What's Feeding Me 🐛 vol. 3

a monthly buffet of creative fodder

The Webs We Weave is a free weekly-ish newsletter on staying connected to ourselves, finding connections between our ideas, and feeling more connected in the world.

Each month I share a little buffet of things that have been keeping me fed: intellectually, creatively, sensorily, and emotionally. I invite you to share in the comments what's been feeding you, too! Both with me, and with each other.

(This post is on the longer side, so you may see a button that asks you to “expand” it to view the entire email.)

Let’s jump on in!

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📔 Great Writing

📜 The Brief, Wondrous Life of Little Leo

I stumbled onto

Lewann Babler

’s work by way of a (very special) coworking group we were both recently part of. It’s been at least a week since I read her stunning essay, The Brief, Wondrous Life of Little Leo in Outdoor magazine and I still feel swells of ache and wonder whenever it crosses my mind, thinking about their sweet boy and the beautiful life they gave him in the mountains.
(content warning: loss of a child)

📜 The Lifegiving Benefits of Befriending Our Mortality

(Apparently I’m on a writing-that-breaks-your-heart kick?)

Toward the end of last month—which was also National Poetry Month—this absolute stunner of a piece by

Andrea Gibson

started making the rounds, and WOW I can see why. With a working title like The Lifegiving Benefits of Befriending Our Mortality, it has the markings of something morbid—but I’d argue it’s anything but. To quote them directly:

Read the full piece here. (content warning: cancer)

🪶 One Evening by Katy Luxem

My new life hack is to have a new, fully separate Instagram account that’s just for personal creative projects. I use mine both to quietly write and share poems in a calm corner of the internet, but also to exclusively follow other poets and writers whose work sparks something in me. My feed feels like a little poetry oasis.

That’s exactly how I came across this gorgeous poem by Katy Luxem that slipped onto my feed and stopped me in my tracks.

🪶 Two pieces that offer a peek into craft

I find the more I learn about the mechanics and craft of writing, the more deeply I appreciate great writing when I meet it. Lately the pieces of writing I feel most excited to read are a mix: some are informative pieces from writers pulling back the curtain on how to generate great writing, and others are examples of great writing itself. (I wrote about this love of learning about craft earlier this month!)

In the ‘former’ category, I came across two pieces in the last month that had me quite literally leaning all-the-way-forward in my seat, as if to physically scooch in as close to their wisdom as possible.

First, in

Joy Sullivan

’s Write where it’s warm, she offers us permission: to stop writing from the brain, and see what happens when we write from the belly.

Write where it's warm

The second was a piece from the poet

Maggie Smith

that features an annotated version of her poem, Slipper, where she breaks down several of her craft choices and shares more about how this piece came to be.

Behind-the-Scenes Look: “Slipper”

I could devour these types of behind-the-curtain sneak peeks all. day.

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🎙️ + 🎬 Great Listens and Watches

🎙️ Wiser Than Me: Julia Gets Wise with Patti Smith

Season Two of Julia Louis Dreyfus’s podcast Wiser Than Me is back, and so far the guests are top-notch. This episode in particular featuring the great musician, poet, and author Patti Smith really stuck with me. The way Patti talks about gratitude in such grounded terms touched me (she thanks her toothbrush every day!) and hearing her sing and speak about loss… maybe have tissues handy?

Heads up, there are a myriad of oddly-charming technical snafus throughout this one, but their conversation is well worth a listen.

🎙️ Serial: Season 3

Last month I mentioned that the podcast that Serial is back with Season 4, which is all about Guantanamo Bay. New episodes come out weekly one at a time, and it’s quite good so far—but I’m also deeply impatient.

I’d heard good things about Season 3, and ended up going back and burning through the whole thing in about a weekend. The full season is set in Cleveland and takes place inside a typical American courthouse, documenting “extraordinary stories of ordinary cases” over the course of a year. (After a quick Google, it seems at least some of the internet disagrees with me re: how interesting Season 3 is, but I stand firm!)

📺 Ripley (Limited Series)

I doubt I’m the first to tell you this, but WOW is this show an aesthetic feast. Based on the same source material as the 90’s movie The Talented Mr. Ripley, this entire series is beautifully shot in black and white, every frame is its own piece of art. I also just love Andrew Scott—in fact, this prompted me go back and re-watch him as the hot priest in Season 2 of Fleabag! He and the rest of the cast do not disappoint. Highly recommend if you enjoy thrillers.

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🙇🏼‍♀️ Current Project or Micro Obsession

Building a ‘daily page’ habit

As (to borrow

Fanny Priest

’s words) “a true slut for stationery” AND as someone who would love to break the habit of scrolling on her phone before bed . . . I’ve been really drawn to this idea of a simple bedtime ritual: completing a daily page.

simple daily page inspo via @saricastudio

Sam Slupski

recently shared about a framework they’ve used for their daily page and it’s one I feel super drawn to—both for its potency and its simplicity:

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“There is no way to hide from my life in my journal. Completing a daily page in my Hobonichi helps me notice where I spend my time and how I fill my days. I started the year by filling the page with three sections: a memory/gratitude from the day, something I learned, and something to release.

If there are days it feels harder to find a gratitude, I enter the next day with more intentionality and noticing. If I notice I didn’t learn something, I seek out knowledge. And there is something to release daily, which helps me go into the next day with a clearer head.”

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Do you have a daily page practice, or another closing-out-the-day ritual? I’d love to hear what works for you!

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🌻 A Human Whose Work I’m Loving

Lyndsay Rush (@maryoliversdrunkcousin)

I realize I’ve hardly discovered some obscure hidden gem here, but if you’re not already following

Lyndsay Rush

’s work either here or on Instagram, you absolutely should be. (Her Substack is devoted to writing and sharing poems that stem from “unhinged headlines” and they are . . . spectacular.)

Anyone who manages to write poems that are consistently hilarious and tender, touching and incisive has a fan in me. Here’s a favorite:

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🤣 A Meme, Just Because.

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Your turn!

What’s feeding you lately?

If you’re game, share one thing in the comments that’s been feeding you lately. It could be a podcast, a book, a habit, a new favorite thing, a project that’s lighting you up… anything! Let’s crowdsource some good creative fodder. 👇

Until next time,
Michelle