Walks of Life
The gift of bearing witness to growth.
In the last four years of writing on Substack, I’ve held myself to two guiding principles:
Articulate the wisdoms I am discovering and holding true…
… so that I may find and nourish my highest self… and help others do the same.
As with many of my personal projects, I started out with an ambition for regularity that wasn’t realistic… initially aiming for a weekly post. I did this for a few months and then, well… life.
But looking back, I actually see a more interesting pattern: when I chose to write, I had something to say. And when I didn’t write, I was still in the process of sense making and making sense.
Said another way: I’ve settled into a pace here on Substack that reflects the pace at which I am meaningfully metabolizing my inner and outer worlds.
By being more generous with the length of my frame and epochs of time, I can see an interplay between personal and societal growth. Like geologic time, the glacier eventually carves a valley.
Panning back across the last 47 months here on Substack, I am reminded of a line I’ve been packing around since high school:
…think for a moment
of the long chain of iron or gold,
of thorns or flowers,
that would never have bound you,
but for the formation of the first link
on one memorable day.
– Great Expectations, p. 44
A few mid-thought Turtle Prompts for you:
In your chain: what are the thorns, what are the flowers?
In geologic time: what have you been carving?
And so, here are 15 links formed over the last 1,431 memorable days. Thank you for bearing witness to this journey and for allowing me to do the same with you, Turtle Team.
2025
September. Over the summer, I wrote Translucency as a reminder to myself and others that we don’t have to publish every moment of our lives online. Some will pass through, some will be diffused, and the rest will be just for you.
May. As I turned 43 in the Spring, I was longing to reintroduce friction in aspects of my life I had once harangued for being annoying (see esp. laundry, cleaning, cooking). As optimizations insist on optimizing further around us in 2025 and beyond, Unoptimized is an act of resistance to not flatten that which makes us human.
2024
November. Weeks before being laid off at the end of 2024, I was getting ready to weather the storm of uncertainty with Optionality. A professional rebel who has prioritized intellectual agency and stalwart vision above corporate politics, I’ve long lived in a way that the fractionalized workforce is now requiring from more and more of us: ladders are giving way to jungle gyms.
2023
I took most of 2024, all of 2023, and the last few months of 2022 off of Substack and social media. For an explanation, see especially:
and this gallery on TikTok.
2022
September. It was right before Labor Day when I wrote Reasons & Seasons as an ode to ‘wintering in the summer and roots before fruits.’ It was also written days before I found out I was pregnant, which was four months into a six month medical leave to support a healthy pregnancy (and it worked!)
June. Speaking of space and grace during my medical leave, a deep nostalgia for family names and commencement speeches came over me in:
Namesakes - Leslie Arthur Baskett is my great-grandfather and a prophetic word
Wear Sunscreen - The benefits are proven. The speech of the same name is indelible.
May. One month prior, I was doing what millions of Xennials born in 1982 were also doing: turning 40.
My reflections came through in Steadfast Luxury - Your race, your pace
Life of Meaning - “That’s what you’ve got to figure out.” —Curly
I also was playing around with a paid tier in this season, as an outlet for my “spicier” work, life, and duck tales. Like the penguin, they never took flight. They still might. I decided I needed more narrative distance—and that I wanted to use this outlet to focus on writing to call out our highest selves and not get into any crosshairs or mudslides.
April. Leading up to my 40th were three seminal pieces for my Turtle Table of Contents—which can also be read as before (Time Travel), during (False Prophets), after my trip to Peru (The Chosen).
In retrospect, I read clear micro-signals from each that explain so much of what followed then… and what continues to unfold for me now.
I also find myself referencing False Prophets and The Chosen most frequently in my coaching practice. (s/o to Shawna Kaszer for bringing many of these concepts into focus for me in 2015)
March. Another fecund month of publishing was March, in which I asked and announced:
What game are you playing? (The Score)
More zest, less conformity. (Dead Metaphors)
We only know it’s opposite in English: negotiation. (Otium)
January. Last and least is my first entry in January 2022, done in the style of OG world wide webbing: Hello World. A pronouncement of my mission to “find and nourish our highest selves—and the highest in others” and request to “take me to your leaders in the making.” They both still slap - and I wouldn’t change a word, all these 47 months later.
Speaking of hellos, as I say goodbye… I am including a photo with my family on the steps of the Met in May 2025.
This photo is a part of my “no post” series I have on my phone, where I take photos for the memory and not to post it (realizing the irony, of course, in posting it). This project has helped me not nitpick angles and looks - and instead just be present to capture the moment.
Back when social media held my camera and my audience was an awkward amalgamation of people I used to know, go to school with, and / or date… plus new friends, random brands, and coworkers… I was a lot more self-critical; I was often “camera ready” with makeup and wardrobe; and I would art direct upwards of 50 shots to “get the one” like I was shooting for a Vogue cover or something. Ha!
Letting some light pass through… and holding the expression of my daughter back… as we all get ready to time travel ahead to the next turn on this wheel of life. May you take lots of photos you never post, just for you!
Happy New Year to you and to all a good night~*~*~* lb
AI was neither used nor harmed in the writing of this post.
If I use AI in any way, I disclose it based on my Ethics.
Human-only writing on the web and elsewhere will become a dying art if we are not careful, let’s do more of it in 2026 if we can <3
Leslie! I love where you are taking us. Going back into your
archives now….