HNY! ♡ Let's lean softer, yeah?
Dear hearts! ♡ Happy 2026! Happy January! It’s my birthday month. My favorite month. I love winter and all its whimsy and wonder. You, too? ♡
Today, I’m sharing something I once shared before. Thoughts on an interview with filmmaker Pablo Larraín and Angelina Jolie on opera and playing Maria Callas that bears repeating and resounding. Linger with me on this…
As I think about the year ahead, I long to continue to lean softer. I’ve been embracing the color pink this year. Even dyed my hair pink. (Remember that one time?) Even deeper, I’ve been settling my heart to shift out of survival mode. Rekindling joy. Remembering the little girl that lives inside of me — all her layers and loves and light. Letting her speak up, lead conversations, and choose the outfits.
We are not problems to fix, friends. We are layers to unloose. We are little voices worth to listen to. Not merely wounded. We are wonderful and full of wisdom. We are multitudes — multiplicities of grief, yes, but also joy, too.
Let’s lean softer, this year. Lay down the shield and sword for once and sing a love song. Embrace pastels. opt for lighter palettes. Wear the patterned socks. Sew something. Paint a picture. Choose fantasy and fiction over memoir. Learn a new language. Unapologetically, let your voice be soft. No need to announce it. Not need to explain it. No fear, no façade.
Just realize and actualize.
Just let.
I either wasn’t safe or wasn’t heard in my softer self.
— Angelina Jolie —
I adore the takeaways from this conversation with filmmaker Pablo Larraín and Angelina Jolie. With that, I share this interview along with a brief quote of the transcript from the portion that I hope and trust will speak to you. Hope to hear how this speaks to you.
Press play and listen between the 2:03 - 3:20 minute markers:
Transcript, as rendered by Vogue.
Pablo Larraín: There’s something that you have said to me and not just to me, to others, that after your process of learning how to sing, you think other people, like most people should go into opera classes.
Angelina Jolie: Oh I do, everybody . . . Because I really hadn’t understood how much we hold in our bodies and how much through a lifetime we carry and it changes and how much it affects our sound. And I realized early on when I had to take that deep breath and let it all out and like let my actual voice out that I wasn’t.
I think that’s why I didn’t know I was a soprano, because I think I always had this, like this deeper or stronger. And I said, “I said no, my voice in the . . .”
And the coach said, “That’s not your natural voice. Your natural voice is much higher and softer than the way you speak.” And so . . .Pablo Larraín: And did he say why? Or do you know why is that?
Angelina Jolie: I think it was my softness that I somehow along my life felt that I either wasn’t safe or wasn’t heard in my softer self.
The question that comes through, clear as crystal, is this:
Do you sense the invitation to lean softer this year?
If so, how so?
Mailed letters are delayed but soon-to-come. Homemade paper production is proving to be different/difficult in winter. Thank you for your patience! ♡
🧡 yes. Yes yes.
Happy Birthday, Rachel!
An intriguing invitation to consider and discover the softer self, possibly the undefended, vulnerable self. Currently enjoying the long, quiet, slow drive from a lively time in Florida with children and grandchildren as we return home to Ohio. It is a gift of transition, a liminal space, the pause between 2025 and 2026, cocooned in a car with my husband of 48 years! Presence. Peace. Pondering. Grateful for you and your words.