Befriending your self starts with making small talk with your body My father was a pharmacist, my mother a nurse. In my household, we took stale-dated medicine (because it was still good even if it was illegal for him to sell so why waste it) and we were never indulged a day off school unless…
Category: slow the fuck down
Picklepalooza: preserving high summer for my Future Self
It’s not really cost-effective, this pickling and preserving business, I realize, as I empty another $20 bottle of Bragg’s apple cider vinegar into a pot. My husband keeps checking in, nervously asking “Are you having fun?” because these evenings are cutting into my Netflix/book-reading time, and I tend to be an angry-and resentful-if-you-aren’t-also-contributing house-cleaner. But…
An Interview with Danielle Dulsky, author of Seasons of Moon and Flame
Danielle Dulsky’s new book (which came out March 10 2020), Seasons of Moon and Flame, drips poetry and takes you on a rich explorative cycle through the 13 moons of each year, with an invitation to embrace the “hag”. It’s not a sit-down-and-skim book. It’s immersive and invites a visceral response and is quite challenging…
Life is now a million LEGO pieces and it’s okay to name this as loss
The other morning, my kid woke up with an idea in his mind. Literally, the first words out of his mouth, still prone and pyjama-clad, were: “I’m going to make an Inukshuk. Where’s the LEGO?” As someone who enters the day like a hard drive in need of defragmentation, files all scattered and hard to…
How to Tell Your Husband You’re a Witch
Originally posted on Longreads:
Lisa Richardson | Longreads | April 2020 | 15 minutes (4,084 words) On a Friday afternoon, pre-COVID-19, my husband dropped some ice-cubes into glasses, ready to make us screwdrivers and cheers to surviving another week of working/parenting/wondering where the hell the years were going, only, the vodka bottle was empty. “Oh…
The pandemic might not make me a better person
Day 20 of our self-imposed isolation and I have to confess, I haven’t really maximised the opportunity to self-actualize. Not that there’s been any shortage of resources or recommendations shared by beautiful loving-minded friends – how to work from home, how to be healthy when completely alone, how to learn a second language, spring clean…
Reflecting on the question, What’s to Come?
View this post on Instagram Even in your self-isolation and social distancing, tele-commuting and homeschooling, adapting and responding, may you feel deeply connected and supported. May you do your part. May you find sanctuary in your breath, in the trail, in looking up at the sky, in the air outside — even if simply from…
Emotions last 90 seconds so why am I still freaking out?!
Here’s the phenomenal nugget of information that dropped into my lap last week (the original source was Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Peace is Every Step; neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor also writes about it in her book My Stroke of Insight): emotions last about 90 seconds. After 90 seconds, the feeling has been metabolized. What lingers…
Who are you when you’re free to be yourself?
“What about you?” asked the other parent, on the sidelines at karate, having just shared how much she loves sewing. “What is your hobby?” My inside-voice did a quick stocktaking: that week, I’d been watching mini-documentaries of forest gardens and permaculture success stories. I was still stuck on the idea of the Divine Feminine rising…
Sweat your prayers
I walked tentatively into the temporary dance space. Dozens of people were there already, sprawled on the floor, stretching casually. I could tell from looking at them that they were “body” people, the type of people who naturally gravitate towards a 5 Rhythms movement workshop, “a moving practice for Freedom” promoted with a photograph of…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 