Resilience for the Here + Now

Beloved,

Welcome to this late autumn edition of The Goods, where I highlight some resources, tools and insights to keep you inspired and buoyant even when the headlines make you want to crawl back under the duvet.

I won’t lie. I’ve been vacillating between unshakeable faith in the resilience of humanity, and disturbing visions seeded by the news. In particular, the sudden post-election slogan “Your Body, My Choice” which is both going viral online and being shouted proudly by boys and men across the nation left me grasping for a sense of mental sovereignty and calm as I’m pummeled with waves of immense rage.

I intentionally don’t read the news very often for this exact reason. And yet, where is the line between the wisdom of protection and the bypass of ignorance?

As we grapple with some form of this tenuous balance, I pray that this month’s collection be nourishment and fortification for your soul. 

We’re all going to need it for what’s ahead.

I feel like Dumbledore as I type that line… Like I said in my most recent love letter, the Potter metaphors are ever abundant.

Onwards ✨

{audiobook} Untie the Strong Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Everything this woman writes is nectar on a parched tongue. Hearing her read it in her own voice sweetens this study further. Only five hours long, this gorgeous piece of storytelling delivers a soulful portraiture of the divine feminine herself. Let yourself be held and soothed by the Blessed Mother as channeled by one of the most legendary storytellers of our time.

{article} Contemplating ‘Collapse’

My friend Anna sent this article to me and a small group of friends who we gather with monthly for a creative sàlon in our little corner of the PNW. It eloquently lays out many sentiments I’ve had, some of which I attempted to convey in my previous post-election love letter. I feel this is a valuable and necessary discourse to have with our friends, family and neighbors in these mysterious times of the Great Change.

{podcast} Guardians and Protectors: The Emerald 

My friend Anahita sent this episode to me, thinking it would resonate. It does. As someone in stewardship and leadership of sacred spaces and spiritual community, the ideas and insights thoughtfully laid out in this episode present a delicate web of considerations for what it means to be properly shielded as we go forth and do our most courageous work. 

{course} Winter Sleep & Dream 

My gifted friend and client Moni Rainbow Hawk is offering an invitation this winter to more satisfying sleep and deeper relationship with your dreamtime. If you desire guidance from your dreams and to cultivate healthier sleep hygiene for optimal wellbeing, Moni is a truly unique teacher who leads with heart and integrity, and who speaks on behalf of the plants and creatures who are her central teachers. Starts on January 1st. 

{annual planning challenge] Luminous Life Design 2025

It’s nearly that time again! My 4th annual life design annual planning weeklong workshop is coming next month. Add your name to the early-interest waiting list to be the first to know when registration officially opens, and to get a special bonus if you choose to register. Dates this year are December 16-22nd, a bit earlier to get a jump on the new calendar year. It keeps getting better! Come join the planning collective and create a holistic plan for an illuminating and soulfully aligned year 🤓

{book} The Madonna Secret

Oh, this book. Please read this book. An exquisitely, painfully, beautifully excruciating look at love, and the archetypal choice we make as humans between unity and division; nature and industry; love and fear; faith and dogma. I read both the written copy and listened to the Audible version, alternating back and forth.

Finally, a prayer for us…

Imagine the tenderness 
with which your mother held you as a newborn baby.
It is this same devotional bhakti,
unfathomable love,
with which the Earth holds you now.
Mother Earth longs to hold us
just as much as we long to be with her.
Indivisible.  

So let her.

Let the arms of the Great Mother wrap around you now.
Feel her embrace 
in the breeze on your cheek,
in the sacred dark behind closed eyes,
in the raindrops kissing your palms,
in the soil under your fingernails,
and even in the click of your keyboard.
She is everywhere, even now.
Waiting 
for you to ask her 
for help.

May we be brave enough to ask for help when we need it, and to LOVE MORE, anywhere and everywhere it’s needed.

In love + solidarity,