Where is the meaning? What is the meaning of life? For bestselling author Tara Schuster, the meaning is what you make of it. You give the hard stuff meaning, you give it a reason for happening. So what if we get to choose?
Raise your hand if you are running from something. Not literally, but maybe?
For example, I am running (in the form of overworking and jam-packing my schedule) so I don’t have to think about the uncertainty of the future. Decisions have to be made, and I am the one to make them, and yet, I feel uncertain about what I even want to do.
Buy the Fucking Lilies and Glow in the Fucking Dark, both books by Tara Schuster are interesting hybrids of memoir and self-help. Her quest is to make a “friend” (in book format) that could have held her hand through all of the diggings. Her approach to hard/intense topics is to use humor. And it works. Her writing is like a funny supportive best friend, and after talking to her, I want to be her friend. I want to find her a man friend. (full disclosure, before the taping she asked if I knew of any single dudes between the ages of 33-45. I don’t. Do you?) These sorts of confessional asks are endearing and super relatable. I mean, who doesn’t want to help someone find love?
In the interview, we talk about how to do the work to get stable (which I am at the moment I think). For Tara, it starts with the act of being self-aware of destructive behaviors. For example, on Sunday, when she was feeling depressed, the last thing she wanted to do was exercise and see friends - but she knew that those two things are the ticket to feeling better for her. So she did them. Was life perfect? No. Did they help? Yes. Having a depression action plan is key here. I don’t keep a journal, but this book is a case for solid morning routines and journaling.
Glow In the Fucking Dark is at its core a case for un-dooming yourself to ideas of worthlessness and emptiness. It is a locus of agency when you feel like you have none. Tara insists that we are both literally and figuratively, stars.
For decades, science popularizers have said humans are made of stardust, and now, a new survey of 150,000 stars shows just how true the old cliché is: Humans and their galaxy have about 97 percent of the same kind of atoms, and the elements of life appear to be more prevalent toward the galaxy's center, the research found.
Elizabeth Howell for Space.com
That we all come from a miracle, somehow makes us miraculous too. The massive amount of time and space is somehow both outside of our understanding and feels deeply true. To me at least.
If you are interested in Tara’s book (which I loved, obviously) you can get it here. We also have one copy to giveaway. If you are interested, comment here with something miraculous inside of you:
If you want to see a sample of Tara’s work, here are links to two of my favorite essays of hers on her substack:
Or just click through below, there is so much good stuff, just waiting for us to find it:
You said you dont keep a journal, but I feel like these essays read like a journal of sorts, would you consider them to fill that role or does it feel really different to you since you're sharing them publicly (or for some other reason)?
My favorite interview yet, thank you! I will noepractice un-dooming my life.🤩