Something Good #47
on keeping traditions, personal work update, paid subscriptions!
Hi, I'm Nina Iordanova and this is the 47th edition of Something Good, a newsletter filtered through my 🧠, 🖐, and ❤️. Coming your way every two weeks, I hope you find something good here.
Hi! After a year-long hiatus, Something Good is back!
A quick reminder for readers old and new -
I’m Nina, a 33-year-old woman living in Toronto, Canada, working as an executive coach. I started Something Good so I could tell stories from my life, and share the things I notice and think about.
Since 2021, I’ve written about my puppy growing up, the joy of being impractical, visiting home in Bulgaria, and many other things.
I write to understand and connect with the world around me. It helps me pay attention to my life, process how I’m feeling, and get clearer on who I am (and who I was).
I stopped writing after a messy breakup made me feel very disconnected from all those things, and now (after another major life change, more on that later) I’ve made my way back!
I’m happy to be back. I’m happy to see you again!
I celebrated Orthodox Easter last Sunday. I went to my parents’ house with my brother and his wife and her parents. I love seeing how celebrations grow as our families grow - from just the 4 of us when we came to Canada to now a sister-in-law, her parents, and sometimes her sister’s family and kids! A nice full house.
My mom takes care of everything for Easter. She dyes the eggs using natural plant-based dyes she makes herself, makes 3 main courses (fish, chicken, vegetarian) and bakes about a thousand pastries. It’s a couple of days of prep leading up to Easter, on top of a full time job.
It made me think about how the way we uphold traditions changes over time. I used to help my mom with the egg painting and baking, and even for two people it’s a lot of work. Then I moved out, and I could only go visit the day before to help prep the eggs and bake the pastries, but my mom would do the rest. Then I got busy with work, and my time wasn’t as flexible. Then I got a dog, and even when I could visit it wasn’t for long.
So this is the first year she’s done everything herself.
I love this connection to my culture (in a distant sense, where I feel connected to strangers I don’t know), and to my family (in a close sense, something I have memories of since childhood). But I don’t know how to bake the breads or make the dyes. And each year I’m less involved.
I could look up the recipes for everything, but I also want the particulars of *our* family traditions and recipes. The specifics that make it ours. And it made me curious about how we hold onto these things as we grow up. If we work to keep them, or let them go, or maybe reinvent them.
I talked to two friends about their traditions for Orthodox Easter.
This Easter I baked traditional Easter bread Paska and made Pysanky.
It was actually my first time making Pysanky - ancient traditional Ukrainian way of decorating eggs for Easter! You apply hot wax with a special tool “kistka” to create detailed geometrical designs, then dip the eggs in dyes, and then take off the wax by applying some heat revealing the design underneath the wax. Super relaxing process btw! Different designs and dyes had special meanings back in the day, symbolizing protecting, prosperity, health, wisdom!
I’ve been baking Paskas for more than 10+ years and it’s that tradition that feels like home away from home ❤️
Anastasiia, 25, from Ukraine (@anastasiia.yakutko)
For easter we typically paint eggs or at least wrap them in pretty decorations and prepare a lot of food! The food tends to be very lamb centric so our soups and stews are lamb based as well as having actual lamb shanks with polenta. Lamb is typically the Easter meat in the same way Pork is the Christmas meat for my culture because of the sacrificial nature surrounding the death of Jesus according to the bible.
We also typically go to church around midnight, light some candles and do a walk around the church as a group for the purpose of observing the resurrection and then we typically go home after midnight and have a feast with our entire family. Its essentially similar to a new year's celebration in that sense where we stay up and chat and drink!
Growing up there was definitely more emphasis placed on the theological aspects of the celebration although we still got a lot candy. Nowadays after growing up, Im no longer religious so I don't really observe any of the religious aspects of the holiday like doing lent beforehand. Its become more of a reason to get together as a family and catch up and spend time together really.
I was never really religious to begin with besides just following what my parents were doing so thats why I never really observe any of those aspects of the holiday now. However the eating and drinking and spending time together hasn't really changed
Dan Stingaciu, 25, from Romania (@dan.stingaciu)
Let me catch you upon the rest of the life stuff.
I mentioned earlier that there had been a major life change - I quit my job. While building my coaching practice, I was also working as a part time Head of People at an ad agency in New York. I love the team and their mission and am excited for all their success, but the time came for me to move on.
I’m going to be spending the next 3 months building my coaching practice full-time. If that doesn’t get me to the point I need, then I’ll likely take another FT job in the tech world.
It’ll be a fun experiment to see what’s possible! I’m excited for the next few months and for whatever comes after.
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The second thing I wanted to tell you about -
I did an AMA on Instagram and someone asked about the top 5 life experiences that I have yet to try. Here’s what I said:
While I have little control over when most of those things will happen, I’d like this to be the year that I make money from writing. So I’m adding a paid subscription option to this newsletter!
Whether you:
enjoy my writing
want to receive 2 ✨ bonus ✨ newsletters every month
or dream of living in the 1400s as a literal patron of the arts
You can now make all of those a reality with a monthly subscription to Something Good!
As an OG reader, you get 30 days free.
I’d have never dared to dream that I could write a newsletter about my life that 500+ people read every month. Let alone that it could be something someone might want to pay for. So…
If you feel moved to start a paid subscription, just know that it means so much to me and is a literal dream come true (see photo above).
If you’d like to remain a free subscriber, I’m honoured that you’re reading my work, and there will still be many stories without a paywall. Thank you for being here.
We’re all caught up with the main things now.
We’ll pick it up in two weeks.
I’ll see you then!
Talk to me in the comments! Are there any family traditions you’ve kept even after leaving home? Are there any you’ve found ways to reinvent? Tell me about them!!
✨
Warmly yours,
Nina