March Newsletter
Uninterrupted momentum · March's Oracle Card mini-print
In this newsletter:
Uninterrupted momentum & March's BMC Oracle Card reveal
BMC: Oracle Card BTS
Things I’ve Been Enjoying
Buiti/Buenas!
Sometimes I really grieve the potential of uninterrupted momentum.
You've likely heard the productivity advice,
"Every time you stop your flow, it takes 30 minutes to get back into the flow, so design your routine/environment/access/etc. to remove distractions in order to..."
Okay. But what if that interruption isn't in any way controllable?
Everyone is interrupted by phones and kids and pets and life and important things and unimportant things. And some of that means that you can situate yourself- even if occasionally- into a place where you can be uninterrupted by things outside of you. You can get away for a private weekend of focused work, you can wake up before everyone else in the house, you can use apps to create attention barriers on your phone.
But if the obstacle isn't your environment or your routine or your easy access to scrolling feeds?
What if it's your body constantly interrupting you?
When it's that slice of sharp pain or that throb of a headache or the sudden crushing fatigue or the muscle spasm or the bathroom problems or the arm that won't work or the brain that turns off... all happening repeatedly, randomly, throughout the day?
What if 30 minutes is the most you can focus, the best you can hope for? If "the real work" and "the good stuff" only begins after the first 30 minutes, is any of your work even "real?" Do you ever get to "the good stuff?"
Not to mention larger, longer interrupted momentums, which is where I really grieve the potential for things I could create, the relationships I could form with people, and forward movement I could be experiencing. Having a plan in place for what I'm going to write and what art I'm going to make and ways to market my business and ways to attend to my growth and people I can connect with largely disappear when I'm in a flare for threeee, no, fiiiiiiive, no wait, SEVEN lonnnnnng weeeeeeeks (hello 2026 so far 👋😵💫). And that happens repeatedly, randomly, throughout the year.
If this is something you experience- whether due to Long Covid or any number of other disabilities or circumstances- I want to offer some perspective that I try to give myself when I can. Flares don't feel nourishing, but I can at least find some sort of balance between acceptance and grief, productivity and rest, expectations and reality, plans and improv.
In a Western, capitalistic society lacking any roots in disability justice, yes, our disabled bodies and minds are an interruption. It interrupts our productivity, which is the only important outcome within this system. No, our work isn't "real" or "good" under its standards. Without adequate supports to really sustain us and, god forbid, nourish us through these flares, the ride is difficult and bleak. But maybe we can shift our lens from this system to one that is more human, rooted in observations of nature first by my indigenous ancestors and now myself.
We can start to understand that this is a cycle, like many found in nature, an undulation. It doesn't stop the grief or frustration as it happens, it doesn't stop us from living within the system that we have to fight to survive in, but in this life- the life of someone who lives with and through flares- this is the dance. It's our dance.
And our very lives are resistance to this system imposed on us.
And our work, which is really real and really very good, is resistance to this system imposed on everyone.
In my January Newsletter, I mention my love of the green of a palm tree against a blue gray storm cloud. In Taino lore, this is Boinayani (aka Boinayel) and Marohu, two semí who are siblings and are expressions of the Mother, who represent the daily cycle of rain and sunshine. Every morning, they are birthed from the womb of their mother- a sacred cave- and do their dance across the landscape. At the end of the day, they return to their cave and rest.
Sometimes, the siblings are so close on each other's heels that they appear at the same time and you get a glimpse of them together as Marohu vibrates the green of the palm trees with his gold rays and Boinayani's dark rain clouds move in from behind.
It's the practice of enjoying the light of the sun knowing that a few moments later, rain will move through and you can rest, accept the interruption, let it pass, and maybe even enjoy it in some way, thank it for cooling the temperature in the middle of the summer heat or watering the beautiful plants so they remain lush or- for me and others with auditory-tactile synesthesia- allow the sound to massage you and nourish your nervous system.
That's what this oracle card* is about to me: the duality; the daily cycle of the sunshine and rain; the cycle of what seems to be an interruption but is actually a natural state of ebb and flow that can be accepted and respected as such. In that tension between sunshine and rain, baseline and flare, there might even be some magic to witness.
Do you see another interpretation in this card? You can hit reply on this email and share with me, I'd love to hear about it!
*I am currently in the process of creating artwork for my Taino-inspired oracle deck. I am sharing the process with members in the Borikén Mail Club, and within each Mail Drop, they'll get a mini-print with the artwork from a card.
You can support the creation of this deck, get your own mini-prints, vote on which cards will be next, and more when you join us. My current goal is 20 new members and I have 15 more to go to reach it!
If you’re already a member, you have some secret behind the scenes oracle card stuff below 👇🖤
Borikén Mail Club: Oracle Card BTS
Things I’ve Been Enjoying
La Brega podcast has started its third season:
La Brega Archives - Futuro Studios
La Brega is a bilingual podcast produced by Futuro Studios that tells the stories of Puerto Rico and its diaspora – of people trying to cope with too many challenges, and who deserve and demand better. There’s no direct translation of “la brega” in English, to bregar means to struggle, to hustle, to find a way to adapt and get around an imbalance of power. It’s got a creative edge, a bit of swagger; as Puerto Rican scholar Arcadio Diaz has observed, it’s a word that belongs to the underdog. Supp...
The bioarcheology of care (how disabled people were cared for in the past) was introduced to me years ago and is something I think deeply on often. I love this really great video intro to it:
A comic creator friend, Gabriel Whitney, has a wonderful (non-AI generated!) project- Vittles Noir: Fur and Shadows, The Noir Adventures of a Feline P.I. (Purrivate Investicat)- launching on Kickstarter soon! Please check it out, sign up to get the notification when it launches, and share with your people:
Have you ordered from my shop or joined the Borikén Mail Club and would like to leave a review? You can do that here!
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