Spring has Sprung

It's about damn time for some flowers to bloom

Author

Sara Hamdan
April 15, 2025

Listen, I don’t know what the Venus retrograde is up, but it’s been a tough few weeks…

Every time I pick up my phone, the news is telling me the world is not a happy place. There’s suffering at every turn and it makes me feel helpless. Scared, even.

And yet, here I am raising children, creating art and taking photos of sunsets, because I want my world to be joyful. Is this hope naive or beautiful?

At so many points last month, I felt like the rug was pulled out from under me…

I got through it all with the most wonderful friends and some milestone moments. A highlight in March was a trip to SXSW in Austin, TX where I got to do my very first book signing of advance copies!

A full house at SXSW - talk on storytelling!

I share all this because life has crazy ups and downs - and I’m right there with you.

A friend of mine told me I always seem so calm and composed no matter what life throws at me… I am outwardly a mellow person, but I feel aaaaaaall the feels.

So much so, that I believe this is precisely why I write. I process my spectrum of emotions over time, with crude words as tools, in hopes of making myself and others feel better.

—> Just over one month to go for the launch of my debut novel - check out what Mo Amer, Etaf Rum, Cecilia Ahern & many others had to say about it in the editorial reviews here!

READ: That Sucked! Now What? by Dr Neeta Bushan

I love guided meditations and sound healing, so this invite was right up my alley: an evening with The Brave Table’s Dr Neeta Bushan and hypnotist-to-the-stars Marisa Peer at Sohum Wellness Sanctuary!

I have the privilege of calling Neeta a dear friend. I’ve never met anyone quite like her. She lost both her parents and her brother before the age of 19, managing life’s biggest challenges with so much grace. She is a beautiful person, inside and out.

Her book, That Sucks, Now What? is all about building emotional resilience and making a commitment to finding joy. I can’t recommend it enough!

WRITE: The Feels

I keep a journal.

It’s a habit I’ve always had.

I’ve got a shelf with journals dating back to high school (the problems were, uh, very different :D)

A journalist by trade, it’s a habit for me to just document life.

I also love to read old entries and see how I’ve grown. There’s zero pressure to write beautifully… nobody else is going to read it.

I have bought some pretty journals in the past, but the crappy Dhs 5 ones from supermarkets work just as well.

Do you journal? Try it!

The world sucks. Here are random entertaining links: