Hi, my name is Tomomi.

I’m now in Tokyo under a government mandated quarantine that’s deployed consumer technology to scale tracking and surveillance of individuals who fly into Japan. It’s an app-based check-in system, with random notifications and video calls throughout the day. I’m almost through the two week period and then I will continue socially distancing without being managed by an app.

My coaching training is in full swing. I have practice clients booked for the next two months, with whom I’ll meet weekly. I’ve found that as I started having open-hearted conversations with real people, my trepidation started to melt away. People have thoughts to sort out, decisions to make, and well, help is helpful. And I’m blessed with a strong support system through the program and energizing partnerships with some of my cohort peers, so things are in a good place.

I dream of the mountains, and being able to walk out barefoot onto dewey grass.

My newsletter took over the space reserved as my writing outlet, pushing out my weeknotes. I’m taking back that space, after ten weeks of disarray and a realization that what I thought was an established habit needs watchful protection.

Since the last weeknote, I’ve moved apartments, started a new company (kind of), joined another (kind of) and started on a training program for coaching. I’ve had a couple of projects start and a couple wind down. I’ve also had an uptick in non-digital social interaction, with France loosening up on Covid measures. Things are moving.

The friction of the physical world that must be dealt with to get myself to a certain location at a certain time in a certain state of mind and physical presentation is immense. I’m quite at home in semi-hermit mode, turning up for long and buzzing hours of online exchange and turning off with a simple click of the “hang up” button. I thrive in hyper-active asynchronous mode, being able to catch or pass the ball at any moment that feels most alive.

Reflecting on the past few weeks, I see that the increased hubbub of the external world has brought about a re-appreciation of the solitude and comfort of home. I’m reading a wider variety of books, and dreaming of escaping the busy city.

Writing these Weeknotes for about nine months made it easier to start my newsletter. But I sent out two Postcards in three weeks and it took up all of my capacity for writing! That was unexpected. But I hadn’t really thought about it, and it does make sense in hindsight. They are both forms of public journalling at the end of the day.

I want to give a 3-4 week cadence for Postcards a fair shot. At the same time, The Weeknotes have their own purpose, which is very dear to me. I’ll go with the flow and trust that I’ll keep writing here, even if it’s not every week.

This week I wrapped up the Advanced Facilitation class, which feels less like an close but an opening of potential futures. As a sign of gratitude and a promise to the universe to walk through these doors that are now open, I started a personal newsletter.

I’m calling it postcard-as-newsletter. Or is it newsletter-as-postcard? It’s meant to be read by people who know me in some capacity, with a mix of “here’s what I’m up to” and “here’s what I’m finding interesting” from various explorations. No custom welcome message or even a logo BUT it’s all set up, embedded on my website, announced on Twitter…and all that makes it real. A thing. I’m looking forward to the writing process and hope to get some replies, too.

This all goes against the growing trend of paid subscriptions. I’m sure I’m not alone in having wondered in the past few months if I should be on Substack. Not to make money per se but to claim that piece of digital real estate and look like a person that other people subscribed to.

As I hacked away at the CSS on my site to make the sign-up widget look a little bit nicer, I came up with the postcard metaphor. And as I wrote a few tweets, I realized that all I want is a less haphazhard way to get clearer signals out to my growing circles of loose ties that are overlapping less and less. Ah, clarity feels good.

I’m looking forward to writing the first one.

The week has zipped past and honestly I don’t remember much about it. Solid progress on all project fronts, with a new one kicking off next week. Next week is the last week of our Advanced Facilitation course and I’ve managed to spend time mapping where I want to be playing in the cohort-based learning field. Accumulating experience as a student and teacher takes a lot of time - there are no short cuts - and I’m thankful for all of the experiences I now have under my belt.

The weekend was relaxing; I didn’t manage to go road biking but did go for drinks twice and see a friend for lunch. I have a fully stocked refrigerator (not easy with 6pm curfews!) and two appointments for exercise - a strong way to usher in a new week.

