We've Made It to March
Dear Friends,
I'm holding my breath & telling myself to breathe. My life right now is a balance of opposing forces… be out in the streets vs. take a nap. Anger vs. despair. Moving forward vs. clearing the past. We hold within us the capacity to navigate the normality of our daily lives and the fast deterioration of our social fabric and federal government. It’s terrifying. It’s weird to go to a school musical and then read about activists being disappeared. The joy vs. the terror.
In this, I’m thinking of creating new paradigms and imagining supports we can provide each other. We take care of us. We need to figure out how to darn those holes. How to secure ourselves and then others. How to reconnect so that we can stop this madness. As the judge said in The Good Place:
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Intuition and Bravery
I was gifted this beautiful box of Literary Witches oracle cards. As I get back into writing, I have been pulling cards to allow my brain to wander into new thought patterns. Recently, I pulled the Bravery card, which is signified by Joy Harjo:
Her last name means Recklessly Brave and I see that in her life history. I meditate on ways I can be brave in my writing and in my outward spaces. How threats make bravery more essential, but that there are many ways to be brave even before that. How doing something brave may seem reckless, even when it’s necessary.
Bravery needs to be a guiding principle right now and into the future.
Arthur Street Organizing Committee
So let me tell you about the Arthur Street Organizing Committee, the snappy name for a group of neighbors who meet weekly to come up with ideas for neighborhood outreach, community-building and connection. It means so much to me to be a part of this group and have the support of women who are in a similar phase of life as myself. Plus, we eat excellent snacks and get the hot gossip1 of the day. Last week we did a radio show on our local radio station, WAVM, which operates out of the high school. We talked about upcoming community events, the stress of eclipse season, tarot readings, this poem by lucille clifton, and promoted the next show at Concord Art, called Liberation Textiles.
Books & Community
Local friends, I invite you to the Maynard Book Festival happening April 2-5. I’ll be introducing Maynard’s own Hester Fox on Friday, April 4. I love her witchy historical New Englandy novels. In addition, I plan to be at Oliver de la Paz’s reading on Thursday night, happening at Felixology.
Speaking of book events, The Notebooks Collective hosted Cynthia Marie Hoffman and Sarah Kain Gutowski on March 18. Their event was a joyful combination of readings and conversation and questions. It was heartening to hear how they celebrated promoting their books. We are taught that we must minimize our successes and not push ourselves (our books) onto others. However, they framed it as a celebration of their work, sharing their words with others — more community-building than sales-repping.
Next month, Pauletta Hansel will teach a class on writing epistolary poetry and Fleda Brown and Anne-Marie Oomen will be In Conversation.
In Conclusion
In thinking about bravery, connection, weaving a new social fabric, it’s only fitting that I have taken up embroidery. It’s a soothing analog activity.
Let’s be like orcas and sink the rich:
Please share with me all the ways you are enjoying life despite the hellscape we are living in. Share with me how you are resisting. Send me links of must reads or a photo of your cat. Let’s nourish each other!
I’m thinking of you —
XO,
Becca
I am not ashamed to say I love gossip. Please check out the podcast Normal Gossip if you haven’t already.