Deep dog thoughts at Acadia National Park. Hi Friends- I’ve been talking about gestation, frustration, and unnaturally long cycles of trying to understand the path forward for many months now. The cycle looks something like this: Phase I: I don’t know what I’m doing (gestation, faith, patience) Phase II: Okay, I think I know what I’m doing (mild clarity, beginning to plan & take action) Phase III: Wait a minute, do I know what I’m doing?? (pause, reflect & gestate still more) Phase IV: I know...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Artwork by Pavel Mishkin, see the animated gifs here. Hi Friends- This opening will be short and sweet because I’m on retreat. 😌 But I’ll share one small seed — a concept from Gary Nabhan that I discovered in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass. Restoration = Re-story-ation What a beautiful idea, that the restoration of anything — your peace of mind, for example, or the vitality of our Earth — depends upon learning how to tell ourselves new stories. This idea feels very resonant as...
5 months ago • 9 min read
Artwork by Poulina Bogatskaya. Hi Friends- I’ve been thinking about teachers lately, and that’s the subject of this week’s essay: “Expanding the Aperture of Your Curiosity.” One of my great teachers has been the writer E.F. Schumacher and his book Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered. Schumacher talks about the power of ideas, and how they serve as instruments for our thinking — how we think with and through them, so much so that we cannot think outside of them. How culture...
6 months ago • 10 min read
Artwork by Amaury Filho. Hi Friends- After much gestation, I feel the seeds of knowing-my-direction-forward finally sprouting in concert with the tender green leaves on the sugar maples and the fiddlehead ferns slowly unfurling in the forest. Yesterday a pair of deer happily munched on the yellow dandelion caps in my yard, and this morning a majestic turkey vulture flew straight over my head. I am also watching this National Geographic series about the wild intelligence and shapeshifting...
6 months ago • 9 min read
My dog, Pablo, in his natural habitat. Hi Friend- Spring has truly sprung upstate, and I was blessed to greet many new shoots of green on my woods walk this morning. It's a wonder to see Mother Nature reinvent herself again and again. Down the street, in my neighbor's yard, there is a magnificent magnolia tree laden with blooms. The house, clearly someone's second home, is currently unoccupied and it seems a great shame that no one is paying witness to this tree's radiant unfolding. We have...
7 months ago • 6 min read
Artwork by L Filipe dos Santos. Hi Friends- Thank you for your presence. As I mentioned in a recent podcast, I would not be writing this missive — or likely writing much at all — without you as my witness. Knowing that you are reading my words, anticipating that sense of engagement and connection, and feeling that we are all in this mixed-up, crazy universe together — honestly keeps me going. Especially when the cosmic energies get a little wild. We are currently knee-deep in eclipse season...
7 months ago • 9 min read
Artwork by Yukai Du for KILN. Hi Friends- This is going to be a lighter newsletter because I have been spending all of my time & energy getting ready for the launch of one of my biggest projects to date. And it’s finally here… I am thrilled to announce that KILN, my brand-new creative incubator, is now open for registration. : ) KILN = 🔥 for your creative ideas KILN is a catalyst, a sacred container, and a community. It is the warm, generative, creative space you’ve been craving — and the...
7 months ago • 5 min read
Artwork by Masha Foya. Hi Friends-This missive is coming to you a little late because I’ve been away on retreat for the past few weeks, reflecting and preparing for my next big project — KILN, a community & creative incubator for conscious creators. As the Spring Equinox comes upon us in just a few weeks & it’s time to begin cultivating our new shoots of green, I’ll be sharing more details about the program and how you can participate. For now, feel free to check out a teaser page I created...
8 months ago • 8 min read
Artwork by Lisa Odette. (See animated gifs here.) Hi Friends- I am waving from the steely fog of winter in the Catskills. 😶🌫️ We’ve just hit that early-February tipping point where the facade has dropped and no one is pretending they’re fine anymore. I bump into acquaintances on my morning pup walks, and we swap notes about the relentless gray skies and how it’s impacting our mental health. I was texting with a friend the other day, saying that I just felt like burying my head in the sand....
9 months ago • 7 min read