ODETTE LOVE LETTER
By Odette Press
ODETTE LOVE LETTER Dec 14, 2023
8 MAY: MAKING CONNECTIONS
Creative process is a practices of making contact, and being in conversation with life. We root our attention down, and become strengthened us as we push up from the soil of our existence. Today's letter is a reflection on making contact, with prompts for your writing practice.
29 APRIL: MAY YOU BE HAPPY
Today's letter: a reflection on writing and meditating, on distractions and picking up the path again, and sitting in community. Do you want to generate inspiration and build confidence in your journaling practice? Let’s write. Sign up for Build Your Journaling Practice Sunday, May 5 at guesthouse by good neighbor, or for the online version on Wednesday, May 8. Bring a journal!
Subscribe on Substack for the full experience, sign up for classes and events, and shop journals and cards at www.odettepress.us.
If you enjoyed this audio recording, leave a rating! Share with a friend! As always, we're glad you're here.
23 APRIL: REMEMBER THE RIVER
What creatively hydrates you? By the water, I shift and swell, settle into relaxation — a momentary meeting with joy, contentment, relief, grounding. Today's letter is a riff on rivers and waters, and finding the flow in our creative practice. Stick around for prompts at the end. Subscribe on Substack, shop Odette Press here, or share this with a friend. Thanks for being here.
16 APRIL: HONOR THE BLOOM
This week, tune to the ground. What steady steps are you making? What’s growing? What are you paying attention to? In a walk around the city, everything unfolds. Today's letter is a riff on spring unfolding, warming up, and playing with pacing -- when we move fast, and when we go slow.
For the full experience, subscribe on Substack. If you enjoy these letters, or benefit from this writing and recording, become a paid subscriber. Shop at Odette Press, follow on Instagram @OdettePress, or come to a class.
9 APRIL: ARRIVAL, IN SPRING
I’ve written repeatedly about arriving to the seasons here: how to enter into winter, savor summer, what the autumns of our lives teach us about the leaves falling to the ground, and what we do to emerge slowly, unhurried, into a season like spring.
Today's letter is equal parts love letter to earth as it is a welcome into the Odette Press world. Learn more about my teaching practice and workshop schedule, and for the full experience, subscribe on Substack.
2 APRIL: TENSION, RELEASE
Welcome, April. Today's letter is a reflection on balance, Spring, and taking care. Included: some prompts for practice, so grab a journal, and open up to a new page. We're grounding into the season.
For the full experience, subscribe over on Substack. Free subscribers receive this newsletter in full, with links to classes and upcoming events. Paid subscribers receive more -- audio guides, discounts to the shop, more essays, and access to our Seasonal Session, quarterly writing classes.
Follow along on Instagram @OdettePress and shop online here.
26 MARCH: IN THE SLOW TIME
Today, an invitation into the sunlight, the season, the soil, the slow things unfurling and a riff on trusting the creative process.
For the full experience, subscribe on Substack, follow on Instagram, and of course, shop journals and cards at www.odettepress.us
Curious about my work and teaching practice? Visit my website for more.
19 MARCH: GATHERING MOMENTUM
What are you emerging into or from? What do you bring from the dormant winter with you into our unfolding of the season ahead? At the edges of Spring, what are we learning? Today's letter is a riff on the season. Find the full experience over on Substack, where paid subscribers receive a seasonal session -- a guided practice to root down, slow into the moment, and gather creative nutrients for the Spring ahead.
Shop journals at www.odettepress.us and follow along on Instagram @OdettePress
12 MARCH: ON THE WIND
The breath shifts, and so do the seasons. In today's letter: a riff on voice and expression. For the full experience subscribe on Substack (free or paid subscriptions) and shop journals and cards, here, at Odette Press.
5 MARCH: SURRENDER TO SPACIOUSNESS
Creativity is a practice in collaborating, in trust building with the unknown; today's letter pulls on the threads of I don't know, inspired by a single mourning dove by the window. A reflection on sound, space, silence, stillness, with prompts for your practice. Grab a journal, pen, and settle in for practice.
Shop journals and cards here, sign up for our classes, follow on Instagram, and subscribe on Substack for the full experience. Paid subscribers receive access to deeper dives, guided audio tracks, and further contemplative practice and creative meditations.
27 FEBRUARY: RUNNING TOWARD
Today's letter: a riff on the sunset. Movement nourishes our creative lives in the way it helps shakes things loose, to get unstuck; this week's writing is an arrival to the river again, a run, and a stark sunset.
