On Spending Time
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Hello friends, I've spent the week with friends on the opposite side of the continent from where I live. These are people I've known for decades. It is always good to see them. We challenge and support each other, and together, deepen our work and expand our minds. One thing you may not know about me is that I used to travel. A lot. While I appreciate the gift of the amazing places I've seen while speaking and teaching, and am some grateful for the people I've met... travel was never my thing. And then I burned out. So it takes a lot for me to travel outside my time zone these days. But it is also good for me to do on occasion. It shifts me out of my comfort zone, challenging my status quo. What does that for you? Is it getting up at a different time? Shifting your exercise routine? Getting in touch with someone you haven't seen for a long time? Taking a class? Starting a new and challenging project? Reading something you would not normally read? Visiting a place you've never been, even locally? Standing on your head? This calendar year, I'm engaged in an experiment to reset my inertia toward something that feeds my life more thoroughly and offers a chance to commit to different disciplines. I'm spending time with that, just as I spent time with these old friends. When we commit to making time for something new, we don't know what might happen. And for me? That is the true gift, and the deeper challenge. Because we're all facing the great unknown. We may as well get in some practice. Best wishes - Thorn I had a wonderful conversation with hip hop emcee and educator Davin Thompson, aka Do D.A.T. We discuss freestyle hip hop, spiritual practice, and showing up for life. I hope you enjoy it. You can listen on YouTube or your favorite podcast channel: Magic, Creativity, and Life
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, It’s Pride weekend, and I’m thinking of all the brave people who fought so hard to be allowed to simply exist. And I think of those who are still fighting, myself included. Do we want to fight? No. We’d rather just live our lives, do our work, laugh with friends, raise families, read books, and tend our gardens. Just like immigrants and other people under attack do. “The first Pride was a riot,” it is often said, and whether something is called a riot or an uprising depends on...
Hello friends, The yuccas are in full bloom right now, with dense clusters of creamy blossoms heavy as bells on tall stalks. This type of yucca is a spiky, unassuming plant when not in bloom, and then _bam_there is an astonishing wealth of flowers. While walking to a writing date the other week, I paused at a large grouping of these flowering plants, growing on the edge of a parking lot behind a chain link fence. The blossoms were buzzing with the activity of industrious bees. I paused a...
Hello friends, James Baldwin is one of my favorite writers. He was also a massively intelligent and cogent thinker, who held great insight into the human condition. Baldwin saw in us a breathtaking capacity for love, he also gazed unflinchingly at the worst parts of humanity, mostly our bigotry and greed. Along with his writing, teaching, and activism, Baldwin fought for a life in which he had time and space to do the deep thinking that gave rise to his insights. He also danced with friends,...