World building is a semi-regular newsletter by me, Harmonie
I think a lot about attention and how to sustain it. I long for the days of falling into a book and not realizing hours have passed. Curling up with my journal and dreaming. Catching up with a loved one and not reaching for my phone. Running miles and miles while only communing with the little voice in my head.
Time is love. Attention is respect. What do my current actions suggest I care about?
World building is a personal exercise in discipline. I feel most attuned to my own spirit when I’m creating, practicing, and caring about something, or investing attention and time into it. To borrow from Leslie Jamison’s Empathy Exams, “Empathy isn't just something that happens to us . . . it's also a choice we make: to pay attention, to extend ourselves [. . .] This confession of effort chafes against the notion that empathy should always rise unbidden, that genuine means the same thing as unwilled, that intentionality is the enemy of love. But I believe in intention and I believe in work. I believe in waking up in the middle of the night and packing our bags and leaving our worst selves for our better ones.”
I hope to use this platform to ask thoughtful questions, write deeply, and share content worthy of a read, listen, or watch. I want to orchestrate my own attention and empathy beyond the 24-hour news cycle, the 280 characters of a tweet, the 5 seconds of an Instagram story.
“I believe in intention and I believe in work. I believe in waking up in the middle of the night and packing our bags and leaving our worst selves for our better ones.”
And maybe by tending to my own mind, heart, and spirit, and cultivating new practices, and sharing what I’m learning — we could build something new, together.
So what’s all this mean for you? As a subscriber of World building, you’ll get the occasional musing or essay-in-progress, thoughtfully handpicked stories and articles, well-curated playlists, and ample book recommendations sent straight to your inbox.