For the full experience, grab a journal from Odette Press, and subscribe to Creative Nourishment as as free or paid subscriber here. Free subscribers receive this weekly letter every Tuesday, and paid subscribers have access to the full archive of writing and audio content, including guided meditations, video recordings, and our seasonally-focused writing sessions.
Thoughts, favorite selections, and ideas? Tag us on Instagram @OdettePress.
20 FEBRUARY: MIND LIKE WAVE
What are you meeting? What are you returning to? What are you flowing with? In today's letter, explore the shorelines of the mind, the intricacies of our inner experience, and experience the small things: the generative details of our lives.
Grab a journal, write/draw/reflect, and come along for the journey. For the full experience, subscribe on Substack, follow on Instagram @OdettePress, and shop journals and cards here. Odette Press is a creative studio and collection of nature-inspired journals and cards by artist, writer, and host of this podcast, Kelly Laughlin.
13 FEBRUARY: SNOW SKY, MEMORY
Thinking about snow fall, winter, memory, perception, citrus. For the full experience, subscribe on Substack. Shop journals and cards for your creative life over at our shop, follow along on Instagram, and share this with a friend.
6 FEBRUARY: INDIGO IS THE EVENING
A riff on city, distance, perspectives -- the optics of seeing things close and far, and caring for our creative lives. For the full experience, head over to odettepress.substack.com or shop journals and cards at www.odettepress.us
30 JANUARY: ON THE FROZEN LAKE
The birds, often, are my teachers. Today's letter is a reflecting on winter, grounding into nature, and asking the question, "What astonishing things arise when we can slow down and pay attention?"
For the full experience, shop at www.odettepress.us and odettepress.substack.com
Thanks, as always, for being here.
23 JANUARY: LEANING INTO PRACTICE
16 JANUARY: CREATE THE CONTAINER
Sometimes, creating the container for my own practice seems to be: turn down the lights, turn off the phone, exist for a minute or ten in silence. What are we crafting here together in this time, moment, space? Today's letter: a riff on holding and expressing, crafting the vessels for our practice, those creative containers in body, mind, and making.
For the full experience, subscribe on Substack here. Shop journals and cards for your creative practice at www.odettepress.us and follow along on Instagram at @OdettePress.
9 JANUARY: MIND BODY MOMENT MATTER
A riff on senses, shorelines, swelling tides and connecting with the environment. For the full experience, subscribe on Substack: odettepress.substack.com. Shop journals and cards at www.odettepress.us and follow along on Instagram @OdettePress.
2 JANUARY: SOLIDITY AND FLOW
A riff on the undulations of life and creative process. For the full experience, subscribe on Substack, here. Follow along @OdettePress, and shop journals and cards at www.odettepress.us
19 DECEMBER: GLOW IN THE DARK
Dark, blue, dawn like midnight: the early hours are a dark blue against the horizon, today's episode is a love letter to color, early mornings, and a reflection on rising.
For the full experience with links to classes and upcoming events, subscribe, free or paid, over on Substack. Shop journals and cards for your creative practice over at www.odettepress.us, and follow along on Instagram @OdettePress for behind the scenes views and notes on the process.
12 DECEMBER: NIGHTTIME, STARING AT THE STARS
A riff on a walk on a cold night; the warm glow of collective togetherness and effervescence.
For the full experience, visit Odette Press on Substack. To shop journals and cards, including the new Heirlooms, visit www.odettepress.us
5 DECEMBER: AROUND THE FLAME
In front of fires, we may find ourselves listening: listening to stories and those who are sharing, to the shifts and sounds of meals cooking, to explanations of starlight and glacial formations, to the way the earth outside lulls itself to sleep. In today's letter, we explore a reflection on relating to storytelling, awe, and how stories make us human -- how they can dazzle and connect us, like sitting in front of a fire or flame.
What blazes within you? For the full experience, visit Creative Nourishment, the Odette Press newsletter by Kelly Laughlin, on Substack, or shop journals and cards over at www.odettepress.us
28 NOVEMBER: ANATOMY OF A SPIRAL
Like any landscape we're traversing, anything we’re making, like anything we are collaborating with or relating to in life, writing can be a way of befriending ourselves, becoming our own companions, and noticing the depth and the horizons of our stories and celebrating what makes us human. Sometimes, it's helpful to write to the root: where did this story come from? What is it saying? Following the pathway of a thought process.
