Sitting Still

April Showers, Indie Bookstore Day, & Being a "Bad" Book Content Creator

Tea Recommendation: Monsoon Chai from Tealeaves

Hey friends,

I am not gonna lie or sugar coat it, April has been capital H.A.R.D. That practicing gratitude (word for the year) through the highs and lows almost went out the window this month. Because whew chile, life was in fact lifeing in various ways. But I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It just so happens that the tunnel is just a bit farther than I would like 😂 I think, from now on, I’m just doing everything in my power to get to that light in this new quarter. Wish me luck!

April Showers

One thing I really had to grapple with was the fact that this would be my sit still month. If you’ve been keeping up with me, then you know since around December, I’d been traveling back and forth between Atlanta and Charlotte on a monthly basis. What you didn’t know is that I had plans to go on my first ever adult trip to Disney. I also planned on taking a trip home to New York City this weekend to celebrate a good friend’s birthday . But for reasons mostly involving family, I had to unfortunately opt out of both. And I’m honestly sad about it.

I discovered that I not only looked forward to those moments but over the past few months I’d lived for them. I mean who wouldn’t wanna be outside having fun with their friends?

But I knew that ultimately, missing out at least for this month, was what I needed to do.

Which got me thinking on the old adage, April showers bring May flowers. Metaphorically this among a few other ongoings this month have felt like showers of sadness, missing out, stress, and like I was sitting in oscillating periods of torrential rains and light drizzles. Not only was it uncomfortable but it felt unfair.

But what if weathering this particular storm means I’ll be seeing the fruits or flowers (😉) of my labor soon? What if missing out on these trips now was only to set me up for even better trips later? What if spending time away from my friends for a bit just meant bigger celebrations later?

This might all make sense in the long run or just be more of my unrealistic optimism lol But for now, I’ll take it!

Happy Independent Bookstore Day!

If you didn’t know, today is National Independent Bookstore Day where we celebrate the small brick and mortar and non-traditional bookstores that continue to bring joy to readers hearts!

I will be happily participating by getting a few audiobooks from the Libro.fm sale currently going on in celebration of the day. I’ve been using Libro.fm both as a consumer as well as an Advanced Listener Influencer for some time now and I always appreciate the fact that proceeds from my purchase go towards helping support some of my favorite bookstores.

For this sale, I chose The Book Cellar, a Black woman owned Bookstore and Cafe located in Conyers, GA. I had the best time co-working with my best friend at their cafe back in February and I intend to go back and visit soon.

If you happen to participate in the Libro.fm sale, or purchasing a few audiobooks outside of the sale, feel free to use this link to purchase. As a disclaimer I will earn a small percentage from your purchase at no additional cost to you.

On another note, I’ve been toying with an idea for a series for a while where I share some of the ways I feel like I’m a “bad” book content creator. Of course I use the term bad very loosely as I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to do this. But one of the many things I want to talk about is my relationship to and with big chain bookstores vs independent bookstores and how and where I choose to purchase books.

What do you think? Is it something you’d be interested in seeing? Let me know!

Once again we’re at the end of another week and newsletter. Thanks again for tuning into my musings, hope my fellow readers have a fantastic book filled day, and I will catch you in your inboxes soon!