Troy, it’s been 20 years since your last birthday.
But we’re still celebrating all that you brought into this world, including a love of music (and writing and art and movies and ridiculous adventures like that that Uvieto Jazz Festival on New Year’s Day or driving all night from MO to catch ACL in 2004).
You made me a mixtape all those years ago, so I returned the gift this year with 20 songs you never heard but would have loved.
Music has been a big part of my own grief journey these past two decades. It’s a comfort to hear songs that reflect this upside-down experience of life after loss, especially at such a young age.
If you’ve ever wondered why I write so much about grief, this is why.
Playlist and story at theinvisiblethread.substack.com.
My great Uncle Jack and his wife, Louise, gave me this glass globe paperweight from Tiffany’s when I was in high school. It was, and still is, probably the nicest thing I own.
Jack’s journey from being a decorated Boy Scout in Southwest Missouri to a West Point grad and then an army colonel stationed in Antarctica fascinated me as a kid, but we weren’t particularly close until my grandmother, his little sister, died in 2017.
Fresh on the newsletter this week is an essay about his globetrotting life and career planting seeds of inspiration for what would become my own.
theinvisiblethread.substack.com
Would love to have you join as a subscriber! Lots of stories to tell about the things that connect us that we cannot see.
I wasn’t sure how, or if, I would ever be able to write about the journey that Uncle Tom, my dad’s brother, and I have been on over the past 20 years, from living together when I first moved to Austin to not speaking after the 2016 election.
But when @erinquinnkongwrites asked if I had any road trip stories to tell for @texashighways , this is the one that started growing in my heart.
Thank you so much to @purplehogdog and his wonderful wife Sandy for taking me out to Luckenbach and trusting me with this tender and beautiful tale.
Here’s a snippet:
“Tom points to a sea of photos hanging on the wall and singles out his own face, a picture taken about 20 years ago. It’s a snapshot from yonder past, a unit of time just beyond measure. Close enough to see the lines carved by time, but far enough away to blur the details of why.
It’s 3 p.m. when we head back to Austin. As we stand in front of the bikes to take one last picture together, I want to remember not only this day but all the days before. Even the cloudy, cold ones I wouldn’t have picked. They are part of the changing seasons, too.“
You can find the full story at the link in my bio or in the May issue of Texas Highways!
Sometimes, the hopes and dreams of our ancestors reside in a $5 bill from 1969, held lovingly for six decades until just the right moment.
I loved having Rio here as part of the Austin Oita Sister City Committee student exchange program. @austinoitasistercity hosts these exchanges regularly, so check them out if you want to know more!
And, as always, check out theinvisiblethread.substack.com to get stories like these delivered to your inbox each week. ❤️🇯🇵🗾
Spring, as seen through Substack posts and the moments that inspired them. 🌱◼️❤️✨
Grief has a way of rippling into all my work, but so does ambition and creativity and the tenderness we all carry every day.
Surf on, friends.
Get caught up at theinvisiblethread.substack.com.
I am 99.9% sure I got poison ivy from this hammock, but it was totally worth it.
@ottine_mineral_springs is a long-time healing spot for people who had polio or other special needs, but it has recently been renovated/expanded/21st-centurified, and it is really great!
Delicious food, kind employees, welcoming hot spring pool. Please book yourself a day at those little oasis outside Luling if you can carve out a day this spring.
Frank and I kicked off anniversary month with a laid back day by the water. Those mineral healing powers are real.
#texasbucketlist #ottinemineralsprings #daytrip
Fresh batch of books for a fresh season of study abroad students!
@_lauren.hopkins_ and I wrote this lil guy to help encourage/guide young folks who might be on the fence about taking this HUGE step toward building a life of their own. (Lauren will be headed off on a Peace Corps adventure soon, so she is still taking those big steps!)
You can find a link to buy in my bio, but holler if you’re in Austin! Would love to drop off a copy if you’ve got a young person contemplating a semester (or two) abroad.
#howtostudyabroad #studyabroadbook #ohtheplacesyoullgo
Playing catch up from this winter’s adventures, which included hosting a Japanese exchange student name Rio for a week!
She was part of a sister city relationship with Oita, Japan, that goes back 35 years! In the @statesman last weekend, I wrote an op-ed about our small role in the long history of @austinoitasistercity .
I’ll post a link in my bio, and I have a companion piece coming out of my Substack soon!
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions about hosting a student through this kind of exchange. Rio is the fourth student we’ve had from Japan, and they have all been a wonderful additions to our home. #austinoita #exchangestudent #hostfamily #globalties
SXSW 2026 is in the books!
Haven’t done a multi-day South by Southwest in years, but when you have teens and a friend in town to give a talk, why not lean into the madness?
@blythe.terrell and I met when we were 18 and freshmen at Mizzou, and there’s nothing about my wild ride that she hasn’t been part of in some way!
What a joy to remember the creative, expansive heart of this city I’ve called home for 20 years now. (And share it with new friends like @panamtheband !) #sxsw2026 #sxsw
Scenes from February, which brought a visit from my mom and sister for my uncle’s wedding shindig at the Little Longhorn Saloon, a honky tonk bar that played an pivotal role in welcoming me to Austin 20 years ago.
We played pickleball, ate bbq, soaked up precious family time together to celebrate this later-in-life love that comes from a place that I can only describe as beyond.
After a few years of dating and picking up each other’s hobbies, Tom and Sandy got married in an underwater SCUBA diving ceremony in Mexico late last year, which is a string of words my late father, his older brother, would have to have read twice to make sure he got it right.
This past decade, in particular, has brought a lot of changes to my family, and I’m proud of how we’ve navigated them.
Chapter six of The Invisible Thread zine is officially out! 🖨️✨📔✂️
All copies are in the mail in record time, off to subscribers from California to Czechia, some of whom have been with me all along the way since I started this project in 2023.
Whether you’re a new subscriber or someone with all six zines, I am so grateful for your support. I love making this little publication, and I hope you enjoy it, too! This issue has five essays on the topic of *layers* — it’s a good one.
Find out more, read the most recent newsletter, and sign up to get a copy at theinvisiblethread.substack.com! 🧑💻
#zinemaking #longliveprint #indiemedia #publishing newsletter