Today's letter centers in on writing as a practice of investigating the origins of our stories, going to the root of a thing through shapes on a page, through the inner landscape of writing.
For the full experience, visit Odette Press on Substack, and equip your creative practice with blank journals and marbled cards for writing, connecting, and sharing in our online shop.
Mentioned in today's letter:
- Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
21 NOVEMBER: A SHAKING PLACE
Think of the last time you deep belly laughed. Or a moment that rocked you with grief that you felt it in your stomach. Go to that place for a minute — can you feel it?
In today's letter, I'm sharing some reflections on creative practice from an embodied place, examining the role of the core within us physically and metaphorically, and sharing some prompts for your own reflective practice.
For the full experience, subscribe on Substack, shop at our online store, and follow along on Instagram @OdettePress.
What stabilizes and centers you?
14 NOVEMBER: HEARTWOOD, CENTER
A riff on trees, walking, writing, finding center and expanding out. What happens when we emerge out of our circles of comfort?
For the full experience, visit Odette Press on Substack, on Instagram, or shop journals and cards online.
7 NOVEMBER: TO THE ROOT
What are you rooted into? What people, places, tastes, songs are you anchoring into? What are you rooting for or aiming towards? What roots are nourishing you? Today, a reflection on seeds, metaphors of plants, and the conversation between inward seasons and expanding out into the world.
For the full experience (links for classes, etc) head to odettepress.substack.com | shop journals and cards here (odettepress.us) and follow along on IG: @OdettePress.
31 OCTOBER: (FIG)URES OF SPEECH, (FIG)URING IT OUT
I want to tell you about the delight I feel discovering a fig tree (and other reflections on walking, writing, and mapping through life). In this note, I talk about figs, tracking, growing, and prompts for now and then, as we tune into the past, present, and the future.
For the full calendar of experiences, click here. Subscribe on Substack (free or paid options) and shop journals and cards for your life and meaning making over at the shop.
24 OCTOBER: A CORD, A RHYTHM, A THREAD
Imagine this: there is a spotlight on a piece of cord. Cord, like the soft rope used to hang clothing from the line, cord like the line used on boats and sails. Soft, beige. It hangs in the air, frayed on either edge — vignette of shadow surrounds the center of the cord, revealing individual fibers, radial threads fanned out like rays of the sun. Up close, gathered together, they are stronger, woven, held tightly and intertwined, strong in the gathering together.
Today's letter is a riff on strength, togetherness, resilience. It touches on writing, music, and walking.
What holds you? What moves you?
For more, visit the class calendar for writing, bookbinding, and other creative classes, sign up on Substack for the full experience, and shop journals and cards for your creative life over at www.odettepress.us
17 OCTOBER: GROUND INTO THE SENSES
A reflection on this moment, this season, senses, and scent.
For more, visit www.odettepress.substack.com and shop journals and cards at www.odettepress.us
10 OCTOBER: THE PROCESS OF PLEASURE
As humans in the creative process of life, we are looking often for balance, feeling into the places where imbalances and asymmetries are blatant. Where the salt goes, the sweet comes in, the fat and the acid, when cooking; how the breath like the sunlight rises and falls in our bodies and the seasons; where the paint goes, or how to place the graphite on the page, or how and where to erase a line away. In practice, we are looking for the center, often, tasting or sensing when something is off, and adjusting, like in meditation, adjusting our posture. In today's letter, I share some thoughts on simple pleasures to counterweigh grief in the everyday, and share some practices for being and embodying feelings on and off the page.
Mentioned in today's letter:
Taste & Write: Meditating on the Senses irl
Embodying the Artist online
Pop Up at Earth & Me irl
Pleasure Portal: Writing for Aliveness + Feeling Good online
Build Your Journaling Practice irl
also: this article on negativity bias and Buddha's Brain
Visit odettepress.substack.com for the full experience | shop at www.odettepress.us for journals and cards
3 OCTOBER: PLEASURE ARRIVES
Pleasure arrives with a glimpse of October — or rather, last week, with the sun. This week's letter is a love note to the sun, to autumn runs, and finding pleasure as a practice for returning to life.
For the full experience, subscribe on Substack at odettepress.substack.com | equip your practice with tools for creative exploration at www.odettepress.us and follow along on Instagram @OdettePress
26 SEPTEMBER: THE RAIN IS JUST RAIN
And other thoughts on weathering the nature of life.
