That Place You Love: Real People. Real Stories.
That Place You Love: Real People. Real Stories.
Round-Up on Comfort; Next-Up Perfection; Welcome new Contributors!
Comfort manifests in many forms.
Sweat & steam, romance novels, online shopping, starchy potassium, tea, rainfall, open windows, virtual company, punk music & folksongs, the growl of a mother’s stomach, extra clean sheets, heat, silence, acceptance and The Coen Brothers…
The round-up on COMFORT is a journey from the raw to the exotic to the most basic of human needs. Thank you, Contributors, for your pure, uncut gems!
TPYL → No memes. No clickbait. No agenda.
No third-party approvals or editorial massaging. Every contributor gives themself permission to share their writing on a mutual theme in concert with others.
Reading first-person stories by real people is the benefit of participating in TPYL.
If you’re reading this for the first time…
And want to know more about the ZINE’s mission, go to ABOUT or FORUM on the Substack platform or read the introductory post I WAS AN EASY LIAR.
I want to get out of the way now and present the round-up on COMFORT!
A record 14 Contributors took part in week 9 of TPYL!
Our theme was COMFORT through the lens of truth. I wrote about accepting insomnia as a natural part of my personality and how a mental walkthrough of my grandmother’s house helps me sleep.
(in order of appearance)
Carole D confessed to a post-divorce affair with romance novels before realizing she was nothing like the genre’s protagonists and gave it up for good.
Intact Animal wrote about the ritual of stretching, sweating, and building up resilience in an aging body to prepare for the long game & good times to come.
Zig revealed how solace in online shopping comes from childhood mall sprees to soothe her mother; the stakes are lower when you click away the shopping cart.
Lisa H proposed that energy spent on the issues of the world mean nothing if we can’t find peace and comfort in tending to our own trauma and wounds.
New Contributor Lisa Saint J explored the comfort of waking up from a dream of loss to confront the evidence of what’s missing. A morning cigarette can briefly substitute comfort. Coffee, not as much.
Julia revisited the comfort of open windows during thunderstorms in contrast to perpetual, uneventful rain. The sound of car tires on wet pavement offers the only reprieve.
New Contributor Dr Clara took us through a daily dance with chores and lists in search of the elusive comfort of silence to clear the mind and begin to write.
Tabitha wrote about the reliability of a hot cup of tea, its power to stop time and mend rifts… the exception being one cup of tea in London left unfinished.
Amelia revisited life chapters of comfort in different forms: ice cream, nursing, the embrace of a foreign yet familiar culture, and the need to escape for comfort no longer a necessity.
Shirlé wrote an ode to her mother that is so all-encompassing my eyes swell with love for a woman I’ve never met: hair brushing, plain lemon pies, enchilada chicken, tummy grumbles and a forehead kiss.
New Contributor Catrin admitted to her DNA-driven love of all things potato and how the potassium rich food offers comfort as easily as it incites riots in Welsh pubs.
Melissa credited Holly Hunter’s lullaby in Raising Arizona for changing her infant son’s soundtrack after dancing to The Pogues while still in the womb.
Wynn Tu acknowledged how a late-night video call can soften the edges of loneliness… if you trust who is on the other end of the line.
Pascale questioned the cliché “getting out of your comfort zone” when hers is running in extreme heat to reach life-changing epiphanies about modern discomfort.
READ & HEART these writers & SHARE your own story in the comments.
Next Up: Perfection
On Monday, I’ll write about PERFECTION through the lens of truth and see what I come up with as a prompt. I chose this theme after reading an article about beauty filters on social media apps. I came away thinking about my own relationship to perfection, when I’ve wanted it to come easily, when I couldn’t care less about it. When I did everything I could to subvert and challenge it.
What does PERFECTION mean to you? Is it real? Is it internal or external? A dialogue between the two? A negotiation? A methodology?
Totally subjective or universal? (Ask the AI developers about that one!).
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More to come on Monday….
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely, for real.
Michelle