A love letter for July 2025

Thank you, a Note, and a New Offer

First - I want to take a moment to thank you for reading my weekly-ish musings. Thank you. Each new subscriber feels like I’m leaping closer to my dreams coming true. It means a lot that you read and connect with and respond to my words. I’m excited to see what this community can evolve into.

Second - I’m excited to launch Love Letters as a series for paid subscribers. This week’s post is a sample of what you will receive as a paid subscriber, but it’ll come to you handwritten and in the mail! The letters will even be personalized to you and whatever you need encouragement about.

Physical letters will be dropped in the mail on the 15th, and a digital version will be uploaded here on the 22nd each month. When you upgrade your subscription, you get access to (what will be) a whole archive of letters to look through whenever you need a pick-me-up.

So, below is a love letter for July 2025. Sending you hugs. Enjoy.

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How’s it going, friend?

Was it a rough week, even though technically everything was fine and nothing went horribly wrong?

I understand.

Sometimes things are hard. Sometimes, it feels like the universe just won’t let up. Maybe, a lot of times it feels like the universe won’t let up. It’s okay.

You know why? Cause you keep going. Even when things are ROUGH, you keep going. That’s one of the things I admire about you. You may not always feel your shiniest, or best, or even particularly brave, but you keep showing up. That’s amazing.

You choosing to keep going, even in little, teeny-tiny ways, tells me that you’re really strong. Did you know that about yourself? Or, maybe you did at one point, but do you remember that about yourself? When you’re asked to describe yourself in a few words, do you remember you should include the word “Strong”? It’s okay if you don’t remember. But I hope you think about including “strong” next time you’re in an icebreaker.

(And - I hope the next time you’re in an icebreaker, it’s a nice one that’s fun and not stressful and actually helps you learn some things about the other people you’re with.)

I felt like everything has been a little bit too loud this week. Feelings, the news, the AC unit in the office and the way the bass feels as it comes out of the car stereo. Have you been feeling that way, too? Maybe we can blame Thursday’s Full Moon. Or, maybe, we’re just feeling a little more sensitive than usual, and that’s okay, too.

Sensitivity is not a weakness. It can be A Lot. But it is not a weakness. It’s a gift to be finely attuned to the world, especially in a time when so many people are opting to disengage from it.

We do have to learn how to control our gift. I wish it were as cool as the montages in superhero movies - you know the ones. The young hero discovers their gift, struggles to control it, but keeps practicing through their frustration. Their wise mentor keeps them hard at work, running them through drills over and over again. In the next shot, the young hero is visibly stronger and trouncing the training obstacles that gave them so much trouble just 30 seconds ago. They grin toward their mentor, who nods sagely. Depending on the era, this whole thing was backed by Kendrick or something that sounds suspiciously like the Rocky soundtrack.

For us sensitive babes, learning to control our gift will not look nearly as cool as it does in the movies. It will certainly take a lot longer. And, if Kendrick was playing the WHOLE time, it would probably push us over the edge of overstimulation. But. We can do it.

A trick is to recognize that we are both the young hero AND the wise mentor. We’re going to have to encourage ourselves when things get tough. When we hit a limit, we have to be the first person to pat ourselves on the back and say, “Good job, kiddo. You know how far you can go right now. Take the night to rest. We get to do this all again tomorrow.”

That’s a beautiful thing. We always get to try again tomorrow. Our performance yesterday has no bearing on how things will go today.

by @oliviaherrickdesign, via pinterest

I’ll always be here to give you encouragement when you need it. But you can (and should!) encourage yourself, too. You should be very proud of yourself, and your capability, and everything you’re learning, and how strong you are, and how much you’ve grown.

I think I’ll stop here for now. I hope this next month is a good one. I hope you give yourself plenty of breaks and lots of credit for everything you manage to do, and do so well.

Til next time,

Emma

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Thank you for reading!

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