Doing Just Fine

July 2025

Dear Reader

I am sitting with two opposing feelings. On one hand, the joy of the one year anniversary for Linh Ly is Doing Just Fine is July 23. And on the other, the horror of the year being half over. I’d also bet that I’m not alone in feeling like these past six months have felt like six years. Should we have been better prepared for this feeling, having survived the ongoing pandemic? …and what’s next?

Horror and joy! That’s the theme to life these days. I really hope you are actively finding ways to insert joy when you can. I'm eating both peaches and watermelon this week, and to me, this is joy. Going to the farmers market and then the grocery store in the same day for me is a great joy.

This week’s tarot card pull is Ginkgo. In my herbal astrology deck, Adriana Ayales writes, “…they were thought to be extinct, only to be found growing in Chinese monasteries, where monks had been cultivating the trees…” I’m a sucker for the wild things that happen in monasteries, but can you imagine this discovery?!? What things are you cultivating and will save while others believe it is extinct? I believe that this is really important right now. I’m not the first person to articulate this idea too: You cannot let your imagination be defeated. You cannot let them excise the possible futures from your mind.

The thought of us all working together to save what is important to us keeps me going. Yes, this means I’m buying obscure used books. Another joy: books in the mail, delivered by my wonderful USPS mail person.

So fill yourself with all the vegetables this summer has to offer. Relish in the afternoon rains. The sunflowers are starting to reach their heights now. It’s been deceivingly cool (meaning below triple digits) but humid. Summer has only started. There are three full months to go.

With love,

Thao

Book recs:

• ​Moby Dick — this is a repeat! I finished the book and it really is a great treatise. It’s also not as laborious as my younger self found it (is this be true for all things?).
• ​A Pink Front Door — Stella Gibbons is becoming a comfort read go-to, and I'm really happy with this new aspect of my life.
• ​whyever — plugging a new blog I started. I really went/go back on forth on this, but I’m trying to remind the magic I must have once felt when looking at art. This is the search. Have you ever started project that you weren’t sure had a purpose? I'm really bad at it. Watch me go.

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