A lantern for the path
Love is everywhere in our culture—and most often, it’s framed as romance.
Walk into any bookstore and you can feel it on the shelves. Story after story that teaches us, love is the bond between two lovers, the cinematic kind that makes your heart ache, and your tears spill over. And trust me, I’m not above a good romance.
But love is larger than that.
The kind of love I write into Sera, Lily & The Fox Prince is more fundamental, more shared, more reverent. It’s the love carried in a child’s mind through a parent’s voice. The love between siblings when one of them is hurting and the other doesn’t flinch. The love between friends who stay steady in the hard moment. The love that returns home again—not with perfection, but with choice.
In the Netherwood, love isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes it’s practical. Attentive. A small act done with care that becomes shelter simply because of the hands that offered it.
That’s why this week’s Lantern Note is simple:
Not every bright thing is light.
Even a beautiful voice can mislead.
Not all things are true as they appear.Love is what remains when the forest grows quiet.
Love is the light that does not fail.
If you’d like to read the full Letters from the Netherwood letter with quotes from the book and a deeper reflection on the kinds of love that hold us, you can find it here:
📜 Read the full letter on Substack: The Shape of Love
What kind of love are you carrying this week?
And what is one small way you can intentionally practice it today?
Yours in ink,
Sabrina Giacalone