Last week I went on an airplane to where it was Fall. It was cool where I landed, cold really. It kept catching my breath. I breathed in deep breaths of salty water, end of season hawthornes, fir needles. I touched and marveled at mushrooms, picked a few.
I even went to the community gym and lay on the hot cedar planks. Sweaty, getting deeply warm. Soft and pliant.
I welcomed fall.
And not the welcome like when you enter a store and they say, “welcome in. ” I hate that redundancy. Isn’t it enough and truer to open up once and greet it? Can’t we welcome with a single utterance? An opening. A yes.
Or by pausing with the:
Rain.
Sharpness.
Mottled yellow. A few red leaves.
In any case, we have shifted again, its fall. Even though I am back home and it’s hot today, the light has shifted. I start the days in the dark and I light candles to welcome in the day slowly.
And for me the fall offers a chance for re-invigoration. A breath into new things, here they are.
-As many of you know we just moved to Northern California. On our new property we have two living situations to offer up. Maybe you know someone, or maybe it is you. One is a beautiful redone airstream trailer tucked under an oak and a eucalyptus with a fabulous outdoor bathing set-up. The other is a bucolic spot to bring a tiny house, quiet, dreamy really, and just a short bike ride to town. Get in touch if you’d like to know more.
-The next is, I have been doing submissions for my chapbook of poetry. It is called, The Home of Milk. It is about liminal sweetness and the revulsion of early parenting. In it there are glimpses of presence, moments of clear eyed aliveness. It is a work is in conversation with the lineage of those influenced by leftover breakfast cereal, politics of awe, a nagging pandemic, patti smith, lullabies from Leonard Cohen, and even the possibility of next seasons seeds. I am walking the path of submissions, one at a time for many months. I want to share this work in the world and maybe you know where or are the person to share it. Let’s talk!
-Also, I just want you to think about the kind of energywork that makes you feel good, that makes you come home, that makes you know the world as the place you inhabit fully. After many years of quietly doing this work for my closest community, I am getting ready to share it with a broader group of people. I want to invite you home and if you can’t wait for the more formal announcement coming later this year and you need this kind of work soon, get in touch! Or savor the anticipation.
-Last, I want some ways to spend some time together and find ways for you to support the work of this writing. I’ve loved meditating when we did that together. It might be fun to read a book together? Would you like some writing prompts? Invitations to get weird together and apart? I’d like to get many more of you signed up to spend more time on this work and the community together. What would you like?
I am thinking of you as I eat apples. As the dahlias start to wither. As the sun stretches out long across the deepening blue of the sky.
Reading:
The Covenant of Water: Anthony Verghese
Inciting Joy: Ross Gay
Here is the list of books mentioned here on Bookshop.
Listening:
-to the crows as they start to circle up
-flight path over my house
-my own set of chattering thoughts mostly :)