Dear Artist,

Some creative projects don’t die.

They wait.

They wait while life moves on. While we get busy. While we lose faith. While some part of us quietly wonders if maybe it’s too late.

Jessica Amos wrote her poetic memoir, My Life in Moments, 13 years ago.

And last week, she finally published it.

This conversation is about that. But it’s also about much more.

It’s about staying with yourself when life pulls you away from your own truth. It’s about caring deeply without carrying what isn’t yours. It’s about creative timing, memoir, meditation, and the strange, beautiful courage it takes to share the stories that shaped you.

If you’ve been sitting on a story, a dream, a book, a Substack, a poem, or a piece of yourself you’re not sure the world is ready for, I think this conversation will meet you in a really tender and inspiring place.

In this conversation, we explore:

Why “stay with yourself” is more than a nice phrase

Jessica shares the simple coffee shop moment that helped her realize how often she was abandoning her own pace, needs, and inner knowing.

How to care without carrying

A powerful conversation for sensitive, generous humans who want to stay open-hearted without taking on everyone else’s pain, pressure, and energy.

Why meditation can become part of your creative process

We talk about using meditation not just to calm down, but to listen more deeply, receive ideas, and create from a clearer place.

How to write personal stories without forcing them into a traditional shape

Jessica shares how My Life in Moments became a poetic memoir built from snapshots, memory, spaciousness, and truth.

What to do with a creative dream that has been sitting for years

This might be my favourite part. Jessica wrote this book 13 years ago, but never published it. And somehow, it still found its way into the world at the right time.

This Week’s Writing Exercise

One of the things I love most about Jessica’s book is the form itself.

This poetic memoir approach feels brilliant to me because it gives us permission to tell the truth without having to explain everything. Just moments. Just fragments. Just little living pieces of a life.

Inspired by Jessica’s poetic memoir, My Life in Moments, today’s invitation is to write your own tiny version of a life in moments.

Choose one decade of your life.

It could be ages 0 to 10.Or 10 to 20.Or the decade you’re living right now.

Then move through that decade year by year and ask yourself:

What, if anything, do I remember?

Don’t try to make it beautiful.Don’t try to make it poetic.Don’t try to explain the whole story.

Just write down a few moments.

Something you remember directly.Something someone told you about yourself.A room.A smell.A person.A game.A sentence.A place you lived.A strange little detail that somehow still lives in your body.

Try writing 3 to 5 moments for each year.

Let them be messy. Let them be simple. Let them be incomplete.

You might write:

Age 4: I remember hiding behind the couch while everyone laughed in the kitchen.Age 7: I remember the red bike I was too scared to ride.Age 9: I remember the teacher who told me my story was good.

That’s enough.

This is not about making a memoir today.

It’s about listening for the small moments that still have a heartbeat.

Write quickly. Write imperfectly. Write for yourself.

Then see what starts to shimmer.

In Closing

I loved this conversation because it reminded me that our stories don’t always arrive in clean, perfect, linear ways.

Sometimes they come as fragments.

A sentence.A memory.A strange little detail.A moment we didn’t realize still mattered.

And sometimes the thing we thought we had missed, lost, or waited too long to share is still quietly alive inside us.

Maybe your story doesn’t need to be forced.

Maybe it just needs to be listened to.

Maybe it’s still waiting for you.

You can find Jessica’s beautiful, poetic memoir, My Life in Moments, here.

Big love,D

PS: Come Write With Me This Week

If you want space, guidance, and accountability to write every week, come join us inside the Writers Club.

You’ll leave each week with fresh words on the page, more courage in your body, and more clarity about what you’re here to say.

There’s also a bonus workshop every week to help you write with more courage, clarity, and momentum.

You can browse past workshops inside the Members’ Library.

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