WELCOME 🐞

I'm so excited you're here. This is a newsletter about creativity, well-being, the patient experience, ritual, food, somatics and more.

Hi! Welcome to the continuation of my newsletter in its new space, Substack. I’ve moved because I love to move in real life and have done my entire life so I don’t see why my internet avatar should be any different.

It will continue to be free, but there is also a paid option at $5 a month. With this option, you’ll receive the newsletter as well as a monthly podcast, meditation or pdf, depending on the month.

I aim for this to be a weekly offering, but there’s also life, global pandemics, systems crumbling and celery to eat, so I won’t totally commit to that. But I have been writing a regular newsletter since 2018, and this is where it will live now.

If you’re already here, you’ve been reading my newsletter in its previous incarnations, or you’re a part of my Patreon community where I teach and post meditations monthly. Thanks for sticking with me through my evolution.

The idea for the name Serenity Never was borne out of my never-ending quest for serenity: through spiritual practice, recovery, self-help books, ritual, therapy, community building, meditation, breathwork, nutrition, somatic movement, binge-watching tv shows until 1 am and quitting caffeine on a bi-monthly basis. And more (always more).

It also pokes fun at the idea of serenity being attainable in any way and the misconception so many people have that meditating or having any spiritual practice equals serenity. For me, and in most cases, the opposite is actually true. I don’t believe I will ever achieve a state of total serenity (mayyybeeee bliss, if I’m lucky). IMHO, anyone telling you that it’s achievable is bullshitting you. Have you looked around lately?! This newsletter will discuss everything I already talk about: creativity, somatic movement, meditation, art, music and food.

I thought today would be a fitting day to make the switch because it was this week seven years ago that I went to the ER, not really knowing what was wrong with me (though I had an inkling it was liver-related because of the bright yellow fluorescence of my skin and bloodwork that told me that my liver enzymes were elevated). But I had no idea I'd be told I was dying a few hours after being admitted to the hospital. A truly serious pickle if there ever was one.

By August 6th, I would have a new liver. My transplant was at the very last moment the doctors had available in order to ensure my survival. If it didn’t happen that day, I probably wouldn’t be here, using my fingers to tap tap tap these words into the internet, the year of our lord AD 2022. Each year when the end of July rolls around and I hit this 10-day period, so many complicated feelings come up. Complicated feelings that have certainly dulled over time but maybe will never go away. The wound is where the light enters you, as old mate Lenny Cohen said. The literal and metaphorical wounds here are deep and vast, and yet I’m still here ticking (typing) away.

This is why I write, and this is why I’m writing to you today. It’s also Beyoncé’s album release day, and we’ve always had a similar work ethic and level of success.

I intend for this newsletter to continue to explore the nuance of illness and recovery, the expansion available in healing and the community we reach for on our darkest (and lightest) days. This is a space where I get curious about the grey area of my own illness, what healing looks like and how creativity helps. Hopefully, I’ll manage to tell a few jokes along the way.

Paid subscribers will have access to a monthly podcast, pdf and/or meditation and my endless gratitude.

Thanks for being here,

Nora x