Are you curious
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Hello friends, There I was, on our tiny back mud porch—earbuds in, writing business podcast queued up—putting my boots on. A strange, metallic noise sounded from the back garden. I looked up. A crow was at the birdbath. Not the source. I shrugged, slung my bag with my writing paraphernalia over my shoulder, pressed play on the podcast, and stepped out. The strange sound cut through the podcast voices. Pulling an earbud out, I found the source: a squirrel on the fence, busily grabbing, squeezing, and chewing at crushed aluminum soda can. “What are you doing, squirrel?” I asked. It stopped to stare at me, one paw bracing the can on its edge. “What are you looking at?” Its dark eyes seemed to say. I wanted to get closer, but snapped a not-super-sharp photo at a distance. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll leave you alone.” On my walk, I wondered about that squirrel. Did it want to taste the sugar traces left inside the can? Did it just like the sound? Was it building some strange squirrel sculpture? I will likely never know. But I did know the squirrel had some curiosity driving it, even if the only quest was whether it could access a strange, sweet treat. This is something I share all the time with folks who are struggling: “Can you invoke curiosity about X, Y, or Z?” Invoking curiosity enables me to keep going when I hit a wall, whether with writing, relationships, business, or the world at large. As soon as we say, “I wonder…” possibility opens where none was perceived before. We are in times that require both fortitude and curiosity. I’m wishing you a bit of both. There are myriad things we can face with a curious heart and mind. If nothing else, remember the strangeness of a squirrel with an aluminum can… Best wishes — Thorn Please click through to get notified when the magic drops: The Fernie Brae
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, I wrote this week’s newsletter in advance, because I’m camping with no cell service. It’s so good for my psyche to disconnect from electronics, stare at mountains, and walk along streams for a week. I’m a mind-racer, and this disconnection—like meditation or prayer—helps slow me down inside. The meditation on nature is always a gift to me, even in the small city where I live. For example, on the summer solstice, it was cool enough for me to take a long afternoon walk. I headed...
Hello friends, It’s Pride weekend, and I’m thinking of all the brave people who fought so hard to be allowed to simply exist. And I think of those who are still fighting, myself included. Do we want to fight? No. We’d rather just live our lives, do our work, laugh with friends, raise families, read books, and tend our gardens. Just like immigrants and other people under attack do. “The first Pride was a riot,” it is often said, and whether something is called a riot or an uprising depends on...
Hello friends, The yuccas are in full bloom right now, with dense clusters of creamy blossoms heavy as bells on tall stalks. This type of yucca is a spiky, unassuming plant when not in bloom, and then _bam_there is an astonishing wealth of flowers. While walking to a writing date the other week, I paused at a large grouping of these flowering plants, growing on the edge of a parking lot behind a chain link fence. The blossoms were buzzing with the activity of industrious bees. I paused a...