A Note From Tahnya
Yes, this email feels a little different. It’s because I decided The Reprieve needed a glow-up!
Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what comes next. I kept coming back to the same idea: a digital magazine filled with stories worth reading, things worth knowing, useful finds, interesting conversations, and, occasionally, whatever has taken up entirely too much room in my brain.
In future issues, you’ll find longer features alongside shorter reads, new sections to explore, recommendations worth sharing, and more of the things that make life easier or give you something new to think about. Most of all, I want this to be a place where you can spend a few minutes, find something you needed, have a laugh, and enjoy being here.
This is just the beginning. I have more planned, and I can’t wait to show you.
Feature Story
When You’ve Had Enough
Nobody prepares you for some of the uglier parts of caregiving. The accidents. The messes. The exhaustion. You can understand why. You fully understand that they can’t help it. You can remind yourself of that ten times before breakfast. And sometimes, it still gets to you.
The Essentials
Look & Listen
Conversations, resources, and other things worth checking out.
Shine On
Kacey’s Health & Happiness Show
In this conversation with Kacey, we talk about what happens when caregiving begins to blur the lines between care and compassion.
Dara
Find Your Footing
Dara is your personal caregiving guide designed for the moments when you don't know what to do next. Practical guidance when you need it most.
Tahnya’s Tangents
Not every thought needs 1,500 words. Tahnya’s Tangents are the things I notice, question, laugh about, or can’t quite let go of. Short takes on caregiving, getting older, relationships, and the strange business of being a person. Sometimes there’s a point. Sometimes I’m just wondering if you noticed it too.
Who moved the damn ketchup?!
Who decided grocery shopping wasn’t annoying enough and thought, “You know what? Let’s move everything around.”
Seriously. Who asked for this?
Over the past few months, my local grocery store decided to go full-on reconstruction. Before all of this, I had a system. I could walk in half asleep and know exactly where everything was. Produce. Meat. Coffee. Dairy. Done. I didn't need signs. I didn't need assistance. I had achieved grocery-store fluency.
Then one day I walked in, and apparently some genius decided what customers really needed was a little more adventure.
NOTHING was where it belonged. 😕
I found myself wandering around with my cart looking for things I've purchased in that exact building for years. At one point, I passed the same woman three times. By the third pass, we gave each other a look and a shrug. Neither of us spoke, but I believe we were both looking for breadcrumbs.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the back office, I imagined Mr. Customer Experience proudly admiring his handiwork, watching us wander in circles and thinking, Yep. This is much better.
What happened? Did the ketchup tell him it was unhappy in aisle 26? Was there tension between canned goods and pasta? Did somebody conduct research and discover we'd all been buying yogurt incorrectly because it was three aisles too far to the left?
One thing I know for sure…nobody walked into that store and thought, You know what would improve this experience?
Not knowing where a goddamn thing is!!
Put it back! Nobody came here to play Supermarket Scavenger Hunt.
Yours truly,
Aggravated shopper 😠
Before you go
Thanks for spending a little time with me today. I hope you enjoyed the new Reprieve. If something made you laugh, think, or say, “Oh my God, YES,” let me know. Leave a comment. Send it to a friend. And if someone forwarded this to you, subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.
See you next week,
Tahnya
Handle what matters.
Let the rest be.
The world can wait while you enjoy your coffee.
