#virginia-woolf

#virginia-woolf

This past winter I survived the misery-months by reading all five volumes of Virginia Woolf's diaries. Many things happen in those diaries but the event that's seared into my mind involves a new hat. It's 1926 and the diary entry begins this way: "This is the last day of June finds me in black despair because Clive laughed at my new hat, Vita pitied me, & I sank to the depths of gloom." Oh, Virginia, girl-I feel you! The shame of wearing the too-big thing

I longed for what Virginia Woolf...called 'moments of being' - those exceptional experiences that stand out in memory.

In those quiet moments, I am reminded of the bustle of the city, or a lover's hand in mine, or the words that I couldn't quite say.

Woolf argued that financial independence was crucial for women to produce art, more so than the right to vote, emphasizing the need for personal space and resources.