☔️ The May 2025 Papers
The snippets and shares from the month
Don’t panic. It’s not a Lil Treasure, but it’s (hopefully) better. Stay with me.
Earlier this year, I started attempting (wow that’s some noncommittal language if ever I’ve heard it) to collect bits and pieces of ephemera that I liked or resonated with me in a Note in my Notes app. It could be a screenshot, a picture of a moment on a walk, a link to a good cheese, a quote a friend said, whatever. I now find myself with a giant Note titled The May 2025 Papers, and I’d like to start sharing part of my Papers with you at the end of each month. It’s sort of like a souped-up version of Lil Treasures. If we hate it, we’ll go back to your regularly scheduled Lil Treasures and no one will ever speak of this again.
So without further ado, The May 2025 Papers: The Edit.
From my book reading: “And the only antidote really to this war, to the steep fear of not being enough, to not being worthy, of not being in control or able to shield your children or yourself from this fear of incompleteness, this homesickness we cannot name, is God. It is to realize that God loves us in our limits, that God is always with us, always for us, for when we love, we are born of God and everyone who is born of God with unlimited love.” -
(from God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us)From my scrolling: Gah I love Hilary Mantel (writer of my absolute favorite book series, Wolf Hall). I adore this quote (no idea where it’s from), but it did remind me of this fabulous piece she did with LitHub that’s worth your time if you’re interested in writing at all.
In entertainment/rebellion news: I fear I have been radicalized and deeply changed by the television series Andor?! Yes, it is a Star War, and although I am not a Star Wars girlie, I am, unfortunately, a gooder-than-hell writing and inexplicably-amazing-acting girlie, and I will NOT SHUT UP about this show. Or Diego Luna and his tiny, perfect little face. This from
is a fabulous reflection on why it’s actually an important watch for our current climate.
From my friends: we had one of Ben’s dear friends spend the weekend with us recently, and he was telling us about a mindset in Islam: gratitude to Allah in the good times, and patience with Allah in the bad times. I don’t know if it was the particular magic of a summer evening on the back deck and good company, but Zaid sharing that simple snippet has stuck with me all month.
From a podcast: I was listening to Let’s Ask Taylor Swift on a walk earlier this month (I believe it was the Anti-Hero episode).
shared a story about how a friend was going through a difficult time, and Vanessa said to her: “What if I told you that you’re doing great, you’re doing everything right, this is just hard?” Why has it never occurred to me that you can be going through something in all the “right” or “correct” ways (which, what does that even mean?) and it will still hurt and be uncomfortable because it’s just a hard thing you’re going through. Did a little rewire of my brain on that one.I’ve really been loving scrolling through Substack Notes lately. The algorithm feels slow and intentional, and I’ve found some gems to share:
While I’m never going to be the homemaker who does all of these or even several of these, I thought this was a sweet list to keep handy, highlighting ways I could make other people feel special and seen in my own home, which is something I want to work on.
Oh this was a dreamy/science-y read on nostalgiacore and how we can bring back the way time moved for us as kids. Loved it.
I’m trying to be bored again, because everyone is telling me we’ve lost the ability to be bored, and it’s killing us. It is NOT going great, but here’s to trying.
It just wouldn’t be a Friday email without the memes. I’m sorry I’m powerless to resist.
Alright, I do hope you enjoyed the first edition of The Papers. A little slower, a little deeper (ew this is getting a little weirder, I’ll stop), but still a delightful Friday email for your inbox pleasures (still weird hasn’t stopped being weird). I hope you have a lovely weekend (or the best one available to you as our Pantsuit gals say) and please do share what you’ve loved and treasured this month in the comments. 👋
Loved this Erin, thank you! My girls and I joined friends in downtown Ithaca, NY, yesterday evening to watch a parade that kicks off Ithaca Fest (yes, the whole town celebrates when the college students leave for the summer), and I enjoyed every weird and wacky moment. Mostly because this was the first year my kids and I were old enough to go and not melt down completely. Did I love that it smelled a tiny bit like weed the whole time, and there was too much mud everywhere? No. But I loved that we were celebrating with a community. And that I got to chat with a friend the whole time.
Also, there was a whole group dedicated to carrying this massive gourd down the parade route, so. Ithaca is vvv. weird.
(And in 2 weeks our tiny town adjacent to Ithaca is having Dairy Day. My girls and I will be walking livestock through that parade and I am PUMPED)
Happy Friday friends - we made it to the end of May HOORAY!
Enjoyed reading, and I especially liked the article about intentional presence. I was just thinking about that yesterday as I sat watching my littles draw with chalk...trying and failing to resist the pull of my phone. I need to work on this more.