As a teenage girl in the 1990s there was a level of harassment that I hope is unthinkable now
I’m a parent, tolerating worry is in the job description, and so is the gradual handover of physical safety from parent to child
My friend’s effortless joyful incompetence sets an example that’s difficult to match
It’s an interesting challenge to start something without the aim of mastering it
I’m not against HRT but are we once again medicating women for being angry?
It is horribly regressive to say that all women lose their minds in midlife. Did you know that men have hormones too?
Friends said that I’d ‘let’ my hair go grey. That’s not what happened
It’s interesting to think about the difference between ‘letting go’ and ‘letting yourself go’
Changing your mind is more interesting and more useful than changing your body
Fennel, yellow and yoga: Liking food or colours or activities I once disliked reminds me that preferences aren’t fixed
I do the same thing and expect different results, but thinking reality remains the same is sheer fantasy
Time continues to pass, the world of next time is not the same as the world of last time for anything we do
If you’ve read the literary canon, you know how to think like a bourgeois white man
Part of the work of art is to allow us glimpse worlds we don’t inhabit, or see worlds we inhabit through others’ eyes
Sarah Moss: Until recently, I assumed everyone had infinite worlds of light, sound, scent, taste and touch in their heads
It was a surprise to find other people had such different experiences of being conscious
The problem isn’t me and my sourdough and my kale. Access to nourishing food should be a right
We have accepted the baseline that what we all deserve is highly processed food
Sarah Moss: I find the phrase ‘first world problems’ deeply objectionable
It suggests that humans live on different planets, determined by economic conditions, which lets us off many hooks we would have to discuss if we accepted that all global resources are inequitably shared
I fly too much and I feel guilty about it, but I keep doing it
On a burning planet with limited resources, we need more international understanding, more curiosity about other lives in other places
I’ve always been suspicious of writers’ block. Nurses don’t get nurses’ block
There is a time to count and a time to be counted; the work is to know when that time comes
The man I met while out running thought I was wrong not to track my miles
Counting time and distance when I run would quickly turn joy to punishment
I don’t use social media and of course I sometimes wonder if the cost is worth the benefit
It’s mostly comfortable for me to be away from my phone because I don’t use social media, which means that probably not much has changed since I last looked
You’re so brave, people say, to cycle in Dublin
The danger is in the interaction of drivers and cyclists, almost exclusively to the disadvantage and sometimes to the death of the cyclist