From the Compost Heap header. A pencil style illustration of a compost heap with flowers and plants growing around it. A bee buzzes by and a white rabbit hops by.

The Ancient Technology of RSS

Ornate illustration of Tree of Life in a stone building surronded by three leaf vines entwined in a border.

How have you been?

Since taking my foot off the gas here at Substack I’ve freed up a lot of time and creative energy. If you’re feeling pressure to post weekly it’s worth asking yourself what your intentions are. If it’s all about growth there’s no doubt there is a benefit to posting weekly.

But if you’re looking holistically at your creative ecosystem there may be another rhythm that’s better for you.

Ornate illustration of Tree of Life in a stone building surronded by three leaf vines entwined in a border.

Illustration of Yggdrasil (Norse Tree of Life) from The story of Sigurd the Volsung and the fall of the Niblungs by: William Morris.

The time that I didn’t spend writing newsletters I’ve been…

  • Reading Norse poetry.*
  • Baking sourdough bread.
  • Studying The Wheel of Time from a craft perspective.
  • Trying out a new note taking platform called Obsidian. †
  • Working on my anthology project.
  • Curating my feed (and subsequently reading more blogs.)

As an elder of the internet, I’d like to take a moment to point out the ancient technology of an RSS feed.

An RSS feed is a chronological, non-algorithmic feed of what you choose to add.

It is basically the holy grail of the internet.

But we left it behind in favor of the siren song of social media.

Before socials, if you wanted to follow updates from multiple sources, you used an RSS reader. Every blog and podcast has an RSS feed (even Substack.)

It’s baked into the DNA of the internet.

What I’ve done is moved most of my Substack reading to a free RSS reader called Feedly.

Most RSS feeds will automatically pull the post and strip away the formatting – meaning you don’t see certain Substack features like embedded posts. I have my Feedly set to open all posts in the web browser. (Here’s how.) This also makes it easy to comment or share. There are lots of ways to show love to posts without subscribing.

My actual subs are now the newsletters I read pretty much every time. The ones I don’t want to miss. If I have time to read more I can pop over to Feedly to see what’s new or to check certain categories like Food or Art.

in the studio

I haven’t done much art making recently because I’ve been focusing on curation projects (like Neurokind & Entwined.) But I have submitted a poem to Motherlore magazine and am preparing works for Painting at Night & Mothering.

I’ve also been doing a lot of journaling and research for my fiction novel. I’ve started writing at my antique secretary instead of the couch and it’s been a lovely change (I’m writing at it now.) Davy has finally reached a stage where he’s happy to play LEGO beside me while I write and it’s a game changer!

Antique secretary with glass doors covering shelves displaying Anne of Green Gables and Tress of the Emerald Sea. Fold out desk has pigeon holes with envelopes and a traveler's notebook with William Morris inserts sits on the desk.
of shoes and ships and sealing wax

Other bits and bobs I’d like to recommend this week.

Read

My favorite new sub is SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB. It reminds me of old days of the internet. Just because social media wants us all to yell over each other and be content machines doesn’t mean we have to comply. This post is a great place to start.

If you’re neurodivergent I can’t recommend Moving from Burnout to Balance by Louise Brown enough. This sounds deceptively simple, but if you struggle to make time for the things you love this process can be revolutionary.

Looking back this is how I climbed out of a very dark place in 2020 to where I am now.

Listen

Another process chat from Helen Stephens.

What comes first? The idea or the material?

Play

We played a lot of Dreamlight Valley over the holidays. If you’re a Disney nerd and you like cozy games (where you harvest plants, craft, and collect things) this game is for you. I don’t know why I find this type of game play so regulating, but I just do. Here are some selfies!

Myself as Eilonwy with red hair, overalls and Mickey ears in Dreamlight Valley with Belle reading a book behind
Me again with the Beast in Dreamlight Valley

One Year Ago

This time last year I was reflecting on a year long creative collaboration with Claire Venus.

Instagram brought us together and I’m so thankful for it.

Black and white diptych shows two photographs. One shows feet on an oval rag rug with LEGO DUPLO and a grabber. The other shows feet in sandals beside a train track.

This is an indie passion project! Here are some of the ways you can support me.

  1. Leave a comment. (This one’s my favorite. And it’s free!)
  2. Share this post.
  3. Sign up for Self Publishing 101.
  4. Subscribe or submit work to Neurokind.
  5. Read my book Discover Your Creative Ecosystem (Curious what I mean by creative ecosystem? Start here.)

Let’s discuss.

  • How do you manage your reading queue for Substack and blogs?
  • Are you an internet elder? What do you miss about the old magic?
  • What does your creative ecosystem need right now?

Cheers,

Sarah signed with a swoopy S

*

Specifically listening to the audiobook of this version whilst reading along in hardcover and taking notes. I’m researching the Norns (Norse Fates) and Yggdrasil (Norse Tree of Life) for a fantasy novel I’m working on.

†

You can scroll down to the bottom of this post for a little update about how I’m integrating Obsidian into my hybrid (analogue / digital) note taking practice.

Cross Pollination 🐝