Permission to Share
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Hello friends, Years ago, writer Starhawk penned a novel in which city neighborhoods had fruit trees growing on the sidewalks, so anyone who was hungry could partake. It was a beautiful vision of a world we could live in, if we chose to. I now live in a city neighborhood with fruit trees growing on the sidewalk. Pear. Apple. Plum. Fig. Cherry. But, more often than not, the fruit falls and rots on the concrete in the sun. This happens unless the person who lives in the home near the tree gathers the fruit and puts a sign on it, inviting people to take and eat. Why is this? I sometimes wonder. There are unfortunately plenty of unhoused neighbors here, along with people I know must have food insecurity sometimes, especially as grocery prices have risen precipitously as a result of farm workers being kidnapped, caged, or deported. Then I realized a few things: One, people may not know the fruit is safe to eat. Okay. But mostly, I think people are afraid of taking something they think is not theirs. Despite the fruit growing freely, unfenced, in the open, it must belong to someone, right? Despite outright theft at larger levels, on the small, it is ingrained in us to not steal. To not take without permission. Sometimes, that is a good thing, but other times? We are left with ripe fruit rotting away. We must give each other permission to share, on both sides of the equation. If there is bounty on offer, we must say, “Please, come and eat!” And if we have something to offer, sometimes we feel to shy to share on our own, until someone else says, “Hey! I’d love to see what you’ve been working on. Will you show me?” Which side of the equation are you on right now? Do you have something to offer that you feel too timid to share? Or do you see something you’d like to partake in, but have felt too scared to ask? This week, I hope we give ourselves more permission and soften some unnecessary boundaries. We just might all be the richer for it. Best wishes — Thorn
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, I write this from Portland, Oregon, which is under threat from the US Federal Government right now. This week, as the political landscape looks worse than ever, I’m choosing to celebrate small victories and cultivate pleasure. One: The first tiny victory I’d like to share is that, when I logged into my Libby Library app looking for ebooks to read, I found that a kind librarian had given my book Sushi Scandal a thumbs up and sweet recommendation! This lifted my heart and made me...
Hello friends, I posted a picture of a cat on social media this morning with the caption “Sometimes we need to speak up.” It was a close up of the beautiful creature talking to me. Here it is: Close up photo of a meowing cat. But there’s a story behind that photo, one that relates to so many of us right now. The cat wasn’t just greeting me. The cat was asking me for help. Here's the story: On one of my walks, I spied this cat watching me. I stopped and greeted it when it was still a couple of...
Hello friends, It’s the time of the equinox, which means the sun appears to rise and set due east and due west. Also, day and night appear to exist in equal measure. It is a time of balance. A time to pause and reflect. Time. I keep repeating that word. As I approach my sixtieth revolution around the sun—yes, I was born just past the autumnal equinox—I feel the acceleration of time. But I also notice the steadiness of life itself. In youth, time stretches, yet life itself often feels...