​Click here to read this on the web​

Did you miss last week's email? You can see it here.

Happy Friday, beautiful people!

A small but delightful thing happened.

While stopped at a red light coming home from school drop-off—one of the most routine things I do on a regular basis—I looked over at the gas station on the corner. A large cherry picker truck was getting gas. One of the men presumably working with the truck was up on the hood with a squeegee, cleaning the windshield.

But at the moment I looked over, he was laying across the hood on one hip, posed with the squeegee while his colleague standing on the ground snapped a photo. They were laughing and having a fun moment. It made me happy to witness it, and I hope it makes you smile.

One of the things I've learned about myself is that when I'm in a head space where I'm complaining often, I don't see or enjoy things like this nearly as much. I'm not open to funny little scenes at the gas station, or the little purple flowers that are all over the place here right now, or the myriad of lizards and quail crossing my path while I hike.

Maybe you don't care about being open to small joys, whether they're ones I listed or completely different. But if you do care about it and you want more, I've found that the fastest way to more is being open to more.

Try it and let me know how it works. And if you have a delightful little story to share, send it over!

​

What's new on the blog?

Photography

​Peralta Trail in the Superstition Mountains​

[click on the headline or the photo to see the photos]

---

Writing

​Audio editing vs photo editing with a splash of ableism​

While editing podcasts recently, I had a thought.

Am I doing the audio equivalent of Photoshopping the cellulite or wrinkles off a model?

[click on the headline to read the rest and to join the conversation]

---

​The back end of very small businesses​

As I’ve been working through what I want to be when I grow up, I’ve done a lot of work to grow my skills and to connect with people who might be interested in what I have to offer.

While I’m not making money yet (soon, if all goes according to plan!), I consider myself to be self-employed and am laying foundation that I might have done in tandem with a day job if there hadn’t been a pandemic and ensuing dominoes.

I’ve gotten some comments about having a lot of free time, and while it’s true that I have significant flexibility in how I spend my time and what gets done when, I spend more time on work-related tasks now than I did when I was teaching.

[click on the headline to read the rest]

​

What's new in podcasting?

​Karen was our guest this week. Karen does inkle weaving (yeah, I had never heard of it, either) and she co-created an app for inkle weavers. It was an interesting conversation split between the two activities and as always, there were some life lessons tucked in there.

​Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

​

Audience participation

My call to action here last week was short and vague—did you do something?

---

If you ever notice a link is broken or any other tech issue, please hit reply and let me know. When I hit send, everything is in good working order as far as I know.

​

Heat's other offerings

Some of my art is available for sale, printed on various items (cards, stickers, clocks, clothes, etc.) at RedBubble. Check those out here. I've added several new designs since last week!

Also—if you see a photo of mine that you'd love on a product, it's not typically difficult for me to make that happen. Just let me know!

---

One of my designs is also available on fabric! If you're a user of fabric, check out 100 Busses at Spoonflower.

---

"Name Frames" are coming soon! Start looking for a photo that you'd like framed in the person's name.

---

I have a separate newsletter exclusively for the journey to getting my first book published. If you'd like to follow along, click here. (Since I already have your email address, you literally only need to click.)
​

​

​

​