Follow the Moss and Gather the Courage to Be Disliked

An update on The Moss Project, a guest essay, and moral courage

Dear reader,

Enjoy this post in three parts. The first is Ruins-centric. The second two are direct reflections on risk taking and relationship building. You may have seen my announcements of branching out to a second publication in order to write about what I need to write about.

Writing at Substack has changed everything for me. It gets in the way of cooking dinner, cleaning the studio, and giving my dear husband foot rubs. It is a way to live, as I type, backspace, carve out and zero in.

My subjects threaten to overwhelm the confines of The Ruins, hence the new format of The Appalachian Optimist. As the new place unfolds itself, you can expect the writing to challenge your perceptions and expectations. Once in a while, I will link the two places together, as you will discover in today’s post. You can follow the links in Part Two and Part Three to discover my latest terra incognitas.

But first, moss…