73. Befriending Time & Belonging to Creativity with Charlotte Donlon

✨ Seasonal shifts offer a gentle invitation to pause, pay attention, and make space for what comes next. THRESHOLDS is the guided reflection ritual I've returned to for years, now gathered into a workbook I'd love to share with you. Download your copy here. "Seasonality isn’t just a feature of Japanese culture; it’s an inextricable keystone of life in this country.” One of the foundational principles of Japanese culture is kisetsukan, the sense of being present with each season as it happens. In this rich conversation, Alexis Agliano Sanborn shares insights from her new book, Moments in Bloom, and guides us through the layers of the Japanese seasonal calendar so you can develop your own practice. Episode Highlights How an early fascination with manga and anime grew into deep study and teaching abroad in Japan Ways the Japanese practice of kisetsukan (presence with each season) offers an architecture for deepening your own awareness Seasonality as a counterforce to our urgent, always-on culture Moving from a technical understanding of the 24 Japanese seasons to noticing what's abundant right now in your own place and time The joy in hunting for and discovering what defines each season where you live Seasons aren't just about nature—they're the rhythms and rituals woven through your own everyday life How noticing the impermanence of all things builds resilience and supports your wellbeing Finding unexpected support and grounding in seasonal awareness, especially during life's most challenging moments The evolution of hosting a podcast to writing a book with a co-author Links + Mentions Moments in Bloom: Japanese Seasonal Living Foundational Japanese literature: The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, and Manyôshû and Kokinshû poetry collections Season by Season podcast Meet Alexis Alexis Agliano Sanborn is an independent researcher, nature enthusiast, and award-winning artist. She is an inventive storyteller who enjoys working across media. Among other creative projects, she directed the award-winning documentary short Nourishing Japan (2020), which explores the impact of food education and the school lunch system on Japanese communities. Alexis co-hosted and produced Season by Season, a monthly podcast that celebrates our connection to nature through sound and story. She received her bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies from UC Santa Barbara, a master’s in regional studies of East Asia from Harvard University, and a master’s in public administration from New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. In her free time, she enjoys gardening and painting. Alexis lives with her husband and their two cats in the Northeast. Stay Connected 🌱 Free Seasonal Workbook: Download THRESHOLDS and begin wherever you are 🎙️ Slow Writing Newsletter: Exploring creativity, seasonal living, and the writing life 📚 Curl up with one of my books

✨ Seasonal shifts offer a gentle invitation to pause, pay attention, and make space for what comes next. THRESHOLDS is the guided reflection ritual I've returned to for years, now gathered into a workbook I'd love to share with you. Download your copy here. "Like seeing the sky, writing allows you to breathe. You ascend the stairs leading to your own thoughts and words the way water runs downstream, always searching for the larger substance from which you came." In Jenna Brack's Pass-Through Place, she explores landscape, home, and the invitations available to us wherever we're planted. Jenna grew up in Kansas, but this expansive conversation encourages you to consider your own relationship to place. Episode Highlights The ache of belonging to two places at once Defining home through a shifting lens of time and experience How distance reveals what we couldn't see up close, and what announces itself only after we've left Grief as a doorway into understanding ourselves and our writing more deeply Home as emotional and spiritual territory, not just physical location Writing Kansas with nuance rather than cliché The value of learning to wait and let our work settle while working within our limits and capacity Journaling prompts inspired by Pass-Through Place Meet Jenna Jenna Brack is the author of Pass-Through Place (Meadowlark Press, 2026), a collection of essays shaped by growing up in central Kansas. Her essays and poetry have been featured in Every Day Poems, Coffee + Crumbs, Fathom, The Sunlight Press, and others. A former educator and college instructor, Jenna now encourages other writers through editing and coaching. She holds an MA in English from Kansas State University and currently lives with her family in Germany. Links + Mentions Pass-Through Place by Jenna Brack Wisdom from a Wheat Farmer (Substack) Exhale Creativity writing community for mothers and artists Wyatt Townley, former poet laureate of Kansas Stay Connected 🌱 Free Seasonal Workbook: Download THRESHOLDS and begin wherever you are 🎙️ Slow Writing Newsletter: Exploring creativity, seasonal living, and the writing life 📚 Curl up with one of my books

✨ Seasonal shifts offer a gentle invitation to pause, pay attention, and make space for what comes next. THRESHOLDS is the guided reflection ritual I've returned to for years, now gathered into a workbook I'd love to share with you. Download your copy here. Writing in the margins—a philosophy that has guided me for two decades—was born out of constraint. I'd just finished graduate school, started working full-time, and came home too tired to write. But what I learned during that transition has guided me ever since. In a special anniversary episode, we're reflecting on 20 years of writing in the margins. Episode Highlights The origin story of my "writing in the margins" philosophy Combining the method and mindset to support your creative practice Why 10 minutes matters more than you think From writing on walks and in the kitchen, how Wallace Stevens and Emily Bronte found time to write Tinkering, staring at the wall, stretching, and other essential approaches to writing What I wish I knew when I started working full-time 5 takeaways from 20 years of writing in the margins Links + Mentions Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life by Mason Currey This Dark Night: Emily Bronte, A Life by Deborah Lutz The myth of 9-5 writing Stay Connected 🍂 Free Seasonal Workbook: Download THRESHOLDS and begin wherever you are 🎙️ Slow Writing Newsletter: Exploring creativity, seasonal living, and the writing life 📚 Curl up with one of my books

✨ Seasonal shifts offer a gentle invitation to pause, pay attention, and make space for what comes next. THRESHOLDS is the guided reflection ritual I've returned to for years, now gathered into a workbook I'd love to share with you. Download your copy here. My 2026 word of the year was ease, but the universe had other plans. After a summer break, we're back with lessons learned, the movie I can't wait to watch, and a conversation about the different kinds of liminal space we encounter. Episode Highlights Reflections from 2026's summer of white space An easy way to know if something is right for you How I'm staying afloat through lots of uncertainty Understanding focus months vs. meandering months Why we get more ideas when we spend time offline Gentle strategies for writing through liminal space and low-capacity times

In the early 1950s, Anne Morrow Lindbergh—writer, pilot, mother of five, and wife to aviator Charles Lindbergh—spent two weeks alone in a small cottage on Florida’s Captiva Island. During this trip she collected shells, cooked simple meals, and wrote about the trappings of modernity and the search for simplicity. Although this was before cell phones, the internet, and social media, her insights are just as relevant today. Episode Highlights What Anne Morrow Lindbergh considers to be the true enemy of creativity