What's Possible?
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Hello friends, While on a walking break from the writer’s conference I taught at last weekend, I paused to snap a picture of a wall mural. It was advertising something—toasted English Muffins, I believe—and showed a mountain scene, with trees, lake, and sky, and people entertaining each other with song around a campfire. But besides the incongruity of such a beautiful scene marketing a breakfast bread, it was the message that stopped me: “Wake up to what’s possible.” Well. That’s where we are each day, isn’t it? And especially now. Why especially now? Because there are people in positions of power who wish to grind us down and quash our spirits. They don’t want us to imagine what is possible. They want us to shrink into ourselves in fear and defeat. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to do that. I’ve been fighting this battle since around age thirteen, and these days? As a gender nonconforming queer person, I refuse to be erased. And I refuse to let these people steal my joy, my vision, and my hope for a kinder future. So, every day, I write. Every day, I take a walk and notice beautiful things. Every day, I find a way to help someone. Every day, I wake up to what is possible, which includes both good and bad, and I choose to take action for the good and against the bad. How about you? How are you awakening to what is possible? What are you creating? What strategies are helping you through? Best wishes - Thorn I usually showcase my own projects down here, but today I want to highlight the work of the Border Butterflies Project. They work on behalf of trans immigrants.
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, When was the last time you paused because something was so beautiful, you needed a moment? When was the last time you were emotionally moved by nature, a painting, a song, a film, a dance? And how often do you make space to welcome beauty in your life? “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” wrote Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. She was speaking of subjectivity. That each of us finds different things—objects, people, places—beautiful. But there’s more to it than simple taste or...
Hello friends, I had oral surgery last week, and now that I’m able to eat kind-of-solid-but-still-mushy food, I’m making oatmeal every morning. As a consequence, I’ve been engaging in some simple honey magic. No, I’m not harvesting my own honey. No, I’m not leaving a jar of honey out beneath the full moon. Those are two magical things to do, but my ambitions right now are simpler. All I am doing is this: Gathering some honey on a teaspoon, I drizzle the golden amber substance into the bottom...
Hello friends, A mourning dove hoo-hoos outside my window. Black capped chickadees chirp and crows call. Daffodils spring along sidewalks, and the sun peers out among grey clouds. It is the time of equinox here on planet Earth. I love equinoxes and solstices, because these are four times a year when I stop to take a larger pause. To notice the changes—subtle and large—around me. In the seasons. In the slant of sun. In the conversations of birds. In the fall of snow or leaves, or the rise of a...