It is blustery today—it feels like the wind is tossing thoughts into the air along with the tree branches and errant leaf, mixing them up to see them from different angles. It’s made me think about how we sift through different words, ideas—throw them onto a page and hope that, like the branches and the leaves with the wind, others might feel something that moves them too.
There are more of you now than I could have dreamed would read my writing when I began this newsletter—and many of you who write your thoughts in response, and even share it with others. You all have become a group of people I am so grateful to call friends. It means the world to me, truly, to find others reading my work.
I’ve also been thinking about how we no longer expect to decipher someone else’s handwriting (if you haven’t read
’s latest post you’re missing out on a fantastic read!), nor do we expect to receive letters of paper and ink. And what a gift of time, attention, and beauty a physical letter can be.
And so, to wit: I’d like to offer paid subscribers a couple of offerings, in gratitude for your support and belief in making this writing sustainable:
For monthly subscribers: a set of cards with feminist quotes from obscure or ignored women writers
For yearly subscribers: a set of cards and handwritten letter or postcard, with a poem
For founding members: The collection of cards, as well as a small journal of handwritten commonplacing poems that I’ve shared over the past year, sent via snail mail (with room to add your own!)1
There are a few of you who have shared your address with me and received postcards, and I will add your addresses to the list to receive a collection of cards, if interested. And I will share my address with you so you can feel free to write back—I can be slow, but I would love to send thoughts from this high-latitude perch I find myself in, and to revive a small practice of letter writing.
Thank you all so much for reading, for your support, your friendship, and for helping me to make this writing life—and the words of earlier women writers—more sustaining.
This will require paid subscribers to send me your address via email (you can reply to this or any of my emails to reach me, or at freyarohn@substack.com). I will keep it private always, but I realize this can be a vulnerable thing to share in this day and age, so I can also share digital files as an alternative—just let me know which you prefer. Also you
Freya I am so happy to see you grow and I wish the world for you. You are so deserving of all of it. I am so happy to have met and believed in you since the initial days of your journey on substack. I will follow you anywhere! 💜
I just love your first sentence Freya. Perfect. Love the rest of your offering also.
I make handwritten notes all the time, leaving them around our home. Usually the kids can decipher my writing, sometimes they can't if it's written in a rush.
"Morning beautiful, I'm off for a run, will be back by 10 and can make you French toast for breakky when you wake if you like" Love Mum. or:
"Sleep well, please lock front door after you come in, drink 2 big glasses of water if you have had alcohol, and make sure Pumpkin isn't shut in the garage" ( Pumpkin - cat)
I have kept hundreds of these notes over the years as the kids get older. They are nice memories of those special little moments we can easily forget.
Thanks to a head injury in December, I was banned from screens and to keep busy returned to an old hobby--making and sending handwritten cards. I'd forgotten how much I like making them and how delighted people are to receive them. Love your idea to have cards be the bonus for paid subscribers.
I survived a childhood that involved many global moves through handwritten letters. I still have some stationary that somehow has stayed with me 40 years later. I miss the magic of what checking the mail once was.
Also want to share my son's Substack project which is just that--Handwritten letters.
I still have the postcard you sent me, so I know you have my address. If you send me yours I'll write you a letter. I just found a sheet of "Otters in the Snow" forever stamps, too good to use for paying bills. I'll have to find some stationery though.
I'm not sure about my handwriting. My highschool English teacher said "You write with the hind leg of a spider and when it's worn out you give it to your brother!" He sent me to the art teacher for remedial handwriting lessons. Didn't work.
I'm actually writing this by hand using a stylus and the handwriting-to-text feature on my tablet. The idea was to improve my handwriting. Didn't work. All that happened is that my tablet got better at reading it!
I use Substack exclusive on the desktop/app (not receiving the emails to my inbox) and I'm having trouble figuring out how to reply to you from there. Any ideas? I'm sure I'm missing a button somewhere.
Freya I am so happy to see you grow and I wish the world for you. You are so deserving of all of it. I am so happy to have met and believed in you since the initial days of your journey on substack. I will follow you anywhere! 💜
I just love your first sentence Freya. Perfect. Love the rest of your offering also.
I make handwritten notes all the time, leaving them around our home. Usually the kids can decipher my writing, sometimes they can't if it's written in a rush.
"Morning beautiful, I'm off for a run, will be back by 10 and can make you French toast for breakky when you wake if you like" Love Mum. or:
"Sleep well, please lock front door after you come in, drink 2 big glasses of water if you have had alcohol, and make sure Pumpkin isn't shut in the garage" ( Pumpkin - cat)
I have kept hundreds of these notes over the years as the kids get older. They are nice memories of those special little moments we can easily forget.
xx
Thanks to a head injury in December, I was banned from screens and to keep busy returned to an old hobby--making and sending handwritten cards. I'd forgotten how much I like making them and how delighted people are to receive them. Love your idea to have cards be the bonus for paid subscribers.
I survived a childhood that involved many global moves through handwritten letters. I still have some stationary that somehow has stayed with me 40 years later. I miss the magic of what checking the mail once was.
Also want to share my son's Substack project which is just that--Handwritten letters.
https://substack.com/@jakobshockey
Did you see this on handwriting from Mike Sowden today? https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/why-it-might-not-sink-in-until-youve
Wonderful idea to offer handwritten components to your newsletter! Way to go! Greetings from a fellow friend of the handwritten letter.
I still have the postcard you sent me, so I know you have my address. If you send me yours I'll write you a letter. I just found a sheet of "Otters in the Snow" forever stamps, too good to use for paying bills. I'll have to find some stationery though.
I'm not sure about my handwriting. My highschool English teacher said "You write with the hind leg of a spider and when it's worn out you give it to your brother!" He sent me to the art teacher for remedial handwriting lessons. Didn't work.
I'm actually writing this by hand using a stylus and the handwriting-to-text feature on my tablet. The idea was to improve my handwriting. Didn't work. All that happened is that my tablet got better at reading it!
I use Substack exclusive on the desktop/app (not receiving the emails to my inbox) and I'm having trouble figuring out how to reply to you from there. Any ideas? I'm sure I'm missing a button somewhere.