iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

I want to feel free like Tove Jansson, who spent summers on a Finnish island so tiny it took only four and a half minutes to walk around, and even then, with so little about her, she chose not to do the housework.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I recommend reading about hermits, nuns, artists, rogues. Some humble and pious, some egotistical and in love with the devil.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

I am writing about people whose physical bravado has done so much to shape their inner landscapes. (on Substack at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I recommend trying to find happiness without material cause.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

I've written about quiet books and solitude (at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

I've written about insomnia on my Substack (AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

How I cured my insomnia aka new post on my Substack at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I've written about solitude and the best 'quiet books' (at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Before scientists were using functional MRI to monitor brain activity while people looked at forests and mountains, the Romantics were writing about what we now know for sure. Nature makes us more imaginative.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Seeing metaphors. It’s not just a literary term denoting comparison, writes the poet Mary Ruefle. It can be an event, an exchange of energy between two things.

010

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

A few years ago, I had a desire to change everything about my life. I quit my job, imagining a gap from routine life where I might live in exclamation points. Or in meditative silence. Aka I posted something new on Substack at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

In nature, The Default Mode Network, which is sometimes called the Imagination Network, is given a chance to kick in.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

While we may be social animals, there are other, quieter parts of ourselves that need tending to as well. (aka I posted something new on Substack at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I posted something new on Substack.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I recommend not beating yourself up, when boredom rises up to greet you.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

‘The strong soul becomes much more stable thanks to voluntary poverty.' – Amma Syncletica aka I posted something new on Substack

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

I wrote on Substack about a woman who snuck onto Mount Athos with a rubber penis inside her trousers. And why I’m jealous of her.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Acedia — that strange sensation of boredom that comes from trying to be good all day. Aka I wrote something new on Substack (at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

You cannot cause light,” wrote Annie Dillard. “You can only put yourself in the path of its beam.” etc.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

“A lot of the stuff people chase in society, you know, like money and prestige, sometimes the harder you chase it the more it'll lose you." – aka wisdom from Caveman Bill

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

I have an essay in @globeandmail today about why it is quite nice to leave a notebook on a bench and see who writes in it. May we leave notebooks and pens in random places until they're more full of nonsense than an ancient burial ground.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

I'm not one of them (aka I posted something new on Substack at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

I'm not one of them (aka I wrote something new on Substack at AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Many of the women who have retreated into caves through history have been retreating from the frustrating situations women tend to get placed in.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Who would want to retreat into a cave? I can see the draw.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

There are days in which I feel in every inch the reality of Blaise Pascal’s 17th-century statement that all our “miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

A few years ago, I was in a canyon in the winter. On one rock, many people had placed their hands against the frosty rock – leaving dark imprints that reminded me of those ancient red ochre hand paintings.

001

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

You heard it here first. (aka I posted something new on AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

The Cynics (name = dog-like) did not act like typical philosophers. They kissed icy statues in winter, rolled in hot sand in summer, and masturbated everywhere. I don’t (necessarily) recommend kissing icy statues in winter, rolling in hot sand in summer, and masturbating everywhere.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Few do not feel a flush of pleasure on buying a fashionable new hat or coat, and then receiving positive attention for it. But the Cynics warned against such a life. Aka I wrote a new Substack post (AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

I like sheep. Here are some sheep paintings I found, and some of my photos that Google has erroneously labelled 'sheep'. Sheep are everywhere. They are in the fields and they are on the cover of many books. I can think of at least three books with sheep on the cover of them. Are there more?

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Over 2,000 years ago, the Cynic philosophers were saying things like: Just look at gold, which is so sought after, or silver, or expensive houses, fancy clothes, and all that goes with them. Then consider at what price they’re acquired in terms of trouble, pain and danger.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Out in 2.5 weeks with Strange Light/Penguin Random House CA

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

I want to tell you about my hero. She lived out on the streets of ancient Athens. She was a Cynic. Her name was Hipparchia.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

This week on Substack (AilsaWrites Dot Substack Dot Com) I wrote about techno-freedom, and about not having a phone for long periods of my life.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

In Nan Shepherd’s bedroom, there was no chair. She would read, often into small hours, sitting on a cushion on the floor.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

I recommend Vipassana meditation (on Substack and also just to anyone who will listen).

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

I wrote something new on Substack

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Tehching Hsieh has said that human time had no meaning when considered against the time of the universe.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

A new little Substack post for your perusal

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

“Impossible to believe that just a few weeks ago I’d been excited to see where girls once dressed in saffron suits and charged around like bears” – aka this week I posted notes from a trip to Greece on Substack.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I wrote a Substack about getting my author photo taken, and what happened just before (bee stings, botched dye jobs etc.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

I recommend reading The Sand County Almanac, in which Aldo Leopold writes about some old boards being washed up in the beat-up meadow of his Wisconsin farm. He writes of these boards having value, history, stories, personality. As having a kind of literature not taught on university campuses.

121

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Monks through history have been warned to fear solitude – have been told that if they saw no danger in solitude they were done for. I'm just saying I just wrote about solitude on my Substack (ailsawrites dot substack dot com)

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

I recommend no longer using the words sunrise and sunset. The polymath R. Buckminster Fuller disliked the words "sunrise" and "sunset" because they connote an Earth-centric universe in which the Sun is moving around us. He preferred the terms "sunsight" and "sunclipse."

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Just published the 'very exciting' story of what happened when I lost my sunglasses (nothing good) on Ailsa Ross Dot Substack Dot Com

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

I mean I have been saying it is the Year of the Cabbage every year since 2017, Vogue.

000

Ailsa Ross @ailsaross.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Thank you from someone with a case of viral pink eye.

000