1. Truth: I can only know and do what is right for me. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between sharing your truth as a “big T, capital T, universal Truth” (which so many religions, lifestyle influencers, teachers, gurus, coaches, etc. do) and “hey, this worked for me so I wanted to share in case it might make sense for you too, but don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself.” The first one can be not just problematic but actually harmful, and yet right in line with how our culture works — weakening our trust in ourselves so we can be sold on a new process, program, product, or person. Even when I determine all I can know about what’s true for me, there are causes and conditions I can’t possibly know, so the most I can do is make my best guess about “truth” and even when I think I know, realizing I don’t and staying aware, open, and curious.
2. Truth: I’ve lost touch with my truth, my intuition. I’ve spent so many years trying to accommodate other, to follow the rules, to be “good” and in that way hopefully earn the right to joy and love, the right to be here, to exist and take up space. I not only looked outside myself to know what to do and how I should be, but I internalized those expectations so that now “the call is coming from inside the house.” It has clouded my judgment and all but severed my connection to my inner wisdom, and even when I sense it, I don’t always trust it. This is no way to live.
3. Truth: Clear the table and sit with the emptiness. I was telling Calyx yesterday how when I clean off my writing desk or a drawer or even a whole room, rather than organizing as I go, I have to take everything off/out, start with a clean slate. Another dear friend and I were talking the other day about how when you get so overwhelmed and confused and disconnected that you shut down, the thing to do is take all the “stuff” that has piled up on the table, all the junk and the dust and the undone, and sweep the surface clear, reset to nothing, and then sit with that emptiness. A similar practice is the Zen notion of “only don’t know.”
One wish: May you rest and find comfort in not knowing, and may wisdom arise from your trust in the emptiness and your own basic goodness. As the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Tilopa offered in his “Six Words of Advice”, a simple six word teaching that translates to:
Don’t recall: Let go of what has passed. Don’t imagine: Let go of what may come. Don’t think: Let go of what is happening now. Don’t examine: Don’t try to figure anything out. Don’t control: Don’t try to make anything happen. Rest: Relax, right now, and rest.
1. I Don’t Know What’s Best for You from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less. This is so good, and something I really needed to hear.
2. Our Favorite Healthy Habits of 2021 on The New York Times. When I clicked on this link I fully expected it to be a mashup of the typical “new year, new you” nonsense that starts up this time of year, but they were actually sane, workable ideas.
12. An Alternative Economy of Care in Portland. “Crisis Kitchen is one of a network of mutual aid groups in Portland working to build a more supportive and just community.”
13. Building Bridges Without a Foundation for Peace Won’t Work. “At worst, our bridge-building efforts champion superficial civility, celebrate false unity, and uphold an unjust status quo. But at our best, we can expand movements to advance peace, justice, and democracy. Indeed, the future of America depends on it.”
19. Ritual of Escape. “For Toronto-based writer Tendisai Cromwell, walking in nature is an act of care and a quiet resistance to the effects of racial trauma.”
21. But What If A Pinecone Hits Her In The Head? by Ijeoma Olou. “It’s been such a delight to watch all of this go down. To watch a man who absolutely refused to pet any dog, no matter how cute, and quite visibly wish that the encounter with said animal would end as quickly as possible, now look longingly at every dog we see out in the world.”
24. How we built new traditions during the pandemic. “We asked our viewers and readers what new traditions, for the holidays or otherwise, they started during the pandemic…read what brought them solace, in their own words.”
29. I Moved to a Remote Cabin to Write, and I Hate It. “What to do if you followed your dream, only to realize it wasn’t what you wanted after all.” The headline and tagline don’t really make it clear: this is some really good writing advice.
30. Dormancy on Rita’s Notebook. “There is so much clamor in the world, and so often lately all I can hear is a grating din. I want to see if I can create a pocket of quiet within it…I don’t know if this experiment is as much about becoming some other kind of writer as it is about becoming a different kind of reader. All I know is that somehow, I’ve lost my way, and I want to find it again.”
37. Time Capsule 2021: Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. “If you could make a time capsule of 2021 in images and words, what would it look like? The Alipore Post, a fabulous international online journal of art, poetry, interviews and collaborations, invited me to make such a time capsule–what a year it’s been.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 