photo shows a headshot of Caitie, a white woman with short light brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue collared shirt with white dots

Caitie Leibman (she/her)

writer

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  • January 1, 2026

    Myself, Only More So

    It’s not “new year, new me”: it’s new year, more me.

  • December 1, 2025

    Slips: A Note on 4 Years Sober

    Slips: A Note on 4 Years Sober

    It’s all beginnings and endings and sparkle and shadows around here.

  • August 11, 2025

    Back to the Beginning

    Back to the Beginning

    What do you do with the short straw?

  • August 4, 2025

    Nebraska Triptych

    Nebraska Triptych

    Painted walls, a humid summer, and then a fridge floats by.

  • May 26, 2025

    Time Travel

    Time Travel

    In the sour mess, we are in touch with it.

  • May 19, 2025

    Vitamins

    Vitamins

    Dirty nailbeds and playing outside.

  • May 12, 2025

    Curating

    Curating

    The diaries wanted to be encased in Jell-O. They wanted to be sliced up and turned into paper chains, so they could wrap themselves around a banister for an entire holiday season. They never wanted to stay flat. They wanted to do something else, be something else, before I threw them away in my 20s. …

  • April 14, 2025

    An Ode to “Angel” and Taking Laughter Seriously

    An Ode to “Angel” and Taking Laughter Seriously

    The sunshine is welcome if it decides to visit.

  • April 7, 2025

    WFH

    WFH

    I don’t know what our home must look like from other people’s basement windows.

  • March 17, 2025

    Dust

    Dust

    The clock sprung forward and out of my hands.

  • February 24, 2025

    Doors

    Doors

    Space, not time, pulls a trick on me.

  • February 3, 2025

    Something Social

    Something Social

    Don’t let the bullies separate you.

  • January 27, 2025

    The Sum of the Parts

    The Sum of the Parts

    Because I want to get my hands moving this Sunday morning.

  • January 13, 2025

    Iconoclasm

    Iconoclasm

    There’s something of style and the soul caught up here.

  • January 6, 2025

    Relative Weakness

    Relative Weakness

    Maybe there’s something bigger that becomes possible next.

  • December 30, 2024

    Between the Notes

    Between the Notes

    After many minutes I couldn’t grab onto the sound inside the music.

  • November 11, 2024

    None of This Is News

    None of This Is News

    The week I got an ADHD diagnosis, I closed the garage door on my car.

  • November 5, 2024

    Arrows, Poets, and Things that Point

    Arrows, Poets, and Things that Point

    The choices we make are only one choice.

  • October 18, 2024

    Big, Dumb Goals

    Big, Dumb Goals

    Just casually questioning my life and my choices in 700 words or less.

  • September 23, 2024

    No Obvious Cause

    No Obvious Cause

    On walking the aisles of the past.

  • September 9, 2024

    Yours and Mine

    Yours and Mine

    Squint, and you can make me meet in the middle.

  • September 2, 2024

    What I Talk about When I Talk about Garage Sales

    What I Talk about When I Talk about Garage Sales

    It all has a cost, a weight.

  • August 26, 2024

    Now What?

    Now What?

    The good news is, there’s always something else to work on. That bad news is, there’s always something else to work on.

  • August 19, 2024

    How It Ends

    How It Ends

    We might not leave on our own terms.

  • August 12, 2024

    August

    August

    Milestones, anniversaries, and all time is relative.

  • August 5, 2024

    Skin-Deep

    Skin-Deep

    Be careful what you wish for.

  • July 29, 2024

    And Other Animal Tricks

    And Other Animal Tricks

    What do the jellies know?

  • July 22, 2024

    Anxiety Dreams

    Anxiety Dreams

    The projects that scare me and the ones that apparently don’t.

  • July 15, 2024

    It’s Not My Money

    It’s Not My Money

    An inheritance, a windfall, and going farther than you could imagine.

  • July 8, 2024

    Revisiting My Word of the Year (and Some Important Three-Letter Words)

    Revisiting My Word of the Year (and Some Important Three-Letter Words)

    On things for their own sake.

  • June 17, 2024

    It’s Bullshit My Mom Died

    It’s Bullshit My Mom Died

    A grabby headline for some real feelings.

  • June 3, 2024

    Why, yes, I have lost weight.

    Why, yes, I have lost weight.

    Just checking in.

  • March 18, 2024

    I’m Allowed to Change My Mind: Four Months into Training

    I’m Allowed to Change My Mind: Four Months into Training

    I’m adding new pieces into my training.

  • February 5, 2024

    Three Months In

    Three Months In

    No promises to break—just new things to try.

  • January 22, 2024

    A Break from What?

    A Break from What?

    On wonky weeks and sneaky snow days.

  • January 10, 2024

    Celebrating Me

    Celebrating Me

    Bring on 35.

  • January 1, 2024

    We’re 2 Months In!

    We’re 2 Months In!

    What’s it mean to be a “real runner”?

  • December 29, 2023

    2023 Wrap-Up Recs

    2023 Wrap-Up Recs

    The best books, tech, and tools from my year.

