The Lighthouse Letters

dear wayward ship, life has been so deliciously lovely to me lately and I am full to the brim with it's richness. I hope you'll allow me to share it with you. To hold you and carry you across a stormy sea and to remind you to fall in love with the experience of living. love, alison

Hello dear wayward ship, Today's letter finds you on a sunny sea where the waves are calm and the waves are doing that thing where the water starts to sparkle. ✨ I talk about expanding capacity, being motivated by the carrot or the stick, and the funny ways in which life will sweep the floor out from under you and then take you on the most magical carpet ride you've ever been on. I'm so grateful...

My mom always said my biggest vulnerability is my big heart. Respectfully, I disagree. I love my big heart and how it loves, and with every Human Experience™️ I have, I discover an increased capacity for love that I didn't know was there. This letter talks about the exhaustion that I'm feeling from the past few days, and how it is an earned tiredness, one that is well worth the temporary discomfor...

I am so sorry that it's been so long, my beautiful wayward ships, but your lighthouse keeper is back! In this episode, I talk about the difference between self-worth and self-confidence, the inner knowledge of having a secure sense of self, and how getting involved in your community can be tricky and is still worth doing. This one is for those of you who have ever felt like you weren't quite good...

Our very first lighthouse letters guest is Daisy Bentley! She's an acclaimed Chicago based actress and comedian and longtime friend of mine. I'm so glad I had her on the pod to talk about comedy, getting over bombing, the state of the world and the heaviness we all feel, and some righteous anger about the way things are and the systems that have gotten us here. This letter is for all of you who ha...

I DID SOMETHING SCARY! For YEARS I have been telling myself that I would get back into standup comedy and for YEARS I have been denying myself the joy of performing onstage as a comedian. I made it SO easy for myself to quit, and then kept wondering why I hadn't done stand up at all yet. I finally faced my fears, and did it scared. And, it turns out, doing it scared will give you the confidence yo...

When an idea lives in your head, protected by the safety of your skull, it's never exposed to judgement or failure! You can iterate forever . But then, the ideas never make it into your life and you never get to share them with people. It's a vicious cycle. In this letter, I talk about what it means to leave the safety of your head, being vulnerable and choosing to move forward, and what 'craving...

I recorded this before the winter break as I was waiting at the airport to board my flight home. This letter speaks of the quiet voice inside that you learn to trust once your nervous system calms down, what labour and work could actually be if we were doing work that was meaningful, and the fact that large corporations only care about you so long as there is money to be made. This letter is for t...

How in the helly are you supposed to survive your own transformation? When you're just goo. This episode I talk about the inner child that demanded to be heard, and how finding your own authentic voice might involve revisiting that part of you that's been silent for a while. This letter is for anyone who is currently undergoing a transformation and crossing the bridge from who you are to who you w...

This week's letter talks about the comparison trap, and how I find myself falling into it again... and how I pull myself back out. I've spent the last little while catching up with old friends, many of whom are in vastly different life stages than me, and I found myself battling with that familiar feeling of "not quite good enough". As with most of my problems, I decided to make some art about it....

Dear wayward ship, We meet at a crossroads today, at the junction of what has been and what will be. I talk about packing for a trip and leaving things behind whilst taking what I need for the future (big metaphor energy here), and what it means to feel a sense of global collective hope again. I also talk about being uncertain but knowing that something great is on its way, and the fact that 80% o...

This week at the lighthouse, we’re talking about art that survives your dislike of it . I’ve been thinking about time and how it can feel both blisteringly fast and painfully slow, about getting almost there and learning that proximity still counts. There’s a poem I wrote, No More Doom n Gloom , and a comic that followed, a little personal rebellion against cynicism. Between reading hard things in...

In today's Lighthouse Letter, I talk about a practice that I've been doing for the last 5 years: writing a love letter to myself every month. It's a practice that's helped me see the best in myself even when I really didn't want to (it can be so easy to just be full of self-loathing), develop my resilience, and witness my own personal growth in real-time. It's also helped future me a lot. When I'm...

