Welcome! I’m glad you’re here.

I started Notes from an Urban Cabin as a TinyLetter newsletter in 2015 when I moved into a wee studio apartment in downtown Little Rock. After 24 years of sidewalklessness, I was delighting in daily walks and noticing all kinds of things I wanted to write about. Would people read a newsletter? I gauged interest with a question on social media, but in describing it, I typed an o when I meant an i: “living in place, loving on foot.” That felicitous typo: it changes everything.

Now the urban cabin is a Pittsburgh apartment with a view, in a good walking neighborhood. In 2020, loving on foot required a 6-foot distance. After a year or so of silence, I migrated the newsletter here and started again. Many of us live in urban cabins now. We’re staying in more, yet reaching out electronically to maintain some kind of community. We’re keeping our distance at the grocery, where folks from the neighborhood suddenly are suddenly more than competitors for toilet paper; they’re mortal threats.

I want to be wise, but not fearful. Social fabric will stretch and fray. We’ll all have work at mending it.

About the photo: no, that’s not Pittsburgh. Many will recognize that’s Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture in New York City, from a visit in 2018. I was so happy that morning, energized from a walk to Central Park and back to my hotel. As I tried to take a selfie, a stranger offered to make my photo if I promised to hold her dog’s leash tightly. He was a rescue, and he’d saved her life when she was really sick. I hope they’re well.

So thank you for reading. Subscribe and you’ll receive new posts as soon as they go out. Be part of a community of people who care about living in place and loving on foot.

Peace,

Laura

(P.S. To find out more about the company providing this platform, visit Substack.com.)

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Thoughts on living in place, loving on foot.

People

Writer, editor, teacher. Pittsburgher.