“The Sunday Letters are always a thoughtful and welcome stop during my week. You get a moment to pause, to consider and to reflect … and Jana often leaves you with a question to keep you thinking long after you’ve finished reading. I love these letters and find myself forwarding them regularly to friends and family.”
– Reader, The Sunday Letters
Have you ever wanted to be a writer? Maybe the type of writer with an acute eye for detail that maintains a deep connection with your readers. This is how I would describe the curator and writer of The Sunday Letters, Jana Marie. The Sunday Letters is a weekly newsletter on contemplative thinking. I don’t know about you, but Sundays continue to hold the air of naps, spiritual questions, and Swedish pancakes.This is how Jana describes Sundays – ‘In their characteristically gentle way, Sundays present us with what is so often a much-needed opportunity for stillness. A time to reconnect and re-center, they allow us the space to check in with both ourselves and others.’ It is from this still space that The Sunday Letters have been written by Jana these past 3 years. She has readers spanning the globe, one of which is this lowly podcast host.
In this exchange you were learn how Jana dropped out of business school to discover a path that felt more akin to her way of being in the world, how the Stoic philosopher Seneca has been shaping her view of reality, and how The Sunday Letters came to be in the world.
You can sign up for The Sunday Letters at thesundayletters.com.
Learn more about Jana Marie at jmarie.ca or find her on Instagram @janajm.
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EPISODE SHOW NOTES
Works by Jana Marie
Resources Mentioned
- Genre of Science Fiction
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
People
- Jack Kerouac
- Henry James
- Walt Whitman
- Elizabeth Gilbert
Highlights
- When you hear the word “contemplative”, how does that moniker relate to you or your work, if you think it does at all?
- How does that manifest in your day-to-day life? What do you think the power of contemplative thinking is?
- Why did you leave business school two years in? Is there a story behind it?
- As you look back on that decision, what feelings arise?
- What sparked the idea for your weekly newsletter, ‘The Sunday Letters’?
- How do you approach each newsletter? Do you have a ritual when it comes to writing them? Do you think of a specific person you are writing to?
- If someone were going to teach a class on the formation of Jana Marie, what 3 books that formed you would definitely be on that syllabus?
- What beautiful and daring question(s) are you currently wrestling with?
- What projects are on the horizon for you?
Hey, Paul!
This comment is long overdue because I’ve been enjoying your podcast for a while now.
Your recent episode with Jana Marie finally pushed me across the line (in a good way).
What a great chat that was!
Please keep going and thank you,
Bob
p.s. Would you ever consider bringing Jana back for another chat? I’m asking because she’s like the epitome of what your mission is all
about. What’s more, I also feel that the two of you just barely scratched the surface.