It was glorious, 70 in March in Minnesota, and then it was a reminder.
DON’T RUSH NATURE. It will be spring when it damn well wants to be.
In this transition, enjoy the auditory and visual shifts of season – in particular with our air friends, the birds, a reminder of how movement connects us all.
WATCH: 1. Connected, Latif Nasser – also, just experience everything he does. Beautiful. 2. The Most Unknown
QUOTE: from Crow and Weasel “Remember on this one thing,” said Badger. “The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other’s memories. This is how people care for themselves.”
WORD: Aoibhneas (Gaelic) pronounced eevnass The joys we feel from external things, such as music, companionship, scenery and good weather. To fill our senses with the joys of the world around us.
We are in the midst of a beautiful darkness, on the cusp of a renaissance. It’s exciting, and scary, and delightful. A few things to enjoy in the dark.
PONDERANCE and WATCH: four-hundred years from now, what will the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortoises be called? Williams? Gorman?
QUOTE – 2 this week! I have always liked my people a bit damaged. A bit rough around the edges. A bit difficult to stereotype. A bit stranger than the normal crowd. I like people whose eyes tell stories and whose smiles have fought through wars. If you’re perfect, changes are, we aren’t going to get on. If you’re one of the cool kids, changes are, you won’t like me. You see, what I want is authentic. What I want to see is your purity, I want to see the way you wear your scars, I want to see how brave you are with your vulnerability, how emotionally naked do you let the world see you. Your damage may not be beautiful, but it has made you exquisite. It makes you original, different, and one of my kind of people, because people like you are the most incredible things about this world. – Nikita Gill
…When you have the balls to go into the darkness and all of a sudden you realize that darkness was a complete illusion. All the darkness and negativity and spooky shit and guilt and fear and crap you thought was inside you, and all the bad things you thought you’ve done, and all the things you feel terrible about secretly…you realize that’s nothing. It’s an illusion. The universe loves you, you are completely embraced by the entire universe. You are an incremental part of the functioning of the cosmos. You are an incredible, wonderful, perfect fucking thing. And when you get a glimpse of that, it’s the greatest feeling ever. Because you’re healed. Because that’s what true healing is, man. True healing is realizing you were never sick in the first place. True healing is realizing you just had a little bit of dust on the windshield man..you brush it off... – Duncan Trussell
REMINDER: You are doing better than you think you are. There is no need to be hard on yourself. Release the unnecessary pressure.
POEM: (Image from above…story from the book “Frankenstein eats a sandwich, by Adam Rex)
When Frankenstein prepared to dine on ham and cheese on wheat He found, instead, he had no bread(or mustard, cheese, or meat). What could he do? He thought it through until his brain was sore. And thought he ought to see what he could borrow from next door. His neighbors gawked as Frankie walked the paths up to their porches. Each time he tried, the folks inside would chase him off with torches. “A MONSTER! EEK!” the people shrieked. “Oh, make him go away!” The angry hordes unsheathed their swords, pulled pitchforks out of hay. They threw tomatoes, pigs, potatoes, loaves of moldy bread. And then a thought struck Frankenstein as pickles struck his head. It’s true at first he thought the worst. His neighbors were so rude! But then he found that on the ground they’d made a mound of food! He piled it high and waved good-bye and shouted, “Thanks a bunch!” Then stacked it on a plate and ate a big, disgusting lunch!
The absurdities of the first month of 2021 seem to be impacting everyone. The activities we are witnessing/experiencing relate to our global pendulum, which reverberates at all scales. We are a microcosm of the macrocosm.
This is how change occurs: We will be in these large back and forth movements for a while, and we have a choice in how we perceive and live it. One: fear, which results in giving away power. Or two: swing.
When you swing, your stomach is in your head (feed it), and your heart is in your feet (the leading part of each trajectory). It is exhilarating and scary at first. Then, you become attuned to your own movement, both in structure and in surrender.
Also, I dare you to swing, even just a little, and not smile.
If we pay attention to media, our world is in a war. The dissonance is easy prey. Yet, when we slow down, we discover that curiosity is stronger than fear.
When we become curious, we are led to the lights of our natural world, and we find a very different story. Connections, in matrices, abound at every scale, at every moment, in every being, between every being.
“The revelation of suddenly seeing what I was blind to only moments before is a sublime experience for me. I can revisit those moments and still feel the surge of expansion. The boundaries between my world and the world of another being get pushed back with sudden clarity an experience both humbling and joyful…Mosses and other small beings issue an invitation to dwell for a time right at the limits of ordinary perception. All it requires of us is attentiveness. Look in a certain way and a whole new world can be revealed.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer
If you are one of those kids who freaked out when you learned how big the universe is, this might not be the Moonbow for you. However, recognizing the concept of scale and connection to our broader universe is amazing and valuable.
The amount of things that exist and the number of things that are required for everything to exist at one moment in time and space are Astronomical, Awesome, and Astonishing.
After an encounter early in their friendship, Mr. Rogers and his wife had a lifelong inside joke. “…when they were traveling anywhere and were tired and finally got to sit down and rest, one would turn to the other with a mischievous grin and say, “Oh, this makes my sweet ass smile.”
Activities this week: Throughout: Picture Mr. Rogers saying “Oh, this makes my sweet ass smile” every time you sit down.
Do something creative with it. Describe it, be as playful and naughty as you can (take it beyond the edge). Make a picture with it. Dance around the room with it. Keep your creation for yourself (if that feels safer) or share it with me (which I would love).
Leah Moss 