- Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory by David Alexander Robertson
- Conversations With Trees by Stephanie Kaza
- Sisters by Daisy Johnson
- Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
- Yesterday by Juan Emar
- Poetry: The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón; Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking by C.T. Salazar; One Hundred Crows by The Peregrine Writers; need nezu (Good Medicine) by Tenille K. Campbell.
low
10.18.2022
doe's dawn
8.06.2022
My beloved mom died last month. She had a big, generous, complicated heart that positively impacted so many lives, and I feel so lucky to have been a tiny star that she chose to be in her orbit. I have so many feelings that I seem unable to express right now. Perhaps with time I will, but for now I will keep most of them, and her, close to my (broken) heart.
A few nights after she died, I dreamt that I was in the living room at my childhood home. It was dawn. I stood in front of the multiple tall windows that looked out over the back yard, the pasture, barn, and chicken house beyond. I noticed that a doe was in the rhododendrons just outside, two spotted fawns at her side; she nuzzled them and looked into my eyes. Just then I heard a rushing sound, looked up, and saw a huge flock of white birds descending. They swooped and swirled, flying right up to the windows, emanating a warmth and love that wrapped around me like one of her hugs. I woke up and smiled for the first time in days.
Early last year I committed to getting outside to walk first thing in the morning. There were a few days last summer I didn't make it due to unforeseen health issues, but I did more often than not until it became a sacred practice, even through winter (which I find more enjoyable than summer). Mom wasn't really able to walk much the last few years of her life, and she often lamented that fact and how she wished she could get out and walk like she used to. I've been feeling her with me in the mornings these last few weeks, and I know now that when I need to feel close to her all I have to do is get out and walk. Every walk I take now is with her.
slow notes:
A few books I've read and liked recently:
- When I Sing, Mountains Dance, by Irene Sola.
- A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Time, by Stephanie Kaza and Joanna Macy.
- Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World: Essays, by Barry Lopez.
- A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention, by Rebecca Schiller.
- Phosphorescence, by Julia Baird.
- Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women, by Annabel Abbs. I'm just finishing this up. I read Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews last year and it's similar in concept, but Abbs walks in the steps of the women she writes about and shares her own personal thoughts and stories along the way. I loved it.
frida & other earthly matters
3.30.2022
stormclouds
3.10.2022
po(em)path
2.24.2022
- Shift, from Sim Warren.
- Ten Love Letters to the Earth, by Thich Nhat Hanh.
- One Long River of Song, by Brian Doyle. Favorite book of the year so far. This collection of essays is sweet and sad and funny and absolutely beautiful.
stirrings
2.10.2022
- This, from Sylvain Gautier. I adore this. It reminds me of something that would have been hand-made over a century ago. Also, this.
- The work of Celia Pym. Read more here.
- These absolutely stunning photos of Iceland, from Sidetracked.
- This, on trees, from The Marginalian.