Vol. 10, No. 14 | Field Guide for the Curious Drinker
Hey Ya’ll!
Have you ever circled around something and then one day everything clicked into place? Actually, as I wrote that, it reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from Rainer Maria Rilke’s book, Letters to A Young Poet. (I totally read it because of that scene in Sister Act.) Anyway, I read the book and in it Rilke wrote:
“I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
As I wrote that, I got chills because I haven’t thought about that quote in a really long time. And it feels like such a full-circle moment. I read this book about 20 years ago when I was trying to figure out if I really was a writer. And I’ve reread it a few times since.
When I picked back up with this newsletter a few months ago, I finally committed to writing no matter what. I decided to write when I was unsure, write when I felt stuck and write even if I thought it sucked. It’s the freest that I’ve ever felt writing. Without realizing it, I was finally living the question.
Last week, I said, Holy Sip is a field guide for the curious drinker. And just like that, I could see all the pieces moving and angling into place with ease.
I could trace various points in my life where it was clear this was the type of writing that I did and felt strongest about (writing my autobiography at 12…saying I was a cultural anthropologist when I spent the better part of a year in Brazil at 25…writing about my coffee table being stolen when I had Studio No. 7 instead of the normal things restaurant owners write about…writing a blog solely around fish tacos and my adventures in finding them). This has always been the way I see and write about the world.
I wasn’t stuck, I was just working my way into the answer. Not just in the last six months, but really in the last 10 years of writing some version of this newsletter. Everything about how I‘ve lived has led me to this place. I’ve always had the same desires, it’s just that now I have the experience that I needed to go along with it.
“Field guide.” Those two little words made sense of this thing that I’ve been trying to figure out for so long. I feel such a deep sense of relief. I’m excited to see what the new year and the next ten years bring.
Hope you’re all doing well! Thanks for joining me for the ride and living these questions with me. This is my last newsletter of the year. I hope you all have an amazing holiday and pull into 2026 in high spirits!
Shannon