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, 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....