In this lighthouse letter, I talk about returning to my body after a period of not quite inhabiting it. I talk about how I'm finally seeing the buds of the art seeds that I've been sowing all year, from this podcast to the play that I'm having a reading for at a real live venue! I talk about moving towards something out of love rather than fear, and how that impacts not just how you move, but how...

Today's letter is different. Today's letter comes from rocky waves and seas, from a place in my heart that is stormy and terrible. We're currently witnessing global acts of violence that are atrocities. I cannot turn a blind eye to all of it anymore, and I am ashamed to say that I have been. But now that I've chosen to actively participate and learn, everything I'm learning carries with it the cru...

In this episode, I reflect on the small things we so often take for granted. Seasonal shifts, the quiet magic of rainy afternoons, and friends who are still here, in spite of it all. I share a poem I wrote about anxiety and the way it follows us, even into space, but also how writing can turn worry into something a little less scary. There’s a little bit about Mexico City, the beauty (and overwhel...

This letter is a doozy, folks. The water has been rocky by the lighthouse, dozen foot high waves crashing into the rocks, splashing into this lighthouse keeper's eyes. Through it all, I remind myself that the lamp is lit and the light is still shining, even when things might be going sideways. I talk about my frustrations at being sold and marketed to 24/7, a collective unrest, and how being ill b...

In this episode of the Lighthouse Letters, I talk about my preference of swimming holes over summit views ( I want an experience you can participate in!), the lies I've been telling myself about how much I should be working, and gratitude for friends and loved ones that understand when I'm absent for a while and get busy, who welcome me back into their lives with open arms. I also share a challeng...

In this episode, I talk about the beauty of showing up scared, the indomitable human spirit being made of hope, permission to do art during the daytime (during 'working hours', no less!), dismantling the idea of 'working hours' as an artist, ghosts and monsters in plays that I'm working on, being justified in my anger towards a situation where someone I trusted did not act with integrity, and the...

In this letter, I’m talking about the kind of rest that fills you back up . The active, soul-filling sort that’s less about doing nothing and more about doing what lights you up. I recap a weekend that swung between the heat (from both the sun and the sauce!) of a hot sauce festival, the joy of live music, and the unspooling of tense threads with a lake day with friends. I reminisce about being se...

In this week’s Lighthouse Letter, I’m taking you through a weekend that felt like a love song. One written in stars, bike rides, goodbye hugs, and late-night laughter. I talk about what it means to feel deeply alive in tiny moments: stargazing inside on a Friday night with someone I love, city-hopping by e-bike (a la Lizzie McGuire) to three very different events in one day (including a DJ-ed hous...

In this episode of Lighthouse Letters, I reflect on a weekend that moved like a breath: inhaling joy, holding connection, and exhaling into freedom. From feeling unexpectedly swept away watching my boyfriend drum at his album release, to showing up a little schleppy for a park birthday and being loved anyway, to learning how to sail with my friend Charlie, each moment pulled me gently back into pr...

In this letter, I reflect on what it means to choose yourself, on purpose, and often. I talk about the gift of solo dates, the kind where you take yourself to the fanciest sushi restaurant (that happens to be a 5 minute walk from your house that you've always wanted to go to but never let yourself) and remember how much you like your own company. There are stories from this summer: some bright, so...

In this episode, I talk about what it feels like to be loudly in love and how that love has quietly opened new doors in my creative life. There’s music again in the house. Harmonies made with just my voice. Fresh strawberries grown on my balcony. A three-legged dog on a wagon walk. I share a few recent adventures, like getting into my first car “accident” (don’t worry, I’m okay), and how I’m learn...

In this episode, I reflect on recent wanderings: from a birthday weekend in Jordan River to a wedding in Golden (yes, that's really what it's called) and what it means to live inside the wide, awe-soaked present. There are stories about sea waves and waterfalls, secret slides, unexpected tenderness, and the way connection sneaks up on you when you're paying attention. I talk about the beauty of be...