4 truths and a lie

August 2024 (Issue #48)

Welcome to a love letter, a monthly publication from artist, writer and yoga teacher Colby Mackenzie featuring stories of my loving practices and support for yours. Thanks for being here.

The Turkish House Museum in Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovnia (July 2024). Look at the stone floor!!

well hello there loves!

It’s been a minute! Did you think I was gone forever? Never! hehe

I straight up forgot to send the July love letter and balked at doing it when August 1 came around, probably because both days I was traveling cross country to begin and end our summer anniversary trip.

There is so much to share, so much I wrote and thought about writing, so many pictures and funny stories and trinkets. For now, all I’ve managed to do is post photos I took of all the colorful Grecian and Croatian doors we stumbled across on Instagram.

Long story short: we loved it, the Balkan countries are too touristy on the coast in the summer months, Greece is dope, Europeans maintain my favorite eating and sleeping schedule, and flying is still a fickle and annoying enterprise.

I barely had time to reflect before bubsy’s 37th birthday was upon us last week, and then our actual 10 year meetiversary (our blind date at Right Proper in Washington, DC - iykyk!) last night.

And now I’m busy thinking about my 35th birthday this month on August 24th. I had a real “oh shit” moment when I was sitting by the Greek seaside and realized that I am now squarely in my mid-30’s. The past few years have been such a traumatic and dramatic unraveling that I feel behind. Like I’m just rebuilding into my true self while everyone else has been gallavanting and acting this way for longer. This is a false belief of course, but it definitely re-energized the creative goals I still have that feel like they have been in my soul since I was a child, those years when the world hasn’t had its way with us yet and we are more distinctly our original selves.

I have a single one I’m focusing on right now, that I will scream here (in honor of my teacher Cath’s newsletter on this topic a few weeks ago), I WANT TO BE A BEST-SELLING AUTHOR BY 40. Have written a best-selling book by 40. That’s it. It feels both very doable and very frightening.

I got a tattoo to that effect, which I asked my dear soul sister Mackenzie to draw while we were on her tiny Greek island. It’s on the inside of my right wrist, reminding me every day to pick up the pen, to crank out that shitty first draft so it can slowly become a better one. Fck the perfectionist censor in my head, the cruel voice that says I’m lazy, I’m still sick, it’s not good enough, I can’t do it. LIES!

And speaking of lies, let’s play a game I love in recognition of my birthday - 4 truths and a lie! We played this during my partner’s birthday (the 2 truths and a lie version), and it was such fun and SO HARD to fake out people who know you so well.

Comment below on which one you think is the LIE about me!

1). I have a freckle in each iris.

2). I really like to pet stray animals.

3). The only wines I drink are red.

4). No visitors are coming for my birthday weekend.

5). I like my fingernails short and square.

hehehe!

Games aside, I hope you are managing, I hope you are practicing, I hope you are choosing love and kindness at least 1% more than fear, because that’s all it takes.

I love myself and I love you all even if I don’t know you (that doesn’t mean that I’ll like you all the time either ;) ).

Busy blowing up my birthday inflatable pool,

Colby