And There You Are


Hello Friends,

This week, I’m thinking about where we end up.

One day, you’re a cheerful turtle, spouting water for kiddos in the summer heat. The next, it's rainy autumn, the kids are older, and you’re left on the sidewalk, hoping some other family picks you up and takes you home.

Or, one day, you’re twenty years old, living with four friends, trying to figure out your life, and the next, you’re heading toward seventy and wondering what happened to your knees.

Now, I doubt anyone reading this is a turtle water spout, and who knows how old you are and what your life condition is, but we all have to face change, don’t we? Including this changing world, as we reel from the realities of climate change, war, economic uncertainty, and all the rest.

There is a lot that feels out of our control, as if we were the toy turtle left on the sidewalk. But other things? We have still have choices we can make on the daily.

Every day, we can choose to show up to our varied conditions and find ways to help, ways to create, ways to care for ourselves and others. We don’t have to mourn the way things were, and we don’t have to settle for the way things are.

We don’t have to just end up somewhere, as if we have no will or choice.

What helps me remember my power to choose? As usual, that's the small actions:

Each day, I choose to write something new. Every day, I take a walk and notice something interesting or beautiful. Every week, I find a way to offer help. Sure, I get angry at the way the world is, but I also revel in the beauty of it. Both of those are choices as well.

How about you? Have you just ended up somewhere? What are you choosing right now? What helps you remember to choose? What is getting you through these times?

Best wishes — Thorn


News:

There's a new installment of Magic, Creativity, and Life up on your favorite podcast outlet or my YouTube channel. It's with Tarot reader Rashunda Tramble.

For the month of October, 50% of proceeds from ThornCoyleBooks will go to hurricane relief. That includes my oracle deck and ebooks.

T. Thorn Coyle

Read more from T. Thorn Coyle
A white rose blooms between the squares of a chain link fence, lit by autumn sun.

Hello friends, This morning, the rose city of Portland Oregon is shrouded in fog. Just yesterday afternoon, I walked in cool, crisp air and autumn sunlight. Tomorrow, it will rain. And such is life… days shifting from sun to fog to rain and back again. This past week, very little work has gotten done. Well, not the work on my schedule. Not the emails that need answering or the novel I’m almost finished writing. Not getting necessary paperwork to the book keeper. Not the ordering of books for...

Embroidery stapled to a utility pole: Love People on Purpose

Hello friends, The REM song “Hold On” is playing through my head this week. Partially because, after years of trying, someone in my family couldn’t hold on any longer, finally succumbing to a host of illnesses they just could not shake. The song is also with me because of the sheer number of people struggling right now. Struggling to simply survive. Whether because they don’t have money for food or rent, or lost their job, or struggle with mental or physical health, or they are under attack...

Palm trees, blue sky, and a Ferris wheel

Hello friends, This will be a short missive because I've been in Las Vegas all week, at the big Author Nation business conference and the big Reader Nation book fair. While Vegas is not my favorite place—an understatement. I actually find it very trying—I travel here to learn. I travel here to get out of that proverbial comfort zone. It is good for me to stretch myself, body, spirit, and mind. Sometimes, in order to learn, we must cast ourselves into the strange and challenging... And let me...