Calm in a Crisis
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Hello friends, These are tough days, aren’t they? At least, they are for anyone paying attention to the world. In Portland Oregon where I live, a dedicated group of activists have been holding it down outside the ICE facility. This is a privately owned building, and another group of activists is pressuring our city council to revoke the lease, so ICE does not have a holding and staging area in our sanctuary city. Especially not next to a school and apartment buildings. Last night, the Department of Homeland Security used green gas on the protestors. This chemical has terrible effects and has been banned in most countries. I got that report this morning, then saw the news about the terror attack in Minnesota, which left one politician and her husband dead and another representative and his wife in critical condition. What did I do? Adjusted the plans I already had to help out folks at the ICE building, and then sat my butt down to meditate and breathe. I’d like to offer you the same, today. The more regularly we can find our centers and breathe, the easier it is to return to that state. When cortisol levels are spiking, and anger or anxiety threaten to overtake us, we can return to our breath. We can hopefully find our centers again. So, instead of a pretty photo this week, I’m posting a centering meditation I recorded five years ago. I find this practice to be very helpful. Wherever you are, and whatever your plans for today, I encourage you to take nine minutes and center with me first. We’re needed for the long haul, my friends. Keep breathing. Best wishes — Thorn 50% of my Witches of Portland bundle is going to people fighting tyranny in the US. That offer continues. This week, I’m adding 100% of profits from the Resistance Matters ebook on my website. There are matching t-shirts up, too.
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, It’s a rainy summer solstice here in beautiful Portland, Oregon. The sun is hiding, but, as I move my way around the city, I still see all the ways in which things shine. There are roses in full bloom everywhere. People don’t call this Rose City for nothing. Some roses are fragrant, others, not so much. But each flower is gorgeous in its own way, whether pink, red, yellow, or white. What else is shining? The glint on a crow’s beak. Rain on the sidewalks. People. Yeah. People....
Hello friends, Last week, I talked about encountering foxglove on a city sidewalk, and asked how your heart was. But the foxglove also got me thinking: Who first figured out it could be used to help with heart disease? I’m always amazed at the ancestors who figured these medicines out. Who would think that these lovely pink bells would be useful for more than their beauty? Who first figured out we could cure olives and eat them? Who was it that experimented enough to know that the bark of a...
Hello friends, I spotted some foxglove on a walk yesterday. It was a funny spot to find it, too, on a sidewalk just off a very busy street in a semi-industrial area of the city. The pink, spotted bells called me to come closer, to listen to their whispers as traffic rolled by. As a sometimes-writes-cozy-mysteries author, I know that foxglove can kill. But historically, it has been used to heal. It still is. Digitalis—foxglove—is used to treat many heart illnesses. This made me want to ask:...