For the full experience, head over to www.odettepress.substack.com. Paid subscribers enjoy seasonal sessions to celebrate transitional times, prompts for practice, and the ability to comment. Follow along on Instagram @OdettePress, and of course, shop journals and cards to celebrate your creative life and the art of the everyday over at www.odettepress.us
19 SEPTEMBER: PICK UP THE PATH
Attention is, at times, a wild thing: moth to a flame, river flowing through earth, sand scattered across the desert blown by gusts of wind and endless in all directions. In today's letter, I'm riffing on intentions as ways of orienting, reorienting, and refocusing. We are, of course, humans, with thousands of thoughts throughout a single day. We get into prompts for centering in on what you care about, all while tuning in to this shifting season.
For the full experience -- links to classes, images, and upcoming experiences, visit odettepress.substack.com and subscribe there, or shop journals and cards for the nature of life and the art of the everyday at www.odettepress.us
12 SEPTEMBER: CLUTCHING THE BOULDER
One summer, in the desert, I found myself clutching a rock -- and in today's newsletter, I'm sharing some more prompts for earthy existing, navigating life's uncertainties, and grounding down.
For the full experience, and for guided audio pratice, head over to www.odettepress.substack.com | ignite your creative spirit at www.kellyodettelaughlin.com/shop with pre-recorded journaling classes from the course recordings, and shop journals for the nature of your life and the art of the everyday at www.odettepress.us
5 SEPTEMBER: SETTING THE GROUND
Rooting into being through grounding practices is the central thread for today's letter. Find links to classes, audio and video guides for paid subscribers and more at odettepress.substack.com or shop journals and cards to celebrate the nature of life at www.odettepress. us
What's grounding you this week, month, or season? Tag us in your reflections over on Instagram @Odettepress.
29 AUGUST: DAY LIGHT, EVENING GLOW
Life is here, now, expressing. Today's letter -- a riff on a walk and observation -- on the nature of noticing small things and living life. Included, too, are some prompts to generate and inspire your creative practice. For the full experience, head over to Odette Press on Substack, or shop journals and cards at www.odettepress.us
22 AUGUST: EXPRESSING WHAT IS
Feeling uninspired is part of the creative process, and forcing ourselves to constantly be making is antithetical to creative flow. In today's letter, I'm sharing with you some reflections from the studio, the kitchen, and the world along with some prompts and practices I turn to in order to generate ideas and inspiration. Hint: connecting with rest.
For the full experience, become a free or paid subscriber over at odettepress.substack.com | shop journals and cards at www.odettepress | and explore the experience library for writing prompts and creative practices over at www.kellyodettelaughlin.com/shop
15 AUGUST: GENEROUS SOLITUDE
Lately I've been riffing on self, identity, and being states — how we are in our lives, how we unfold and reform, and how that’s reflected and expressed in creative ways. How we shine, when we need shade, what we personally and collectively envision. In today's letter, I'm sharing some prompts for connecting with yourself, states of being, and identity through the lens of the seasons and nature. For more, visit Odette Press on Substack and in the shop, or follow along on Instagram @OdettePress.
8 AUGUST: METAMORPHOSIS
Today's letter is a riff on the water, humanhood, place, and the ways we may undulate, strengthen, and change like a wave.
For more, visit odettepress.substack.com, follow along on Instagram @OdettePress, or shop journals in the online shop at www.odettepress.us
1 AUGUST: BITTERSWEET
In which we chat about creative transformations, discuss prompts for clarifying, and I share some updates to the studio, all laced with lingering reflections on baked goods, flecks of memory and chocolate. For the full experience, head over to Odette Press on Substack, shop journals here, follow on Instagram @OdettePress and of course, tell all your friends.
Mentioned in today's letter:
25 JULY: ITERATING AN IDEA
Sometimes we might get caught thinking the creative process is somehow and easy going line: I have an idea, I like it, I want to do it, and therefore I will bring it into the world, and it will exist, and I will feel good about it, and it will be easy — but rarely is this linearity how things go. Today in the Odette Press newsletter, we're digging into iteration and some practical process steps for the creative process.
Mentioned in today's letter:
Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen by Rebecca May Johnson
Odette Press's fifth anniversary - use code fiveyears at www.odettepress.us for 20% off until July 31
For the full experience, visit the letter on Substack: odettepress.substack.com
18 JULY: BUOYANCY
What feels clarifying and reviving? Water can drip, slowly, and amass into rain, fall down, envelop, hold, give space, and on the earth, it is contained. Today's letter is a reflection from a beach weekend, with prompts for hydrating your creative life.
