On Reaching Out...
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Hello friends, Every day, we get to choose what is important to us. What we spend time and attention on. Is that creativity? Research? Helping others? Family? Work? Friends? Social media? Television? The past? The future? Our health? The health of our communities? Reading books? Going for walks? Whatever we spend the most time and attention on is, by default, the thing we are making most important. Sometimes it isn’t one thing itself, it is a thread running through several things. For myself, the most important thread is connection. I connect to the world. I connect through my words—in novels and essays and poems—and my photographs. I connect through this newsletter. I connect through mutual aid. As soon as I notice something taking me away from these attempts at connection for too long, I must alter my behavior. We’re in the midst of a season that can foster either connection or a sense of alienation. And we rapidly approach a time when many people make new plans. For me, my plans have to include new ways to connect. New ways to reach others and to keep my own sense of connection to my readers, to the cosmos, to this planet, and to myself. Is a sense of connection important to you, too? How do you reach out? And how many ways are you open to being reached for yourself? We’re all we’ve got, friends. I hope we keep making that important. Thank you for being here. Best wishes - Thorn I'm leading Holy Well and Sacred Flame again, as a way to connect with the Goddess Brigid and help navigate these times. There are benefactor, basic, and scholarship payment tiers available. You can also gift the class to a friend at checkout.
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, Some passion flares in the night, burning out quickly. Other passion is slow growing, changing over seasons. A vine roots into earth and climbs, forming buds, then flowers, then fruit, before changing yet again. The bright flares of passion are enlivening and can fill us with a sense that life is vital and our tasks are important. This sort of passion can sometimes leave us feeling like a burnt out husk. Slow growing passion requires persistence and the ability to grow with...
Hello friends, This morning, the rose city of Portland Oregon is shrouded in fog. Just yesterday afternoon, I walked in cool, crisp air and autumn sunlight. Tomorrow, it will rain. And such is life… days shifting from sun to fog to rain and back again. This past week, very little work has gotten done. Well, not the work on my schedule. Not the emails that need answering or the novel I’m almost finished writing. Not getting necessary paperwork to the book keeper. Not the ordering of books for...
Hello friends, The REM song “Hold On” is playing through my head this week. Partially because, after years of trying, someone in my family couldn’t hold on any longer, finally succumbing to a host of illnesses they just could not shake. The song is also with me because of the sheer number of people struggling right now. Struggling to simply survive. Whether because they don’t have money for food or rent, or lost their job, or struggle with mental or physical health, or they are under attack...