Thich Nhat Hahn said, “Many of us have been running all our lives. Practice stopping.” Be Where You Are is about how to use writing and mindfulness to stop and live more fully where you are.
Here, you will find new ways to slow down, reflect, and live more fully in the midst of the whirling pace of life. In this space, I’ll share weekly writing and mindfulness prompts, mini-essays, and interviews with writers, teachers, artists, and other wise humans. I’ll also host virtual workshops & meetups to help us write, meditate, and make art in community.
When I experienced postpartum depression and was searching for a way to come back to myself, my therapist recommended I try meditation, something I’d been considering for a decade but just kept putting off. It helped tremendously. At the same time, I was writing and teaching writing workshops, and becoming obsessed with the intersections between writing and mindfulness practices.
This newsletter is for anyone who knows there is more to life than productivity and the shiny surfaces of things—anyone who hears the humming underneath it all and wants to create spacious time on this planet right now. I am not a guru. I am try to find my way forward and inviting you along for the journey. (Non-meditators, non-writers, skeptics of various stripes: you are very welcome!)
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essays exploring writing, mindfulness, attention, parenthood, how to live fully where we are ✨✨
interviews with writers, teachers, artists, and other wise humans 🎙️💥
regular virtual workshops & meetups to help us write, meditate, and make art in community ⚡⚡
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My recent writing explores attention, parenthood, aging, the body, engaged Buddhism, and the in-between spaces that are awkward, often beautiful, and teach us a lot. For instance, how do you stay present (survive) when your kids are singing Post Malone’s “Sunflower” in cat voices on a road trip—the rhythms coming in various syncopations of meow meow meow meowwww? I’m interested in the ways we adapt and keep rolling when we face massive challenges, as well as the more mundane, daily difficulties of life. What are the regular practices that sustain us in our lives? I’m excited to share these within a community we will build together here.
Here is an essay I wrote for Romper, a poem at AGNI and another at New Ohio Review that dig into these questions. In the Romper essay, I write: “I want to be there, really there, when my children fall, without giving up the right to be in my own head, too. How do I do that?" That question is at the heart of what this newsletter will do: write and live into those messy, ambivalent moments.
About me
I’m the author of The Falls (New American Press) and Feed (Seven Kitchens Press) as well as other essays and poems. I’m a Pittsburgh native, but now live in Los Angeles, where I work as a writer and writing teacher. I currently teach writing workshops virtually for the Madwomen in the Attic at Carlow University.
When I’m not writing or teaching (or hiding out somewhere scrolling and trying not to scroll), I’m hanging out with my partner, historian and writer, Nico Slate, and our two awesome kids, Kai and Lulu.
You can find me on Instagram and elsewhere @mohnslate or find out more at my website.
I’d love to hear from you! Please share your thoughts, questions, and ideas for people, texts, or practices you’d like to see highlighted here.
