In this reverie, I share some thoughts inspired by the novel On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle, a story about a woman living the same day over and over again. The book has me thinking deeply about time, our relationship to the future, and the ways we spend so much energy trying to understand and control what may or may not come next.

Beyond this, my thoughts wander through the following questions, curiosities, and inspirations that thread this reverie together:

• What if time isn't as fixed as we imagine it to be?

• Why do we spend so much of our lives living in tomorrow instead of today?

• The strange freedom that comes from admitting we don't actually understand very much at all.

• The difference between curiosity and control.

• A growing desire for a "summer portal" rooted in creativity, play, spaciousness, and self-expression.

• The metaphor of weaving, and the possibility that our lives themselves are the tapestry, the artwork, we are weaving moment by moment.

• Returning to the loom as a daily devotion, a practice of presence.

• What it might mean to live each day as both the first and the last day.

Mostly, this is a wandering reflection about presence, creativity, uncertainty, and the invitation to meet life as it is unfolding right now.

—

Links to some of the things I mentioned:

• On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle

• My Summer Artist Residency 2026 Substack newsletter by Estee Zales that has inspired the idea of a summer self-led artist residency

• The Artist Residency in Motherhood project by Lenka Clayton which inspired Estee Zales article

Get full access to Practicing Presence at practicingpresence.substack.com/subscribe