This month, we are playing around in the waters of the internet and our creative lives: Creative Vessels is an online experience centered around tending to creative practices of creating, caring for our lives and our ideas, and practicing expression. We’ll get into practices for generating and tending to ideas in our lives and in the world, nourishing our nervous systems, and I’ll share prompts with you for reviving, refreshing, and releasing parts of your creative process. We’ll anchor into boundaries, discernment, ways of containing, and practicing creative protection. sign up here.
Odette Press turns five this week! To celebrate, we’re offering 20% off subscriptions here on Substack and 20% off journals and cards in the shop. Follow along on Instagram @OdettePress and tag us in your reflections. Thanks to everyone who's along on this journey! Here's to riding the waves of your creative life being revived along the way.
11 JULY: CREATIVELY NOURISHED
In today's letter, we're diving into the name of the Odette Press newsletter: Creative Nourishment.
Mentioned in today's letter:
- Creative Vessels, an online experience happening on July 26
- The Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
- Prompts and practices for tuning into food and creative experience, ways of savoring your life
- Some of the origins of Odette Press and our journals -- More on those here.
Sign up for the newsletter over on Substack or follow along on Instagram @OdettePress
4 JULY: PRACTICES OF CARE
What does caring for you and your creativity look, feel, sound, or taste like? In today's letter, we're exploring practices of care, with a summertime reflection from a favorite river.
Mentioned in today's letter:
- Map journals — my go-tos for everyday writing (standard, here) and great sturdy well made travel companions
- Seasonal Session to support your practice this summer, or Field Guides to deepen your creative connections to the nature of life
- Creative Vessels, a new class on caring for your creative practice
Odette Press (www.odettepress.us) is a creative studio and collection of journals and cards by artist/writer Kelly Laughlin. Read more on my creative teaching practice and work here, and subscribe over on Substack for the full weekly newsletter experience.
27 JUNE: ACTIVATING AWE
We need wonder. Wonder draws us out of our habituated tendencies into the space of what we’re curious about. Awe shows us something to savor, fully, and be with. In today's letter, we're exploring awe and wonder.
Mentioned in today's letter:
- Values and Visions: Journaling for Intention for more on identifying what you love, value, and care about on the writing page or Inspiration and Ideation: Generative Journaling for practices I turn to for sparking ideas.
- The very first Seasonal Session, an hour-long guided creative session centered around writing in rhythm with the seasonal shift
Equip your inner journey and travels throughout the world with notebooks and cards made in nature: www.odettepress.us
20 JUNE: EXPLORING TOGETHER
Exploring together and alone, interdependently, what can we learn? When we soften into the unknown of our inner experiences, what loving care can emerge? When we gather together in strength, what gets revealed? These are some of the questions from today's letter for the season ahead.
Mentioned in today's letter:
- Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown
- How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny O'Dell
- The very first seasonal class, 6/21 from 8-9PME EST available for paid subscribers over on Substack
Read the full letter over at odettepress.substack.com and shop journals for your creative practice at www.odettepress.us
13 JUNE: A CONVERSATION WITH CURIOSITY
What are you curious about? What’s your creativity asking for? In this week's love letter, we're getting into creative flow, curiosity, and upcoming classes.
Mentioned in today's letter:
For the full experience, subscribe for free, or become a paid member over at odettepress.substack.com
Forward this to your curiously-minded, creative friends.
6 JUNE: WONDERING WITHIN
If you're curious about journaling, explore prompts and practices in person this Sunday in Brooklyn. Sign up for Build Your Journaling Practice or check out my collection of writing class recordings for you to explore on your own time.
As always, shop journals and cards over at www.odettepress.us share this with a friend who might like it, too, and subscribe on Substack for the full experience.
30 MAY: INNER WORLDS
Mentioned in today's letter:
Pema Chodron
David Whyte on On Being
My class recording library for discovering and deepening your journaling practice
Shop journals and cards at www.odettepress.us and subscribe on Substack for the full experience at odettepress.substack.com
23 MAY: PARTS OF SPEECH GROUNDING INTO VOICE
Today's letter is a meditation on embodying your voice. Where do you sense what it is you're trying to say? Equip your practice with journals and cards at www.odettepress.us and sign up for the full letter over at odettepress.substack.com