The other week I was craving some regular old bad reality home improvement television and ended up flipping Netflix to a show called, "Tiny House Nation."
The first episode that came on featured a young couple with kids from LA who were relocating to Tennessee, and it was incredibly controversial because, you see, they had not yet informed her family that they were...ahem..."going tiny."
"Oh, we haven't told my mom,” shared a woman who had learned to set such boundaries the hard way first.
Cue dramatic music and flabbergasted expressions on the host's face: "You haven't told her you're going tiny?"
Sensing potential for dramatic TV fodder, the host told her that she must let her mother tour the tiny home while it was in the process of being built. You know, so she could let her imagination conjure the functional possibility of a baby grand piano and family of four with two work-from-home parents living full-time inside a 300 square foot house. Of course, you can imagine how well that went. Luckily for the couple, their tiny home dreams were well underway.
About halfway through the episode, Ben, who had been trying to quietly read a book on the other couch, left the room. By episode two, I texted him, because it felt more polite than yelling: "You going tiny in there?" He assured me that he and the dogs were going tiny and we decided the show should be renamed to the title of today’s note.
In other news, I signed up for this Tiny Book Course, which is a course that helps you write a short, ~30-80 page (ie, tiny) book. I also joined a writing group in Tucson which I’ve always wanted to do but never have. Our first meeting is tomorrow and the idea of having this more intimate crew to lean on as I embark on such a process feels really soothing.
I thought about not sharing the tiny book things here because apparently announcing a goal diminishes the likelihood you will achieve the goal, and I have written in my newsletter for ohhh probably 5 years about the goal of writing a book. I mean, it’s why I moved to the desert in the first place. Apparently according to some experts, talking about doing the thing and announcing it (versus actually doing the thing and shutting up about it) kind of hijacks your dopamine feedback and makes you get the feel-goods even when the thing isn’t done. Which make sense to me. So maybe what I’m going for here instead is to share the method: I signed up for a guided book writing course and I joined a writing group to help stay on track.
Anyways, pray for me but also please don’t tell me because dopamine…is what I’m saying.
I have so many mental blocks around book writing. The indulgence! The writer’s block! The futility! The ignorance! Yet when I imagine the process of writing a tiny book, somehow my shoulders relax. Language and setting is powerful in that way. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that the first time I started my newsletter Om Weekly, it was on Tinyletter (RIP). The vast majority of essays, newsletters or articles that I publish — this one included — I've started writing in my Gmail drafts pretending as though I'm sitting down to compose an email to you. And really if you think about it, I am.
There's also a freeing aspect of paying to learn how to write a book which is that I admit at the beginning that net/net this endeavor will cost me money. Phew! Now that the pressure is off, I can simply have fun with it like any other moderately expensive hobby I’ve been known to take up such as playing the djembe, making pottery, horseback riding or gardening in the desert.
Speaking of which, we planted our spring garden and look at these tiny little buds.
Thank goodness for their reminder that all good things start incredibly small. 🌱
Some Other Tiny Things
Ben got us an air fryer for Christmas and may I just say, what the hell was I doing with my life before this? We decided that time is now divided between B.A. and A.A. In this year of our lord air fryer, I use it like two or three times a day and it’s revitalized my love for cooking.
I’ve been writing tiny poems in my notes app when otherwise my inclination was to doom scroll or check email. Even if the poems aren’t great, they are still a better use of my hands. It’s kind of awesome having that ongoing accounting of what’s possible in better-spent-time on my phone.
Most personal finance content online is just sort of…bad? And by bad I mean that it’s lacking in nuance and really does not do justice to the “personal” in personal finance. That said, I’ve been enjoying Money with Katie lately for its fresh and layered take and this episode on how marriage legally changes your financial rights pretty much blew my mind.
Recently learned about Sniffspot, and have now taken Maddie on a few playdates with her friend Kiwi to this one property in east Tucson with a chicken coop and huge amount of land and novelties for her to explore. So yeah, apparently if you have a yard, you too can charge goofs like me $30/hour to use it!
We are now solidly in hammock weather here in Tucson and before that takes a hard turn into sweaty afternoons in April I’ve been doing my civic duty to enjoy backyard swings as much as humanly possible.
Getting back into my sunrise yoga routine. Tunes below for your enjoyment.
The flip side of announcing your goals is that you have a whole bunch of people rooting you on, eager to hear about your progress or dust you off when you stumble. And so I say shout it to the world! I can't wait to see what you learn from the tiny book course. And I am always excited to cheer along other writers or serve as an accountability partner. (hit me up, in other words.)