19 Comments
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Tara Kate's avatar

What a delightful post, Amy! Graceful prose and a reminder of how gracious a ‘no’ can sound. Learning to say no is truly a skill. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip to the UK!

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Gretchen's avatar

That sly Wordworth! I shall never read his poems again without thinking of the terms of his becoming poet laureate! Thank you for sharing your travels with us in print and painting!

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Amy Marinucci's avatar

Presently visiting the UK as I finally have a chance to catch up on your posts … what a fun read this was … I will be sharing with some very British friends to get their take! Thank you!

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Mary B's avatar

This was so great, Amy! I love this line, "Sincerely am I sensible of this honour" - so classy. The WW correspondence is priceless, and how neat you read it where you did. There's much to learn from it.

P.S. I also love your lesson #1, "When an offer comes your way and you don’t like the terms, you’ll be amazed at what happens when you say NO and mean it. Suddenly the terms become wildly flexible, and all burdens and impediments are lifted." Every, single, time!

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

Oh Amy, this is brilliant - wise, wise words indeed - both yours, of course, and Wordsworth's!

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Jacquelyn Johnston's avatar

Brilliant! I love what he wrote and I love what you wrote about it!

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Amy Stewart's avatar

Thank you!

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Katie Elzer-Peters's avatar

Haha I love this

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Anne Wareham's avatar

Ah, yes - give no reason. There's freedom in that too.

And that is a wonderful place, steeped in history.

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Marika Páez Wiesen's avatar

This cracked me up! I'm terrible at saying NO. I think it's because I want to say yes, be helpful, etc. even when I know "the gig might be a nightmare"...

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Gerry Draper's avatar

Wordsworth has always been one of my favorite poets, and I loved seeing this little insight into his thinking, and also enjoyed your reactions! I do envy your wonderful trip in that area and so glad you got to do it.

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Pebble in My Shoe's avatar

PS: And the watercolors are delightful too!

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Pebble in My Shoe's avatar

Delightful!! Thank you! I will remember his example as I feel my own limits in energy these days! 😃

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Falling into Light...'s avatar

such genteel times.... sigh.....

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deborah taylor's avatar

Hi Amy. Loving all your content as always. Not sure where I should post this question but I am a subscriber and my monthly fee was 4.80 for the past year and now it is 6.00. Did it increase or is this an error? Thanks for any info.

Deb Taylor

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Amy Stewart's avatar

Well, it’s been $6 for a couple years. It’s possible that you got a 20% off offer at some point or something like that. Substack runs these promotions sometimes and I don’t really see them when they happen. I do know it’s only $5/mo if you do the annual $60 subscription, so that’s a little cheaper.

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deborah taylor's avatar

Thanks Amy. Just didn’t know how that worked. Good to know!

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Mark Kielkucki's avatar

Nice feel to this!

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Jill Swenson's avatar

Well that is a delightful piece of wisdom to share. Go Bill.

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