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...
3 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...
4 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...
4 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...
5 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...
5 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...
6 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...
6 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....
8 months ago • 7 min read
Artwork by Rita Quattrocchi. Hi Friends- It’s fourteen days into 2024 and twenty-four days into winter, and I’ve been reflecting on seasonal rhythms. And how my own rhythms do or don’t align with the rhythms of the collective. While many are embracing that fresh “new year, new you” energy, I find myself resting in a period of uncomfortable liminality, waiting for my next wave of projects/incarnations/reinventions to fully crystalize. So I decided to make that the subject of my latest podcast...
8 months ago • 8 min read