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
Hello friends, I was recently interviewed by Jamie Ferguson of Blackbird Press about my new essay collection: Let Your Life Be Lighting - Creativity in Times of Strife. She posed several questions, asking whether I ever feel discouraged, what to say to people who feel like giving up, and how I create during difficult times. In my answer to that last question, I called up inspiration from human history, and I think this might help you, too: “Think of the poems written, songs sung, clothing...
Hello friends, Happy May! May Day was on Friday. I love this holiday, because it rejoices in two things close to my heart: May Day celebrates the burgeoning growth of spring and sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere. People dance around poles with bright ribbons, and leap fires, and share food, laughter, and song. May Day also honors the Haymarket activists and martyrs who fought for worker’s rights, fair pay, and that little thing we call the weekend. May Day honors the human labor that grows...
Hello friends, “One of the keys of fascism is control of the nation’s narrative…” Social philosopher Kimberlé Crenshaw said that in this recent Guardian article. I’ve long admired Crenshaw’s work, and when I read those words this morning, I thought, “this is why I write.” I write to switch the narrative to something that feels healthier, kinder, and more beautiful. Every creative impulse can be anti-fascist. Every creative act can help heal us, body, heart, mind, and soul. Each creative work...