiful and enticing words, I don’t think this is an art we lose, rather the opposite, we refine them, they mature and become less noisy...
I actually probably look 60 today after a horrible sleepless night but tomorrow I will feel like me again, the younger me..!
Learning to live in the now is not always easy in this fast paced, have to think a head, make a list, attend a meeting/appointment life... but it really helps to delineate the time either side of the necessaries...
And... I am discovering that a few errors, grammatical or otherwise are not such a huge faux pas - as Emily says, we are all human and honestly... who needs it even wants perfect these days..? Isn’t that a little last century..?
X
This post made me giggle and feel like a little girl. I am not yet middle-aged at 33, but I nevertheless feel all of these things. I have been heartily recommending Substack to everyone I know as well. And I must confess to also drooling just a little over the fact that Margaret Atwood and Maggie Smith are here.
Yes Tiffany!! 33 is a great age, I think I’d like to have stuck around longer in my mid 30s, good years!! Glad it made you smile. I had to admit giggling quite a lot while I wrote it 😂😂
My husband and I talk about how being in our thirties is a good age; we’re more stable, financially and all, but still have enough energy to go out. Although bedtime is starting to get earlier for me haha.
Love this post, Emily! Here’s to doing more of what feels good and right for us ✨
Thanks Hannah - yes definitely. It's so easy to get lost and put off by opinions that are shared quite loudly - here's to doing our thing!
Honestly this lovely post made me smile so much! And nod my head vigorously too. I feel the same about not feeling qualified as a writer because I consider myself a visual artist. (Like your Mum, my Dad was the one to pick me up on grammar and now I do the same to my kids 😂) sending you lots of love on this post from another ‘middle-ager’ still trying to figure it all out!
Thanks so much Georgie, I'm so pleased I was able to make you smile today! Lots of us middle-agers here. I was so hesitant about Substack when I first signed up for the very same reason - I'm a pictures girl, not a words girl. But I just love how they combine here to create something more than the sum of its parts!
Emily, you are a gorgeous and beautiful human! And… in common with Miranda, if I could send more hearts I would! I too am slightly embarrassed by the amount of time—I don’t have— that I spend on Notes… and I can’t even describe the joy a restack or a new subscriber brings!
We are all human, we all create for the love of creating ans sharing, and as humans with all the same emotional pulls and wotnot (I love that) why shouldn’t we! 🥹
Why not indeed Susie ♥️ thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed my little confession. I think I need to make more of a habit of it as it was very cathartic.
This was super fun to read, Emily! I was smiling all the way through!
I haven’t been on Substack a year yet… how does it feel, one year on? Has it really changed a lot? I think it probably has since I have myself already noticed changes since I joined in April…
Thanks for reading Sara, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had so much fun writing it and I got a notification from Substack today that it was a year ago today. Yes, it has changed, but it’s still my favourite place on the internet. Notes used to be much more fun, and less busy, and now so many people seem to be just playing the algorithm for attention, rather than just sharing what they love from the heart, which is a shame, and those who are just sharing what they love, just get lost a bit. Growth and interactions are much lower, which was bound to happen as it got busier ✨💛
Reading your posts make me feel safe and warm inside. I am a happy camper of your site. I am very glad to come across this post because I did not know Margaret Atwood is on Substack! Last week I was at a local library with only one bookshelf for English literature, and I saw The Testaments, and here I am hearing about Atwood again! It is such an intimate synchronicity given that my journey right now is is honing the feminine strengths I have within. I am still finding my words and my colors. You, including Atwood, are one of the women I look up to for inspiration. Thank you for accompanying me in my Substack journey. Sending you my warmest e-handshake.
So lovely to connect with you and I’m so pleased you enjoyed my post. Margaret Atwood is an amazing writer 💛
Love your accent and transparency! I need to get back to writing but in January I’ll be short a couple body parts.... so we shall see! Hello from Minnesota btw
Thanks so much Marti! That's very kind of you to say. What body parts will you be missing if you don't mind me asking? I am missing my appendix and my gall bladder - so nothing essential!
They’re replacing my knees. One at a time with titanium ones! Sounds icky but I hear there will be a lot less pain right away. I can’t wait to read more of your work + love how you read what you’ve written aloud for your readers. I’d love to try that in the new year —especially with my poetry!
Not a word to disagree with here.
Thanks Curly!
How absolutely lovely it was to experience this post as my first post of yours. I couldn’t subscribe quickly enough
Thank you Kathleen, it is so lovely to have you here. Im pleased you enjoyed it. I sort of wrote it by accident so slightly worried if the expectations I’ve set 😱🤩🥰
Newbie reader to you and what a hoot and delight you are! I thought I'd start off with a grammatically incorrect sentence. 😉😅 Good Sunday morning Emily, I look forward to seeing you/reading you (sounds awkward) in my feed! Yes, I'm an exclamation abuser. Commas too. Cheers!
Thanks so much Maureen! The scary thing is that I didn’t realise I’d got a little overboard with the exclamations.... lovely to have you here 😘🤩
What a JOYOUS post! Sums up the fabulousness of Substack - and yes, I love it too....
Thanks so much Jo! I'm glad you enjoyed it and that you're also here having lots of fun!
This is so lovely! Found your stack through a restack from Kathi Roach :) I look forward to your illustrations, and hope you’ll also visit me at Moments, where I share photography and stories about moments of connection in nature and everyday life :)
Thanks so much Sydney 🩵 I just looked at your gorgeous prints on your website - just wow! They’re so beautiful. It’s lovely to connect with you ❄️🩵🤍
Thank you! I think we may be kindred spirits as well - the natural world really does connect us all, if we let it! :) Really enjoying browsing all your wonderful illustrations ~ you have such a beautiful & joyful style 🌸🧚🦋
If you could send some of your incredible unapologetic juju my way, just a pocketful to get me a little bit braver around standing behind my creative work, that would be super awesome. Loved, loved, loved this post. Lots of hearts sent your way in exchange :-)
Ah thank you sooooo much. Really pleased you enjoyed my post and I'm sending all the unapologetic juju your way! I have to remind myself constantly as well. Thank you for the hearts, here are some in return ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🩷
What an endearing post! If I could, I'd give you several hearts :-)
Thanks Marie!! Sending some hearts in return ❤️❤️❤️ glad you enjoyed it.
"I am supremely unqualified to be here,... I will continue to write and to draw and to use bad grammar and long sentences and break all the rules of proper writing because it is fun, and I like it." Brilliant! and I LOVE the grumbly sounds of your furry friend in the background.
Hahaha! Thanks Emily. I’d tried recording soooo many times and kept fluffing it up so when he started grumbling at the end I just accepted it and kept going 🤩 glad you enjoyed it.