The Promise of Spring
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Hello friends, We’re in the midst of a glorious false spring here in Portland, Oregon. Crocuses are blooming, and plum trees and daffodils are showing small buds. The air is cool and fresh, the sun shines, and yesterday, a small red finch scoped out the front porch of our 108 year old home, seeing if there’s a good spot to nest. Finches nested on our porch a couple of years in a row a few years back. Seeing that finch lifted my heart. Seeking a place to nest is a sign of hope. There is a future. There are plans to make and eggs to lay and hopefully, some chicks to be born. These days, I’m doubling down on hope. Not the pie-in-the-sky variety, but the taking-small-actions type. Social unrest and uncertainty keeps happening, but that doesn’t mean I’m not taking action today for possible good things to come. Maybe you’re in a good place this week, or maybe you’re struggling. Or maybe, like many of us, you are some combination of both. Regardless, today I wonder: What gives you hope this week? What actions are you taking, small or large, to build a nest to cradle better possibilities? I’d love to hear from you. Best wishes - Thorn Need a break? How about joining an intrepid crew of con artists and thieves finding justice for the downtrodden? My Mouse Thief novella ebooks are discounted on my website: ThornCoyleBooks.
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, I wrote this week’s newsletter in advance, because I’m camping with no cell service. It’s so good for my psyche to disconnect from electronics, stare at mountains, and walk along streams for a week. I’m a mind-racer, and this disconnection—like meditation or prayer—helps slow me down inside. The meditation on nature is always a gift to me, even in the small city where I live. For example, on the summer solstice, it was cool enough for me to take a long afternoon walk. I headed...
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...