One hopeful book recommendation

Hi readers, wow. I certainly did not mean to leave you hanging without an email from me for over a week. I think this is the longest I’ve gone without sending anything in the nine years I’ve been writing newsletters, which should give you a hint about how life has been lately…

On that note, today, I wanted to catch you up quickly on what I’ve been up to, plus share some housekeeping announcements re: my upcoming maternity leave (which is coming up so fast, what!).

First, some housekeeping notes

I plan to take maternity leave from March 6th through June 5th. Here’s what to expect, according to the current plan:

• Paid subscribers will continue to receive (at least) one newsletter weekly in your inbox. Some of these letters will be repurposed from Downtime’s “best of” archives. I’ll be resurfacing pieces that still feel relevant—especially essays and book posts that new readers may have missed. During my leave, you can also expect to hear from some guest contributors, and I’ll [hopefully!] be able to pop in once a month with my own updates.

• Paid subscriptions will be kept turned on. But of course, I understand if you prefer to hit pause for these 3 months.¹ If you choose to stay subscribed (I hope you do!), please know that I appreciate your support so, so much. As a self-employed writer, I don’t receive any sort of paid leave benefit, so my maternity leave is entirely covered by my savings. Either way, thanks for bearing with me.

• If you’re looking for a small way to support during this window, forwarding/sharing a favorite Downtime post with a friend goes a long way! You can also receive free months of subscriptions by referring a friend to the newsletter:

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• A general, fun note: I’ve been tweaking the Downtime branding, so you might notice some changes around here! In tandem, I’ve been thinking deeply about where I’d like to take the newsletter this year and beyond: focusing more on books and reading recommendations, and curating fewer, better, tried-and-true products and rituals rather than dropping endless shopping roundups or wishlists (though those are fun too, just in moderation). I loved having January to reflect on my editorial direction, and I’m feeling very excited about these shifts, which you’ll see in your inbox over the next few weeks.

And now a book rec + life lately

Recommending one hopeful read

Bess Kalb wrote the perfect piece recently that captures our strange moment in time, especially for parents of young kids who, of course, have no clue what is happening in the U.S. and are, for now, mercifully insulated from it. The show must go on. Lunches must be made. The parenting continues while two-year-olds and two-month-olds are being detained by ICE and separated from their parents. All while life continues inside our warm, safe homes. The cognitive dissonance is brain-melting.

I can’t ignore the gut-level despair that hits when I read the news, and it hit me especially hard last week. How are we supposed to raise children in times like these? And, also in the back of my brain, and just as insistently: what am I doing bringing another baby into this world?

The pull toward despair is strong and tempting. But despair, I know, is a dead end. So I cracked open Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit for the second time in the past year and found what I was looking for: words of encouragement.