  • December 25, 2023

    Word of the Year

    Word of the Year

    Where are you headed in 2024?

  • December 18, 2023

    A Half-Marathon Update that’s Not about the Half-Marathon

    A Half-Marathon Update that’s Not about the Half-Marathon

    On my body’s journey, my brain and baggage are along for the ride!

  • December 11, 2023

    I Am Two Years Sober

    I Am Two Years Sober

    Content warning: depression, alcohol use.

  • December 4, 2023

    My Stretchy November Project

    My Stretchy November Project

    Sharing my first monthly update since I decided to do a half-marathon.

  • November 27, 2023

    Want to Join the Club?

    Want to Join the Club?

    So many have been talking to me about their craving for structure and accountability.

  • November 20, 2023

    How I Did the Thing: Work Edition

    How I Did the Thing: Work Edition

    A messy look back at a messy process.

  • November 13, 2023

    It’s a Half-Marathon, Charlie Brown!

    It’s a Half-Marathon, Charlie Brown!

    This missive includes an invitation.

  • November 10, 2023

    I Don’t Live There Anymore

    I Don’t Live There Anymore

    Doesn’t mean I can’t go back.

  • November 1, 2023

    RIP, Matthew Perry

    RIP, Matthew Perry

    May his memory be a blessing.

  • October 1, 2023

    What a Difference a Year Makes

    What a Difference a Year Makes

    Content warning: depression.

  • September 1, 2023

    Just a Few Words Away

    Just a Few Words Away

    Ever write just to scratch an itch?

  • August 1, 2023

    The Limitations of Being Judgy

    The Limitations of Being Judgy

    … and why I love revision.

  • July 1, 2023

    When Hiding Sounds Good

    When Hiding Sounds Good

    There’s a relationship between risk and reward, vulnerability and intimacy.

  • June 1, 2023

    “The Thing I Didn’t Want to Write…”

    “The Thing I Didn’t Want to Write…”

    Am I avoiding a task or an emotion?

  • May 1, 2023

    Why I’m Glad I Write

    Why I’m Glad I Write

    Some reflections for the graduates of 2023.

  • April 1, 2023

    Not Gettin’ Any Younger Here!

    Not Gettin’ Any Younger Here!

    But we’re not exactly getting older, either.

  • March 7, 2023

    Making a U-Turn

    Making a U-Turn

    Happens in traffic, happens in life.

  • February 27, 2023

    New Moon

    New Moon

    Darkness can show us things, too.

  • January 23, 2023

    The Plan Until It Isn’t

    The Plan Until It Isn’t

    Parenting wisdom applies widely.

  • January 16, 2023

    Let’s Play

    Let’s Play

    Take a tumble with words.

  • January 9, 2023

    Begin with the End in Mind?

    Begin with the End in Mind?

    You are the author of life’s Mad Lib.

  • January 2, 2023

    No Guilty Pleasures

    No Guilty Pleasures

    Life’s long enough—but too short for this nonsense.

  • January 1, 2023

    My Favorite Two-Faced God

    My Favorite Two-Faced God

    His domain is delightful and timely.

  • December 19, 2022

    People Are Fascinating

    People Are Fascinating

    You just have to listen.

  • December 12, 2022

    On Roots and Wings

    On Roots and Wings

    What do we inherit, and where are we going?

  • December 5, 2022

    Life in Slow-Mo

    Life in Slow-Mo

    Winter is not a speedy experience.

  • December 1, 2022

    Begin as if You Mean to Go On

    Begin as if You Mean to Go On

    We decide to be ready enough.

  • November 28, 2022

    A Little Light

    A Little Light

    A note on the sun’s journey and ours.

  • November 21, 2022

    What’s in a Gift?

    What’s in a Gift?

    Relationships are stories.

  • November 14, 2022

    Audience of One

    Audience of One

    Forget about everybody else.

  • November 7, 2022

    One Foot in Front of the Other

    One Foot in Front of the Other

    I’m noticing how much my feet have to do with things.

  • November 1, 2022

    Not Too Precious

    Not Too Precious

    We harvest not to keep but to nourish.

  • October 31, 2022

    Water in the Well

    Water in the Well

    Sometimes my writing practice helps me come back to the present moment.

  • October 24, 2022

    Gingko Wisdom

    Gingko Wisdom

    Where’s the gift in this?

  • October 17, 2022

    On Getting Lost

    On Getting Lost

    Getting lost isn’t the same as being lost.

  • October 10, 2022

    Make the Details Count

    “Give things the dignity of their names.”

  • October 3, 2022

    Get Yourself Some Now Today!

    Get Yourself Some Now Today!

    Sometimes my writing practice helps me come back to the present moment.

  • October 1, 2022

    Sober October

    Sober October

    How I got a little more of everything by choosing life “without.”

Land acknowledgement, some language courtesy the City of Lincoln: I reside in a community that rests on the traditional lands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Omaha, Winnebago, Dakota, Oto-Missouria, Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Kaw Peoples, as well as the relocated Ho-Chunk, Iowa, and Sac and Fox Peoples, past and present, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. I would not be able to do my work and live as I do without it and without them.

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