I’m off to the climate strike in Auckland today, with all my intersecting identities, mixed feelings, and no sign, because what words could ever be… right?
I love that sometimes a piece of music, words that aren’t organized in the usual fashion, and/or movements of the body can express those ineffable so effectively. More Love indeed. May all beings be well!
Thanks to my colleague, friend, and most-committed yoga student Daniel for sharing these ❤
Every time I remember that this petition existed I laugh out loud, because the first time I saw it (and for MONTHS afterward!) I interpreted it to mean, “…until he realizes that each of us is a mushroom.”
I finally figured it out.
I suppose all I want is to help others feel a bit better about being. All I can offer are my own stories in hopes of not only being seen and understood, but also to learn to love my own self as if it were an act of resistance. Resisting that annoying voice that exists in all of our heads that says we aren’t good enough, talented enough, beautiful enough, thin enough, rich enough or successful enough. … It’s empowering to me to see someone be unapologetically themselves when they don’t fit within those images. That’s what I want for myself next and why I share with you…”
-Brittany Howard
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You may know Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes; what a wonder! I pulled this quote from her statement about the new solo album she’s got coming out next week, “Jaime” (source + full statement below).
Continue reading ““…all I want is to help others feel a bit better about being.” -Brittany Howard”
I don’t think I’ve mentioned lately how much I love Hadassah Damien, curator / writer / technologist / activist and “femme punk big sister of financial real talk” over at Ride Free Fearless Money.
One of the coolest things on her site is a really thorough explanation of how to charge on a sliding scale… also known as letting people pay what they can, within a set of boundaries, such that the people who pay more essentially cover the costs of the people who pay less.
Hadassah goes into detail on:
To that last point, she also just released a new-and-improved version of her own sliding scale fee guidance chart:
If you’ve ever been tempted to use a sliding scale for your business or organization, I highly recommend checking out the very useful resources Hadassah has compiled! Better yet, sign up for her newsletter for a regular dose of “nerdery and hustlerdom” (eg awesome money tips, ideas for hacking capitalism, and ways to hustle).
Thanks for the inspiration, Hadassah! ❤
I’ve been appreciating this doorway through which to ponder the transitory nature of life:
More on the context of this particular performance, and the origin of this particular arrangement
Spring in West Marin — and the Pacific Northwest in general — always meant the return of Swainson’s Thrush singing their hearts out:
One of the things about moving a significant distance from the plants and animals I’m so familiar with is that I am also a long way from the kind knowing that is only possible when one has lived somewhere for a long time. Like any reunion with rarely-seen old friends, I was both thrilled to hear these boisterous birds in both British Columbia and Washington State during our trip in July, and a bit sad to recognize just how much I miss them.
Given the record number of rain days in Auckland this Spring, I haven’t been outside to get amongst the few seasonal markers I do remember: new lambs at nearby Cornwall Park, the magnolias at the Auckland Botanical Garden. So it’s been a joy to hear one from the relative comfort of our living room! And one that reminds me so much of the Swainson’s Thrush:
We started hearing them a few weeks ago and assumed it was the fantails (pīwakawaka in te reo Māori) we started seeing at the same time, but turns out it’s the grey warbler… which has so many names in te reo I’m not sure which to commit to memory.
Perhaps one day these birds too will be known to me as old friends.
Here’s another attempt to paraphrase the four reminders, aka the four mind-turning Reflections, into my own words:
These always remind me of the last few lines of Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day:
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Here she reads the entire poem, or you can read it below:
Continue reading “Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day + the four reminders”
Timbuktu is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful film from director Abderrahmane Sissako. Set in Mali, it is beautiful for the eyes, beautiful for the ears, and beautiful for the heart. Timely, compassionate, thought-provoking.
I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever believed another person “isn’t doing it right,” and everyone who’s ever felt judged for “not doing it right” (whatever that “it” might be).
My commitment to television is poor. The notable exception was with Game of Thrones, though even then my attention was spotty: I watched a few episodes of seasons 1-2, binge-watched every episode from seasons 3-5 over 3 weeks to get caught up in time to watch season 6 in real time, started back from the beginning to complete the set, and complained along with everyone else when the final season 7 circled the drain. Sigh.
Despite moving to New Zealand to become a small business YouTuber (an endeavor that never went much of anywhere, which is fine by me!), I don’t follow anyone on that platform either.
At least, I haven’t since the last episode of Winners and Losers, a series I watched every Friday morning like clockwork until they killed it about 8 months ago. NYU Professor and businessman Scott Galloway’s weekly series was one of the references for what would have been my channel; I loved the research, the infographics, his fast-talking confidence, his willingness to get personal, his unflinching taking-of-sides, the infinite flexibility of the white background, and the absurd endings, a brilliant move designed to game the YouTube algorithm.
I loved everything about it… even if I occasionally hated him. Is he not, for instance, sexually harassing a member of his staff in the series finale?!
Fortunately for Professor Galloway fans like me, he never stopped writing his fascinating (and often surprisingly personal) weekly newsletter, No Mercy / No Malice. Today’s issue included a tiny PS at the bottom:
Of course I clicked, and am so glad I did! Scott is back! I was subscriber 814, and I’ll bet that number goes up fast.
There are only 2 episodes up on Professor Galloway’s mysterious new YouTube channel — and he hasn’t donned a wig yet — but because of those videos I now know that:
All of this to say, if you care at all about the digital economy and are searching for another reason to stare at a screen, get amongst Professor Galloway’s stuff. Enjoy!
As I get deeper into my Buddhist studies, I’m increasingly seeing things through the lens of its teachings. While I have no interest in claiming anything as “Buddhist” when I notice resonance, I do feel a bit like the proverbial little boy who, when given a hammer, starts to see everything as a nail!
Consider this Chastity Belt song, for instance (and in case you’re wondering whether or not to hit play, that’s the name of the band, not the subject of their song… though that would be an interesting read on it):
I’ve been playing this song over and over in the car for weeks. When I finally sat down to read the lyrics (see the end of this post) I immediately thought to myself, “Oh! What a great representation of the Four Mind-Turning Reflections!”
I like thinking of the Four Mind-Turning Reflections, AKA the Four Reminders, as a Buddhist “Facts of Life” of sorts, designed to keep us focused on the things that are really important.
Here’s an attempt to paraphrase them into my own words:
I’ll spare you my line-by-line analysis of the song’s lyrics but I’m satisfied that they cover off all four pretty effectively 🙂
Then this morning I remembered another song I’ve appreciated for ages, the classic Feel So Different, from the person formally known as Sinéad O’Connor:
The songs’ titles are similar, obviously, but they share a lot more than that. This one too feels distinctly “Buddhist” to me right now.
Is it though? I have no idea how she identified when she wrote Feel So Different nearly 30 years ago (and she recently converted to Islam) so I can only guess: probably not, and it doesn’t matter; I care a lot less about assigning labels, and a lot more about appreciating reminders to stay awake to my life’s priorities, no matter what form they take.
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Lyrics to both songs below. Continue reading “Four reminders in two songs”
Elizabeth Ü 