Note: This audio clip and the following short post are a response to Laura Oldfield’s audio challenge. I suggest reading my intro below first and then listening to the audio.
I’ve been dabbling with the voiceover feature here in Substack for the last few weeks. My process has been to first carefully write out my newsletter and edit it until I’m satisfied. Then I painstakingly record it, stopping if I make a mistake and recording again. Last week, not quite happy with the cadence of what I recorded, I scrapped it and did the whole thing over again right before it was set to publish at noon that day.
In the midst of playing with this new creative medium, I sent out a note asking for suggestions for other voiceovers worth listening to here on Substack.
hopped into the comments and mentioned an audio challenge she was hosting.The challenge was to respond to the word “transitions” with an audio recording. Unlike the process I’ve been trying out the last few weeks, she was inviting readers to answer without a lot of planning and also lean into the imperfections that came up while recording.
The idea seemed terrifying and also…intriguing.
Today, as a paid subscriber to The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad, I listened in on a conversation with Suleika and author Susan Cain. During the workshop, someone asked Suleika if the happy accidents she experienced when painting with watercolor translated over to the rest of her life. Yes, she answered, watercolors required trust and surrender and she finds herself curious about how she might bloom, just like her watercolors, if she goes forward into a situation that she hasn’t planned out (my paraphrase of her answer).
So linked above is my unwritten, unplanned response to the challenge from Laura Oldfield.
Let’s all make space for happy accidents this week,
Aimee
Continue the Journey
I wrote a post a while back about the arrival of our second child, the subject of today’s audio clip.
A Chance to Bloom