Got Naches?
The Word You Didn't Know You Needed
I learned a new word this year. Naches. (Also sometimes spelled nachas.) It’s one of those yiddish words without a direct English translation, but it can describe second-hand joy one experiences upon seeing children or grandchildren succeed:
That swell in my chest as my daughter belts out a solo in the spotlight.
The warmth in my gaze when I spy my son standing taller after someone observes, “You’re becoming so mature.”
But naches can also be a proud enjoyment of one’s own accomplishments, especially when it’s joy helping others.
And this newsletter, Living the In-Between Times, has been that pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction for me this year. It’s no exaggeration to say that the naches I derive from writing here is changing my life.
I launched Living the In-Between Times in March of 2023 to coincide with the publication of my essay “Ditching Perfect for Joy” over at the incredible
. This was by far the highlight of my writing year (over 14k people saw the essay!).My book coach, the ever-wise
, said, “This is a great opportunity! Start testing your book ideas with readers! Write every week!”I blanched at the thought of attempting to publish so often. “Couldn’t every other week be enough to test my ideas?”
“No.”
I must be an Obliger, friends, because this girl, the one who sometimes still struggles to remember to brush her teeth every day, figured out a way to publish every dang week!
This is my 40th newsletter of the year, which puts me in the top 12% of writers who start a newsletter. I started with 0 subscribers, and now we’re a small but mighty crew of nearly 200. That number is nothing compared to the humbled awe I feel when I see new folks joining us weekly.
Hello, fellow experimenters seeking to wrest whatever loveliness can be found in the in-between times of life!
I have Plans with a captial P for us all in the upcoming year!
To see your shining faces in an upcoming online workshop! (Though “workshop” might be too official a term… Wondershop? Delightshop?)
To feature a wider variety of perspectives here on the topic of ways to uncover more delight, awe, love, ease, and yess! in life’s in-between times
Maybe a little challenge? (Say, a 7-day glow-up for your in-between times?)
As always, I would love to hear more from YOU, the ones reading and hearting and commenting and thinking and experimenting in finding the joy along with me in the in-between slog of life.
Writing may be for readers, but the activity of reading is not by design a communal experience—unless we intentionally choose to make it one. (10 days and 14K Views)
I’m grateful to every one of you who reached out to tell me you loved a post or that it made you think differently about things.
And it gives me so much naches to have you along in this space as we fumble through this lovely, lumpy journey called life.
Below are the posts that spoke most to readers this year. Drop a comment and let us know which ones linger most in your mind.
I’m wishing you a 2024 that is full to the brim with naches.
LIVING THE IN-BETWEEN TIMES: MOST POPULAR POSTS OF 2023
TALKING TO ALIENS
Being the neurotypical parent of a neurodivergent kid involves a lot of a lot of bumping your shins on coffee tables in the dark, a lot of slamming into brick walls you didn’t realize were there. An ADHD brain isn’t wrong, it just doesn’t work the same way as mine does. The things he hears aren’t the same things I believe I’m saying. The things he says aren’t always quite the things I understand him to mean.
The Doorstep Reset
When I’m coming through this door, I am thinking about the things I’m carrying and how to get them set down. I am thinking about my irritation at the mess that greets me, and about how I should probably do something about it right this minute. I am not thinking about my “inner landscape.” Nor love. Nor delight. And I’ll confess I’m rarely cultivating receptivity to the creative whispers that might be waiting for me just around the corner.
How Scraping the Spaghetti Plates Saved My Life
Yet, despite my desperate attempts to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t,’ to do it all perfectly, I still found myself at the end of most days feeling… bad. Like I wasn’t doing “enough.” Sure, I’d accomplished stuff and achieved some goals. But there was always one more thing (or seven!) I could be doing “better.”
Congratulations on 40 newsletters! Top 12%, woo hoo! Feeling naches for you...(am I using that word right L O L) your plans for next year sound awesome- can’t wait!
Loved this! And that you found me. I too am only one year in and chose to call mine “occasional” because of my fear of commitment. I hit 32 or 33 in a year, so I’m hoping I’m also in the top 12%. Keep ‘em coming Marika!! You inspire me.