In-Spir-Ation
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Hello friends, I started this newsletter at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, and named it Keep Breathing. The name was partially in reference to this new, frightening illness, but also harkened back to everything I’d taught and practiced for years: To pause and take a conscious breath is to be present with what is. To pause and take a conscious breath is to open to possibility. There is life in a single breath. And there is magic. We breathe with the trees and the plants. We breathe with the stars. We breathe with every other living thing. We breathe. We create music with our breath. As a young poet, reading aloud in the cafés of Los Angeles and San Francisco, I learned to mark meter and use commas to indicate breath. I do the same now, writing fiction and other prose... My editors are amused, because my commas look like rogue markings on the page, not always following standard grammatical rules. But those commas telegraph something important: This thought pauses here, and then moves on. That character inhales here, then springs to action. And so my writing becomes a living thing, filled with the power of breath. I, and my art form, continue to breathe and be inspired. In-spir-ation. To breathe into. In-spir-ation. To be breathed into by a divine source. Breath. The start of magic. The origin of art. The beginning of so much of life on earth. What are you breathing into being? Best wishes - Thorn Need a break? How about a visit with corgi sleuths Klaus and Marsha?
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, It is early January. Another Gregorian calendar year. Outside my window, the sun shines after rain. Wisps of grey clouds hover low, kissing utility wires. It’s gorgeous outside, and feels still. The air is cold and soft with moisture. Crows call to one another, cars drive by. Tea steams its fragrance at my side. Today is another day to ponder, work, and plan. Today is another day to choose. What will you choose, repeatedly, this year? What do you plan? What might you build?...
Hello friends, Believe it or not—and despite the first paragraph—below are more thoughts about hope… As one Gregorian calendar year draws to a close, many of us are gazing into a highly volatile, uncertain future. The US economy seems to teeter on a precipice. With scant oversight and terrified or deported workers, our food supply is both compromised and costly. Environmental regulations are gutted. Families are rent apart. Too many people live in fear of what the next day will offer. This...
Hello friends, “Light is returning, even though this is the darkest hour. No one can hold back the dawn…” – Charlie Murphy & Jami Sieber It’s Solstice weekend as I write this. It is cold outside. There’s flooding not far from here. There are families afraid to go to work or school. There are people hoarding power and wealth who care only for themselves. There are mass shootings. War. There are people fueled by cruelty, hatred, and fear. These are dark times, indeed. These are also times of...