The Assemblage Newsletter #76
The Return
We’re back. It’s nice to see you again. This is the return.
Welcome to this week’s newsletter from Assemblage. These newsletters go out every Friday to highlight some of our top essays from the past week. As always, these are all friend links, so anyone can view them. Please click through on the ones that resonate and read the whole essay.
“The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.” — Florence Scovel Shinn
Assemblage is now an essay-only publication, with all of our poetry being published at Loose Words, but we will continue to feature published poetry here from our archives.
Featured Writer
Each week we feature one of our writers and several of their essays (or past poems) on the homepage underneath the Featured Essays, Featured Poems, and Notes From the Editor sections. This week our Featured Writer is Arlene Ambrose. Arlene writes for those who are ready for self-love and healing.
Collection
Collections are groupings of essays or past poems with an overall theme. You can find Collections on the homepage underneath the Highlighted Essays, Highlighted Past Poems, Notes From the Editor, and Featured Writer sections.
Self-Awareness features 8 different works from 8 different writers around this theme. This section is a great way to get acquainted with multiple works around one theme, as well as to find writers you haven’t read before or ones you shouldn’t miss. Take a look at our Collection this week and see what you may have missed.
Self-Awareness features one work each from Carrie Wynn, Jonathan Greene, Aspen Blue, Iva Ursano, Melissa Kerman, Lance Baker, Chloe Cuthbert, and Anna I. Smith.
Highlighted Essays From Last Week
Your Current Situation is By No Means an Indication of Your Future. by Arlene Ambrose
“ We underestimate the amount of effort and perseverance that change involves. It’s the work of a lifetime. Don’t evaluate your life by only where you are now. Look at the past, present and future versions of you. Look at where you came from, revel in where you are, and look ahead to where you want to be.”
How a Banjo, a Broken Down Van, and an Old House Changed My Pattern of Thinking by Lance Baker
“When something doesn’t go as planned, we can be so easily blinded by the deviation from that plan it can be difficult to see new possibilities. Sometimes when I’m feeling stuck I try to picture myself sitting on the bumper of that old van on the side of the road and ask myself, what else could be possible here?”
Be a Better Gift Giver by Niki Marinis
“If we gave thoughtful gifts instead of grabbing whatever happens to be at the checkout register or on the nearest endcap, we could give fewer gifts and have them actually mean something. Insanity.”
Ramblings on Mortality by Jonathan Greene
“I’m older than my mother was when she died. My kids are both adults. I spend more time than ever before in mind-numbing circles thinking about my own mortality. It’s not hampering the way I live, but I wonder the toll it’s taking on my mind. How rational is it to think about death when you should be living your life?”
The La Jolla Cove Seals And Sea Lions by Megan Minutillo
“The rule that’s making you roll your eyes isn’t to make your life difficult but to make sure that life is easy for the countless other people and creatures that share this planet with you, for we all have to learn how to coexist in harmony.”
Is Suicide An Option? by Vinitha Dileep
“When someone remarks ‘I am so tired of this life’, the immediate reaction is to brush off that remark as a joke. But if you have any experience living, then you should be wise enough to realize that there is a truth in that statement.”
Highlighted Past Poems
“I stand beside my messy words,
one foot on the ground,
the other skateboarding on a star,
spilling ink and crushing parchment
into fine crystals of anger and velvet,
wherever my words would take me,
hoping they would somehow save me
from becoming forever anonymous,
sitting in the cool comfort of the afternoon shade.”
Peeling My Layers Off by Simran Kankas
“While peeling off the second layer
My self-worth started shining
I never felt so beautiful before
My heart laughed and lips were smiling”
Weekly Note
We are home again. It feels nice. Thanks for welcoming us back.
“I love coming home, sleeping in my own bed, seeing my own family and friends again. It feels like a big comfort for me.” — Amybeth McNulty
