Art Nouveau illustration of a woman with a floral crown, hand to mouth, draped in starry fabric. — artist: alphonse mucha

Hi friends!

I’m writing to you this morning from Prague, where I just had the best oatmeal of my life. It was warm and soft and topped with a rose-infused berry sauce and chopped pistachios. Totally unexpected delight.

Here are a few things I thought worth sharing this week…

☕️ 1. Very few decisions are “rest of your life” decisions. Iwana Johnsen talks about this idea in an article titled, Reinvention as a Core Life Skill. She says:

Reinvention, it turns out, is less about making one big decision and more about stacking small ones. Try a project. Write a post. Join a community. See how it feels. …. stay in motion without needing everything figured out [today].

I needed this reminder because I tend to wake up in the morning and set a goal like TODAY I WILL FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO WITH THE REST OF MY LIFE. Then I drink some buckets of coffee and I come up with a few brilliant ideas, and then the coffee wears off I spiral so far down inside myself that I can’t get off the couch. (It’s not like that everyday. But more days than I’d like to admit.)

Thankfully, I have a friend who likes me enough to yank me out of my despair. In fact, she routinely has to remind me Girl you’re doing it again. Why do you set unrealistic goals for yourself and then punish yourself for not achieving them? Stop striving so hard.

Thanks, K.

A moody, textured painting of a woman lying in a black dress on a bright yellow couch. She is curled up, resting or sleeping, under a large arched window that reflects a dim, introspective atmosphere. — artist: alexandr onishenko

😳 2. Which brings me to another issue I’ve been thinking a lot about: “Whatever you are best at, AI will be better.” This isn’t exactly an uplifting newsletter so far is it? 🤣 Stay with me though, because actually, this article by Lisa-Marie Cabrelli is surprisingly empowering. It’s called While Everyone Panics About AI, Midlife Women Are Having the Last Laugh. She says that women in midlife are uniquely ready for this AI era:

We’ve already discovered that when everything external gets stripped away, something essential remains.

We’ve reinvented ourselves a thousand times over - from girl to woman, from woman to mother, from mother to woman again. We reinvent. That’s what we do.

Sure, it’s important to think critically and know how to use new tools. But it’s more important to know yourself. To be able to sift through all the noise and to find your own small voice. And then - critically - learn to trust it. To trust your own lived experience. In other words, to be human.

A surreal artwork featuring a human figure composed of white birds in flight against a deep blue sky. The background includes celestial and map-like elements, and the silhouette floats above a reddish-brown cityscape near a body of water. — artist: petr sís

👟 3. Speaking of which, I only wear flat, comfortable shoes now and it’s been life changing.

📚 4. It’s Banned Book Week in the UK and US, which was created to shine a spotlight on books that have been banned in states or schools. Here are two of my favourites:

Banned Books I recommend: 1) The Handmaid’s Tale - dark but a classic. If you haven’t read before, you must. 2) It’s Perfectly Normal - My daughters LOVED this book when they were little!

Side-by-side book covers: on the left, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, featuring a minimalist red cloak and white bonnet on a black background; on the right, It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley,

🥣 5. Where to get great oatmeal: The Grand Cafe inside the Grand Hotel Europa.

A vibrant cityscape featuring the ornate Art Nouveau facade of the Grand Hotel Europa in Prague. The building is centered among other historic rooftops, with soft evening light casting a warm glow over the city.

Until next week.

xo, L

Me, Myself and AI

Two months. One project. Let’s go.