Hello from London
Dear Reader,
No new blog this week as I am doing sharp travel turn arounds and running on limited proper sleep to accomplish it. I can now give a very confident opinion on the quality of roadside and airport coffee stops.
For a not-so-oldie but goodie click on…
It’s the first post to the ‘Why Policy Matters’ series which will pick back up in February with a piece about children’s rights and what I have learned (and seen) in work in child abuse and neglect advocacy. It’s literally policy red-flags in it’s purest form.
The thing I told myself I would do this year is one email a week. I didn’t set a day, or a time. Just the goal of one email a week.
I want to connect with you, and despite the advice of people way smarter than me in blog-growth, I steer relatively clear of mainstream social media outlets. For me it feels disingenuous, fabricated, and represents a power dynamic I don’t support.
So I told myself that this year’s push would be the blog and newsletter and Pinterest (because I am currently cool with Pinterest) with sprinklings of social media. I don’t just want five seconds of your dopamine addiction hit, I want your full attention, and for me, that means creating regularity in your inbox. Plus, platforms that make us think keep our brains from atrophying, and a strong brain like a functioning muscle, is a happier one. I want to be amongst the ranks of brain gyms.
The thing I am most excited about this week - you all sent in questions GALORE. I had so many questions come in after announcing the Q&A section, I can say confidently, that’s going to become a regular part of the email. To read the questions in the queue, check the section below, and feel free to keep sending questions.
I have come out of my hidey-hole, and promptly packed a backpack and headed for the UK. Here’s a picture of the views from the top of the London Bridge.
Once I am back home, a UK travel blog will be the first to hit the website.
Coming out of my hidey-hole, I didn’t have any conceived notions that I would walk into the year fully rejuvenated. Rather I look to the moon, which, in many of it’s stages only demonstrates a a fraction of its magnitude. I know that I am always, always whole, but may only be in a stage of waxing as I navigate the beginning of the year. Maybe you need to look to the moon too.
I have learned how to be cool with this. A mixture of travel and years have taught me that every living organism goes through micro and macro seasons. This season is filled with a lot of self-discovery, navigating new personal (un)limitations. I am learning both how small I am, which is freeing. I’ve learn how powerful I am, which emphasizes the enormity of my own responsibility. I am learning to be thankful for every life season that hands me new pieces to my own puzzle. I am grounded in gratitude, that I discovered the importance of self-work young. It makes the world that I don’t always know my place in feel a little less daunting.
I am also reading the work of historically profound writers and leaders, and I am learning that behind every great voice is a lot of raw navigation of every human emotion. Greatness is not separated from reality, but grounded in it and focused on conquering circumstances. I don’t fashion myself “a great,” but it’s nice to know that even the greats felt all the feelings.
And on that note, I have a bag to pack. I’ll see you in Scotland.
In this with you,
Taylor Patrice
AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE PAID SECTION OF THIS NEWSLETTER
So, if you read my last email you’ll know I got a little railroaded by the end of 2021. Meaning plainly, I am doing some personal clean up in the wake of negligence created by some life and stress. Part of this work includes addressing the paid subscriptions.
If you are upgrading the email to a paid email list you are effectively helping to support this platform and the costs associated with research, and my work as a full-time writer (which I am deeply grateful for), but you are not (at this time) getting emails that are subscriber only. I have opted out of pay-wall emails at this time. Policy related blog work is a lot of time and research, and something I think more people desperately need, so I have decided to make it all free-access with nothing behind a pay-wall. Subscriptions are a luxury I know not everyone can afford, but people still need the information. The profile section of my email has not yet been updated to reflect this.
If for absolutely any reason you are paying and not satisfied with these terms, or if your financial priorities have changed, I do not take it personal. This is merely a friendly reminder to cancel your payments, or know what you are paying for before doing so.
I am looking at partnering with some different crowd sourcing apps in the near future.
Separately, if you read the first section of this area and too are doing some person clean up, I applaud you. It’s big and brave to clean up the remnants of a sad or stressed mind.
TRAVEL QUEUE:
I have two pieces in the works: The UK, and Northern Italy (plus about 25 other countries we will visit together over the course of 2022 & 2023.)
The cool thing I am adding to each travel post is a section on cool policies in each country. As posh as coffee sippin’ abroad is, when I travel, I actually take time to study the people and policies while abroad. Because I think it’s cool, and will set these posts apart, it’s going to be an added section. So if you want to know what cool things countries are doing to try to solve problems, check the travel posts.
Q&A SECTION:
My inbox is currently overflowing with questions I need to sort through, and also figure out which ones will become blog posts, and which ones will go straight to the Q&A section of the email (because some need more space). The first three questions that will be framed in the next week’s emails are the following:
“What are some of the most important lessons you learned by age 30?”
“Are Biden’s policies really making life more expensive for Americans? I keep seeing people blame him but I don’t know if it’s just blaming party policies or if it’s a supply chain issue. Please help us better understand this.”
“You talk about military life being hard. What parts do you like about it? I am marrying into the military, and the hard parts seem scary.”
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See you soon! Thanks in advance for leaving positive ratings and reviews on the podcast channels and Facebook page if you love the content - it helps me grow because, well, algorithms…
Your Partner in Policy,