More Practices for Hard Times
Plus new terraphilic books
It’s not possible to constantly hold onto crisis. You have to have the love and you have to have the magic. That’s also life. — Toni Morrison, quoted in
’ “Drops of Beauty” newsletter
Hello Friends,
Last week’s Tool Swap of what practices we use to thrive in chaotic and painful times produced loads of helpful ideas I want to share.
In sum, they include:
Take time away from screens and technology
Ration your consumption of the news
Spend time outside in nature (practice your terraphilia!)
Move: Walk, do yoga or tai chi, dance…
Be creative: cook, paint, sew, build
Speak up and find positive ways to advocate
Nurture your friends and community
Spread kindness.
Click here to read that conversation in the comments.
These are not tools to lull us into passivity or thinking everything is going to be okay. These practices focus our minds, help us find our balance, strengthen our muscles for resistance and clarify our beliefs. They are tools for cutting through the chaos and overwhelm so that we can be effective at acting and protecting and advocating.
In the week since, other newsletters have offered more practices. Here are some of my favorites:
Creativity and resilience
of Creative Late Bloomers offers a collection of ideas for resilience-building creative pursuits, beginning with flower farming, and including poetry, community storytelling, garden therapy among others.There’s a connection between resilience - the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties - and creativity.
— Sue Kusch. Creative Late Bloomers
Creative pursuits build resilience.
Staying grounded
In “The Deep Dreaming of Enchanted Crones,”
reminds us of the value of myth in helping us understand and survive difficult times, plus this summary of ways to stay grounded:Lift up those around you with kindness and goodwill. Kindness is the bedrock of a civil society.
Goodwill is the welcoming hand that reminds us we are not alone—we are stronger together.
Make something every day. Tend to gardens. Prepare nourishing meals.
Create art with thread and fiber, paint and pencil.
Play music that transports the heart.
Dance. Move the numbing poison of the cyclops’s breath out of your body.
Sing the songs of justice. Blend your voice with the activism of speaking out.
See and name the goodness in others. Be slow to criticize and quick to praise.
Collect small joys.
Keep the phrase “Live fully and love well” in your pocket.
Live fully and love well.
You can do this hard thing
To lift your spirits and bolster your heart, listen to singer/songwriter
’s informal concert and conversation on “Gathering of Spirits.” My favorite song from this video is “What We Need is Here,” which contains these great lines:You can do this hard thing …
Impossible just takes a little more time.
—Carrie Newcomer, “What We Need is Here”
You can do this hard thing.
Yes we can!
Care for each other is a political force
And from the always deeply thoughtful Pádraig Ó Tuama’s “Poetry Unbound” newsletter, a reminder of the power of care for each other:
Despite what some might say, we know that care for each other is a political force that must be at the imperative of public service.
—Pádraig Ó Tuama, “Spring Sings”
Care for each other is a political force….
Those terraphilic books
The book may be rooted in Western Washington, but it offers a template on how to connect more deeply to wherever we are.
Poet Maria Kelson’s venture into the thriller/mystery genre, Not the Killing Kind, grips readers by the throat from the opening. And does so while dealing with substantive issues: racism, human trafficking, adoption, and abandonment.
Ana ‘Boots’ Marez is head of school at an alternative school in northern California’s redwood country, and single mom to Jaral, an 18-year-old boy she adopted when he was 12. They’ve had their ups and downs in their six years as a family. Lately they’ve been in an “up.” Until the day a month before Jaral’s high-school graduation when he shoplifts prenatal vitamins and gets caught. When Boots quizzes him, fearing a pregnant girlfriend, Jaral says, “I’m handing something, Moms. Start grounding me tomorrow.” But come tomorrow, Jaral’s best friend Nando is dead and Jaral disappears.
The characters in this nail-biter are so well-drawn that you will root for them; the land and its deep forests will envelop you. The ending is surprisingly sweet and hopeful—a five-star read.
I reviewed Not the Killing Kind on Story Circle Book Reviews and interviewed Kelson as well about her switch from poetry to thrillers, her writing process, place as character and what the story means to her.
Friends, please get outside and soak up some spring (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere) and Vitamin N. Be kind to yourself and those around you. Let your light shine brightly in these harrowing times.
Leave a comment to let me know how you are doing. Let’s all hold each other!
Blessings, Susan
Thanks for this!
Seattle is in bloom and everywhere, including in the city of Edmonds, just north of the big city, fruit trees, camelias, daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinths, rhododendrons, hyacinths, hyacinthoides, heather, violets, and numerous others are part of this. In the wild areas red-flowered currents, Oregon grapes, western skunk cabbage, big leaf maple, and many others are adding to this. We have had a few very beautiful days of late (interspersed with gales and all day rains.) Just being out in the sweet spring does one a world of good.
I still watch the news too much and will have to cut down. It is way too much of a roller coaster
I have started a new mixed media painting of koi and waterlilies, based on photographs I took of a koi pond in a Chinese garden in Vancouver, BC. Also, I am finishing up the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, which speaks to me on a number of levels.
I also took part with Rebecca in the demonstration in Shoreline, WA. We had 3000 participants (another 2000 in a last minute one in Edmonds!) and that was very satisfactory. We got hundreds of honks of support on Aurora Ave and, as Rebecca observed, only four fingers from motorists!
A few minutes ago, I started looking up butterfly webcams. While this is hardly like going outside to be in nature (which I've also been doing), it is a relaxing way to take breaks from work. It's also a sharp contrast from the news, and it's a way to see butterflies in a volume that I wouldn't be able to see otherwise.