From: Scotland, August 2026
To:
Dear Friends,
Rather than jumping across time and place, I am writing to you this week from where I am right now.
Since May, I have been living in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. To get shopping I cycle 20 miles and get two boats. It is quiet here, but there is always a run to go on, a book to read, a show to watch.
What I am grappling with is change and how it has taken over my life. There seem to be so many threads to this change, it is hard to put my finger on what to write about. But I am getting there and I have some longer pieces to share soon. Part of it is about finding aligned work amidst geopolitical, technological and climate shifts. Part of it is about being about having purpose and contributing my skills meaningfully.
It is also about making sense of all that has already been travelled and wondering, what to do with the years ahead. It is about grappling with climate change, wars, a changing world and how to usefully and positively use my human energy wherever I find myself.
Its also about finding a way to contribute my skills so I won’t burn out, so I can chose a life where I can earn a living and still have room for joy. Because joy, creativity and beauty all seem much more important way-finders than they used to.
Sometimes I think, everything till now, was the prelude, the story is just getting started. Other days I think, is this it, is this all my adventures across 4 continents have been preparing me for? Back home with too many ideas to count.
Mostly I don’t think about change. Instead I find something beautiful to look at. Someone to have a real conversation with (why are those so few and far between). Time to weave the threads of my stories, still alive and well, into something new to bring to the table.
Waiting is long. Transition is hard. I don’t have the urgency I had when I was 20 to go out and chase the world. Now at 40, I think its about time the world started looking for me.
In the meantime, here I am with the peacock, the wagtail, the tawny owl and the oak tree. I like the days the grey sea-loch rises up onto the shore and the wind feels fresh and wild. I like the days when it feels like there is something in the air, not of history, or technology but of a world that still includes stories and dreams. When the summer machair is purple, yellow and green. And the bees disappear into the flowers for great feasts.
I like getting the boat and the bike to go anywhere. I am strong from those adventures. The physical movement helps me focus my mind on where I am now, until I have place for my stories to go.
Because the grey loch might reach up yet and reveal that these stories will be written. Even this nameless, odd time, can be the pen.
Till next time friend,
Catriona
Prompt
What is your favourite detail in your daily life right now?
This summer. Postcards for Free Subscribers
Join me this summer, as I write weekly postcards from across time and place, with prompts to take into your day or onto your page.
I haven't been commenting on these wee letters of yours, but I have been reading and enjoying your perspectives.
In this one, your line - "part of it is about finding aligned work amidst geopolitical, technological and climate shifts" - has something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Whether it's work, or my place in the world, surviving, being a responsible citizen, offering my wisdom (or lack of) and teacherly advice to my students, I've been wracked with anxiety over the future (mostly the planet's, not mine, but also worrying about my daughter's future).
It's tough out there.
Your stories are so close to our very different lifes and your words come deeply in our hearts. Thank you so much for sharing this uncertain time we all live in. Let’s stay together.