Between you and me.

The pendulum swings.

My friend ran into my arms and hugged me; he was shaking. I noticed a nurse leaving the hospital, her eyes on the verge of crying. I flashed back to a man in New York, his body sprawled between docked e-bikes, lifeless and tangled. Words of a writer replay in my head - “Wailing on the floor.” Right now, Adrianne Lenker - “Anything” plays in harmony with the whir of my heater.

The lyrics repeat “I don’t want to talk about anything.”
The lyrics repeat “I don’t want to talk about anyone.”

I felt sad today. I noticed the world around me hurting.
Day-to-day life moved past me, teary-eyed, confused, and frightened.
The empath in me wanted to help everyone. I wanted to help my friend find a new job. I wanted to stop the nurse and sit for a chat, perhaps, buy her flowers. I think about the man in New York, I wonder if he’s alive. I think about the writer, and I picture a version of myself wailing on the floor - I get it.

Adrianne has been playing on repeat, but the room started to feel too melancholy, so I skipped the song. I’m not sure what I need to listen to. Perhaps, the murmuring storm and trickle of water from my overflowing herb garden /up-cycled bathtub will be the brown-noise to soothe my writing endeavours for the night

***

I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities coming my way. It feels as if my daily manifestation actually has the magnetic qualities I hoped it would. Hard to tell, but as I said, I’m grateful.

I’m fresh off a trip to Chicago - New York - Chicago. Time away was a mix of work, family, running, stress, leisure, running, family, stress, headaches, events, community, running, family, cuddles, family, and Whole Foods.

By virtue of my girlfriend’s brother having a child, I’m now an uncle. Not a blood uncle, but the next best thing. This little cherub of a nephew is the next best thing. I spent more time rocking him, swaying him, and staring at trees with him than I anticipated. In the interim, I felt stressed with the diminishing time available to work on the array of short-deadline projects on my plate. On the counter, I slowed down. When the baby cried, the best way to soothe him was to get him some fresh air. Like magic, as soon as we stepped outside and into the fresh air, his crying stopped. “Touch grass” works. “Breathe fresh air” also works. Sitting underneath a majestic tree named “Earl” relaxed me as much as it relaxed my 4-month-old nephew. As someone who is “chronically online”, I laugh how I still need to be reminded to embrace nature more.* I know nature is the best thing ever, but I still need a 4-month-old to hysterically cry, reminding me that we ALL need fresh air and sky time.

*A listener of my podcast made the effort to comment on my podcast to let me know that I’m “chronically online”. It’s true, it’s my job. I chuckled at the intended insult.

In between sky time and trips to Whole Foods, I’ve had a lot to work on. I’ve been telling my friends and my Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner that this is the busiest I’ve ever been. I don’t like the word busy, I despise it. However, my schedule is full. The digits inside the little red bubble of my messages app have been skyrocketing, and my reply times have blown out from hours to weeks.

Quantifiably, I can’t provide the numbers. I don’t have data to share or stats to prove my ‘busyness’. I’m just in it. Notes Running is going into its sixth drop for 2026, I’ve just launched a running and creative program with a women’s fitness App (Salty Club), and I'm about to fly to Paris to deliver a live painting and event experience for another major running brand. They seem to be the “priorities”, yet I’m also currently authoring a zine for ASICS to be delivered at the Sydney marathon, working on a new keynote for Love Trails festival, producing two event collaborations in Taiwan and Seoul, and preparing for a running and writing retreat I’m going to deliver in France in September. Everything I wanted for so long is coming to fruition; As the wave begins to form, I find myself paddling my little heart out trying to catch the ride of my life. Amidst the paddling, of course, I’m tired and breathing hard, but I’m also grinning like a little kid. I’m on a Hawaiian-like wave right now, and it’s mine to ride. It could be the time of my life, or I may go “over the falls” and get dumped, rolled, tumbled, and held down. Yet, to not paddle would be to live in fear, resulting in the worst question on earth - “What if?”

The pendulum swings.

Right now, it swings in the way of opportunity. Yet, I am not so far removed to remember that only in December 2025, I couldn’t pay my way to a race I’d been thinking about for a year. It’s the duality that makes me emotional when I hold my friend who's just lost his job. As I embark on the busiest month of my life, I think about how the pendulum swings, and I will, in time, go through lulls once again. I must hold the highs lightly, I must hold the lows lightly. They all pass.

***

Chicago was epic. It felt like a mix between Melbourne and New York. Communities and strangers were welcoming, streets were spacious, and squirrels scurried along the footpath at night. Locals told me I was enjoying the “mid-west” experience. What they were referring to was the warmth, curiosity, and generosity that are so abundantly given. On my first run on the lakefront, a stranger yelled out to me, “Welcome to Chicago, Josh!” I thought to myself, “Wow, Notes has made it over here.” I hosted events with local run crews like GRC Run Club, and people showed up in the Notes kit. I joined sessions with Heartbreak Chicago and felt right at home while completing a 10 x 2-minute workout. It felt like Speed Notes, just 50x the size.

Baseball is a thing. I’m a fan. I went to two Cubs games and had a blast both times. The first time, we were high in the stands, and the second time, we didn’t feel far off the field as we sat amongst the bleachers. The pace of the game kept me entertained, but it also let me daydream and Google rules, stats, and facts without missing anything.

I spoke to a lot of people, ran a half-marathon (Chicago 13.1), delivered a poetry reading, designed t-shirts, and shot a campaign in the last week. Let me tell you, the juice is worth the squeeze, but you gotta drink the juice too if you’re going to enjoy the effort of squeezing.

***

NYC was turbo.

Yet amongst it, we enjoyed some slow moments.

I didn't think it was possible to have a "slow morning" in NYC.
On our first morning, my girlfriend and I arrived early Sunday on a short flight from Chicago. We Ubered straight to breakfast and pulled up a seat.
My right arm burned while dangling in the sun, just like a truck driver on the Australian highways with one tanned arm and one pale. Burgers for brekky,
and extra coffee for good measure.

We moved on, pottering between stores, streets, and new faces. Our wanderings landed us in a ceramics studio, where we were greeted by inviting smiles, a doggo, and warm questions. As the conversations developed, I ended up spending my first morning in NYC painting notes and poetry onto coffee cups yet to be fired.

I realised, you can find "slow" anywhere.

After the slow of pottery and pottering, it was all systems go on socialising and event organising.

I linked with Minor Planet NY and hosted a breathwork, run, and journaling evening. I think 60-70 came through. It couldn’t have gone better. Amazing people, late afternoon sun, great chats, and a whole lotta people breathing deeply together and laying down poems. THAT’S IT RIGHT THERE.

***

So, I’m back in Melbourne now.
Our drop goes live on June 15th, less that 48 hours away.

I’m not really inspired by the internet right now. At all!

I’m inspired by bathtubs filled with herbs, Chinese medicine, drinking less coffee, running longer, getting stronger, pencils, concrete poetry, long-form poetry, and potato huts in Portugal.

I know what I need more than anything right now is space. Space to create. Space to be bored. Space to think. That’s where I’ll do my best work, and I don’t think I’m doing that right now. Outputting a lot of work strips the soul from the input.

I’ll be going back to focusing on input. Inevitably, it will help and inspire my output.

If I’m going to leave you with anything worth thinking about, it’d be this:

- Believe in abundance. It will find you.
- Act with abundance. You will become a magnet.
- Build with abundance. You will multiply what already exists and find things you cannot yet see.

Big Love,
JL