Hello friends, Take a deep breath. Tune into your body. How do you feel? Are you tired? Jumpy? Energized? Agitated? Exhausted? All of the above? Take another deep breath. How is your heart? I don’t even want to begin to assign possible markers for your emotional state, because the possibilities are so personal, always, but especially right now. Some of us are alone. Some of us are caretakers. Some of us need care. Some of us are caregivers who also need care. Some of us are busy. Some don’t feel busy enough. All of this, in the midst of world events, affects our emotional states, or what we call our hearts. The physical heart is a muscle, of course. And muscles can feel strong or weak, vital or weary. Battered, bruised, or well cared for. So… I suggest we all take another deep breath. Drop our attention to that space high up within our protective ribs. Perhaps place a hand gently there. Breathe again. How is your heart? And what does your heart need today? What is one way you can offer your heart what it needs? I’ll close with this: Today, I feel grateful you are alive, out there somewhere, connecting with these words. We are in this together, us and our hearts. And as poet and psychologist Scherezade Siobhan writes: "We best rescue each other in daily heartbeats." Best wishes - Thorn My Kickstarter campaign for Resistance Matters: Essays on Love and Action launched on Tuesday. It's the only way to preorder this revised, expanded book of essays on our times.
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Hello friends, As you read this, I'm out camping with friends outside of cell and wifi range. So, to simplify things this week, I'm leaving you one photo and a podcast! First, the photo. It's from one of those moments where I'm reminded, once again, amidst the very real horrors, how much I love this world. Just look at that bumblebee on those bright pink sweat pea flowers. Amazing, yes? Photo: Bumblebee on Sweetpeas Next, I wanted to share the latest episode of Magic, Creativity, and Life....
Hello friends, There’s an artist—or perhaps an arts collective—here in the Pacific Northwest that makes wooden dragon heads with glass teeth and jeweled eyes made of old CDs. The dragons are always painted in bold colors, and attached high up wood utility poles, so it seems as if they are roaring to the sky. I love that part. The roaring to the sky, part. I also love how bright and colorful these dragons are, and how carefully thought out, even if they are made of scraps of wood and outdated...
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....