Invitation to a Pause -- Rachel's January Newsletter

Lovelies,

This was GOING to be a newsletter about my new app launch.

"Hey everyone my new app launched," etc., etc.

I even wrote the newsletter!

But then, BEHOLD, my new app DIDN'T LAUNCH!!

It is ricocheting between Apple App Store and Developer as they check every box, including nonexistent boxes, for registration issues. I've bided my time, but it comes down to this: IT IS GETTING FAR TOO LATE INTO JANUARY FOR ME TO BE WISHING YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So here you go: A Newsletter about something much less comfortable than a new app.

A newsletter about PAUSE. 

My first couple weeks of January were like my last twelve of 2024... an unfathomable race slash juggling act to finish the app. I recorded fourteen creativity meditations on such topics as creative disappointment, anchoring, and forging new creativity relationships; I created an image for every assignment from beautiful original sketches; I began working with a social media consultant on a strategy for vlogging and memes. That's a few of about twenty immense and interesting things I did.

And it all culminated in a BIG PARTY!

Then... pause. As mentioned, the app did NOT launch. And as not mentioned, I got a flu that had me literally in bed for eight days. Full disclosure, I am still more in bed than not, including at this very moment!

I didn't welcome the pause, but whoa the pause welcomed me with the intensity of NO ALTERNATIVE. To go from 100mph to 0mph was... FASCINATING. Maybe the only thing more fascinating than the work I'd been doing.

First: How quickly the race is over, how easily the balls fall to the ground. Second: Void. Third: Soft re-emergence of emotion (Oh, THAT'S how I feel?). Fourth: Recalibration (bridging the distance between my values and choices). Fifth: Resolution (I'm going to have to do the rest of the year differently). 

January 24th: Happy New Year! 

May all of us do it sustainably.

All my love,

Rachel