Wow! February! Anyone else feeling exhausted?

Lately I’ve been so underwater with my projects, so at capacity, that I haven’t been doing much reflecting. And when I do reflect, I do so with the kind of overwhelmed melancholy that seems to strike me this time every winter, and which causes every reflective thought I allow myself to be tinged with an honestly very funny kind of pain.

For example: when making my second ever batch of kombucha, when bringing it to life from the SCOBY and dregs from my first ever batch, I teared up at the beauty. The new batch of kombucha being brought to life from the soul of the first. The circle of life. Wow.

And also: when leafing through the Duncraft bird catalog with my nearly five year old son and circling the products we liked, we both paused on a page that showed little birds feeding on orange slices. Neither of us had any idea that birds ate orange slices. Wild.

And also: when glancing at my phone in the office after a long meeting and seeing 32 unread messages in my new group text called FRIEND GROUP, it hit me. For the first time in my adult life, I have a group of friends who are all mutually loving, supportive, nurturing, and loyal. In this group there is no competition, no jealousy, no drama. Nine people in one group chat, just vibing. Incredible.

When putting the final touches on this, our twentieth issue of the Review, I noticed that friendship is an important throughline between each of the pieces. From my dear friend Sasha Fletcher’s two stories, to friend of the House Lynn Stegar Strong’s review of her dear friend (and friend of the House) Miranda Popkey’s Topics of Conversation, to Kaiya Gordon’s innovative essay which we discovered through friend of the House Elissa Washuta, to the five poems by Meetra David which reflect on love, devotion, and companionship, friendship beams throughout.

It’s a beautiful thing to be able to share thoughts, perspectives, and tastes with the people I love, and I feel forever lucky to work on this magazine which continues to bring more people together and create new friendships.

FRIEND GROUP FOREVER