rabbit, rabbit | december
whispering up the chimney on the first of the month.
On the first day of the month, a tiny gift for you! the best things I’ve read, listened to, and learned over the last month. If you want more, check out the October or November editions.
📚 what I read.
“You don’t have to hold onto God. God holds onto you.” why go to church, anyway is a realistic and nuanced reflection about community and worship by Amy Peterson. As someone who has spent time in church, out of church, burned by church, and saved by church, I found her candor refreshing.
I’m (finally) re-negotiating my relationship with social media in 2025, so lately I have been inhaling pieces by people who have already left (like this one by Katie Morley or this delightfully tactical one by Jessie Tiernan). The podcast Off the Grid has been helpful, too - it’s primarily focused on small business owners, but it covers how to navigate the emotional and relational hurdles of leaving social media.
Sarah from Pantsuit Politics calls leaving social media a “clawing back,” which feels alarmingly accurate for how daunting changing my relationship with social media feels right now. Their episode on overconsumption has come up in just about every conversation I’ve had with friends in the last two weeks — so level-headed, nonjudgmental, and wise.
“The more I grieve, the more I love — and the more I love, the more I grieve.”
How do we establish more supportive rituals in our lives? How do we “unwind, but not collapse”? In the wake of the year of “brain rot,” I found this piece on the perfect anti-rot to be a welcome companion. PS. If anyone has their own anti-rot habits or rituals, I would love to hear about them!
🎧 what I listened to.
Public radio, still. There is something so soothing in its geographic particularity. It makes me feel like I’m connected to the real world somehow. I get local news and a real person’s voice, and I get to abandon the algorithm in one small slice of my life. And the music is genuinely good. Right now, the Nashville station 91.1 — the new music recommendation channel — has my number.
22, A Million by Bon Iver (my go-to album for airplanes), Bismillah by Peter Cat Recording Co. (music for a slow motion Miami garden party), and Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii (skillful, creative), and the Vince Guaraldi Trio Charlie Brown Christmas album (GOAT).
The Pantsuit Politics podcast.
💡 what I learned.
Sometimes a healthy change might linger on the horizon for years before you are actually ready for it. That’s okay. Not all change is for you at all times. Life is long, try to be patient with it.
The anxious part of you is trying to keep you safe, and God bless her for it. But when anxiety is the loudest voice in the room, disconnection and paranoia are close by. Remember that there is also a part of you that craves vulnerable, trusting connection — she deserves tending, too.
Life is a party — you can spend the entire night worried about whether or not there’s enough food, whether or not people are having a good time. Or you can spend the night enjoying yourself, surrounded by the people you love, trusting that there is enough.
You think you’re going to miss Instagram, but you’re not. There are few things more healing than deleting Instagram from your phone and having long conversations with close girlfriends.