Can we read? is taking a break

Well, I am taking a break from Can we read?

Hi.

Last week I shared how much I am struggling right now, how I need breathing space from this newsletter but haven’t quite figured out what that means, or looks like.

I have written here for six years, through more upheaval and crisis and change than I can fully comprehend, even with lots of time, perspective, and therapy. This project was born from the earliest Covid lockdown to begin with, and I’ve written through the traumatic loss of a baby at the small in-home daycare my children had attended since they were infants themselves, the family fallout after my sister’s then-partner tried to kill her, a year of homeschooling, my youngest child’s Lyme disease, my own emergency surgery, my mom’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, the final months of my grandmother’s life and her subsequent death, my mom’s nearly-catastrophic car accident, and an active shooter at my children’s schools.

Now I am getting divorced, and I could write through it. I could.

After I asked all of you last week which you prefer: that I take a break, still working in the background but not actively publishing anything, or republish exclusively from my archives. I offered those two options because I thought those were the only two options I was interested in, could be okay with.

But then one of my closest Substack friends, Jessica Wilen of A Cup of Ambition — a brilliant woman I met four years ago in a cohort, the topic of which I can’t even really remember — left this comment:

“I vote that you take a complete break — no newsletter work at all.”

It hit me so hard, I emailed her immediately to tell her it made me cry.

She responded just as fast and said, “What would you tell your girls to do if they were in your shoes? Prioritize your peace.”

What would I tell my girls if they were in my shoes?

I’d tell them: Nothing is more important than taking care of your heart. Treat yourself like your most precious thing.

I let that sink into my body for a few minutes, and that was it — it was clear.

I need to take a break. A real break. A complete break.

Last week I saw rainbows three days in a row, including two double rainbows on two back-to-back days — so this photo serves not only as a break in the middle of this message that makes me pretty sad, but also a reminder that there are breaks even when things are bleak

I don’t know how long this will last, but my creative projects have always told me what they need, and I trust that this time, despite “this time” being, for me, extraordinary and excruciating (though in no way special or unique), that will not change.

So for the time being, Can we read? will be on hiatus.

I have paused paid subscriptions — though, as always, there is no paywall, so everything here is available to everyone at all times.

I am also taking a break from providing personalized booklists, advice, or answering emails related to this newsletter unless it’s just to say hello. I don’t have the bandwidth for any of that right now. (I really need a complete break.)

Thank you for your understanding and patience. Thank you for your support and your care, especially since I am, to most of you, just a stranger on the internet. Thank you for being on the receiving end of this work, and for your ongoing enthusiasm and faith in me. It’s a gift to me.

Sarah