Not much “In like a lion”-ness happening this March, rather a vague sense of malaise that’s unbecoming of the shy rays of sunlight. It’s almost the ten year anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan earthquakes and Fukushima disaster.

When we think of going on a retreat, we tend to think of it as time away - a reprieve from the humdrum of daily activities to rest and re-connect with whatever is important in our belief system, in the hopes of coming back rejuvenated. In our modern world, it carries a flavor of self-indulgence, something that only certain individuals can afford to prioritize at the expense of other people or things that might be deemed more worthy.

But consider the military context, from which perhaps the spiritual initiatives originally drew from, where a retreat is the withdrawl from enemy forces “as a result of their superior power or after a defeat”. In other words, it means to remove yourself from the situation because the game will be over otherwise. A strategic retreat makes possible the option to come back and fight another day, with better chances.

From that perspective, a retreat starts to look like the responsible and obvious move to make, in many more situations than we currently allow ourselves. I’ve been playing with new narratives for “investing in self” and this is my latest iteration.

Addendum: A great addition to this line of thinking from Marion, who points out that upon retreating, it’s important to be as careful as we can about what we take with us. If we take a hostage (or remaining work and other concerns) along with us, it needs to be watched over and cared for!

I’ve signed on for two exciting projects - one which is a quasi-coaching assignment and another to join an experimental academic research initiative. Both are wondrous offshoots from my core work of design and research. My role is to hold space and provide structure for group processes to flourish x injecting an outsiders’ perspective. It’s not a facilitator role, and it’s also not exactly “group therapy” as a friend remarked… I’m not sure what it is exactly but both inquiries seem to have come from a similar need. A gap that two completely different friends saw and thought, huh I should call Tomomi. I’m making a note to myself to ask them to walk me through this logic.

My hay fever kicked in over the weekend and I am declaring that it’s spring! It’s time to crawl out of the cave and frolic.

A quick inventory of notable things:

• Was interviewed for a podcast for the first time. The level of fun was proportionate to the level of stress that I carried leading up to it. A lot, and a lot. Heh.
• Turned a new page with one of my practice groups. With self-organizing groups, there’s a learning curve to sense our way towards the boundaries we want to set and it starts with figuring out what “we” means. I’m quite excited about the possibilities.
• Kicked off our Advanced Facilitation course!!! I don’t know what to write because there’s so much to say about it! Gotta pull some thoughts together or six weeks will pass by in a blink of an eye…
• Crossed Paris with my Brompton for the first time. I didn’t have the right clothes for the biting wind so it wasn’t great… and I’m learning that 15km is the threshold for a fun ride for me. I could easily put in more distance in an “outing” mode, with a proper meal along the way, but as a casual thing in the middle of the day among other activities, 15km is enough.
• Passed the 100 subscriber mark on my YouTube channel! It’s the only metric I’ve been chasing because that’s the requirement for claiming a unique URL. The option isn’t available in the interface yet, though… maybe it takes a few days?
• Got invited to join a R&D project in an academic context. I have no idea what I’m getting myself into or what it’ll take to find my place in it (or if I’ll even want to) but it’s the kind of open door that I’ve been hoping to walk through. Feeling wondrous.
• Got an inquiry for a sparring partner-style assignment from a past client. We’ll meet next week to see what kind of arrangement could work. I’m sitting with some quiet satisfaction that the nature of my consulting practice has shifted.
• Declined a client assignment that would have tore a huge hole into my week. It’s not easy to say no, especially to a potentially huge opportunity via a warm introduction. It’s getting easier with practice, though. Red flags are red flags.
• Had great starter conversations with two potential new collaborators.

I’m back to daily life in an apartment, quarantined with just quick forays outside for groceries. With a full week of severe jet lag and plenty of projects and engagements to keep me on my toes, the days are running long and packed. Not much space for adjusting but not much need, either.