In eight years of writing these articles, I don’t think I’ve ever paused simply to thank you all for reading them. I’m happy to have a chance to do that.

Hello dear readers,

I’ve taken the past week to rest after returning from my dad’s memorial service. I had a number of tasks to take care of. Still, I managed to take extra time to sleep, to read, and to move more slowly than usual.

The trip to Indiana for the service would have been tiring in itself. On top of that, my mom ended up in the hospital for nine days. She was discharged just 48 hours before the service. With her typical tenacity, she managed to recover enough to attend not only the service itself, but the family gatherings before and after it.

Mom is on the mend now. Still, it was scary. She had internal bleeding, which can rapidly become life-threatening for someone who is on blood thinners. The hospital was alarmingly short-staffed, and we clearly needed to be there to advocate for Mom. My brother and I took over for my sister during the final days of that hospital stint. (My other brother stayed for the past week, setting up support systems for my mom, who is on her own for the first time in 66 years.)

Why am I describing all this? Because I was struck to notice that even in the midst of this intensity, I was actively wondering how I might write about the experience in a way that would be useful to you.

Writing for you is a gift to me

In particular, I thought about resilience. Resilience is crucial for us as highly sensitive people. I’m still percolating on that. In the meantime, I decided to take this opportunity to thank each of you for reading this newsletter. Some of you have read these articles since I began writing in 2015. Others have just arrived. All of you give me a reason to write.

Through this writing, I have come to know who I am, what I stand for, and how to express more clearly the key concepts underpinning a sustainable life for HSPs. In short, this opportunity to write for you helps me contribute in a deeply meaningful way. Thank you for this gift.

I also want to thank you for the many kind and caring messages I received following the post about my dad’s death. I always appreciate hearing from and learning from you, but those notes were particularly welcome: I was keenly needing comfort.

I know, too, that for every person who wrote, there were a dozen others who were thinking kind thoughts but (like me this week) did not have time or energy to “put pen to paper.” Thanks to all of you as well.

I send all my best, with much gratitude to you all. Thank you for reading.

Emily

Photo © 2023 Emily Agnew