Moving and Shaking
Is it any wonder I haven’t been sending out my newsletter lately? We’ve been moving and shaking, in harmony with the autumn leaves blowing all around, mulching on the rainy ground, or last-ditch clinging to the barren trees. Days have been filled with all the many physical actions getting things ready for our move at the end of the month. Evenings? Watching movies in a semblance of normalcy. Between all that, tucked in nooks here and there with my laptop and phone, I’ve been doing some website work and book editing for clients. Personal Papers may have taken a back seat to all this activity, but there’s another, deeper, reason why I haven’t been able to write to you: lack of vocabulary.
In this time of sheer change, transition and transposition, all the thoughts and feelings that rise up can barely be articulated, and some were never even noticed until now. When I reach deep into my darker brain to find them, the flashlight on my iPhone is revealing some very mucky back-brain stuff that needs a good clean out. It’s no surprise that these mostly pre-verbal feelings come without a functional vocabulary. Something from another earlier consciousness, or something that never did have words attached, or images, or really anything that I could identify as thought or understanding. Not symbolic, but unknown. But every day I lay the back-brain muck out in the air to dry like layers of seaweed.
Some of it dries into salty snacks that I can munch on while watching The Queen’s Gambit, or Pinter’s classic, The Servant, or any of the number of shows streaming before my eyes in the evenings.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
We’re all part of it
Like all of us, I’ve been gripped by the real-time real-life viewing of the US election and the amazing Biden/Harris win. Brought tears to my eyes, and a return of hope, as there seems to be possibility of the best of the US being put to the tasks of global reconstruction from the pandemic to world trade to education and more. Relief.
Since starting this newsletter, I’ve seen more clearly than ever that our personal and global thought-clusters and event-groupings are all interdependently arising. There is not so much a direct cause and effect, but rather a mutual growth and expansion into form and circumstance, all together, rising, then all together, falling again. With each rise and fall it seems we are morphing again into new forms. Evolving and devolving, and hopefully the arc or the spiral is reaching ever toward something like progress.
Deep Rest Cocoon
In other news, I’ve discovered the joys of a weighted blanket. Wow. It’s so comforting and really does bring on deep relaxation. I picked mine up at Costco, and love using it. I’m still finding out about how this thing does its magic, and I’m amazed at how it calms the whole system. Recommended!!!
The Book Came In Today
My copy of the Personal Papers Annual came in the mail today - so interesting to see it in a print format. It’s available on Amazon, or from me directly. What fun to convert the weekly writings into a yearbook!
Back to the Move
Oh, and did I mention we are moving during the pandemic second wave? There are even stricter shut-down orders in place here for the next two weeks. We’re familiar with the drill now, and it isn’t as crushing as it was last spring. So we just mask up and wash hands and get on with it. Same as we’ve been doing for months now. And there’s plenty to do here at home. (understatement)
Countdown to our move becomes totally real when I see the milk expiry date is later than our moving day! Till then, we pack and shuffle stuff around amidst towers and corridors of boxes.
It means a lot that you are hanging in there with me even with the intermittent postings!
Catch up on earlier issues HERE, or if you’re reading this on the web, scroll down, or check out the Annual at Amazon.
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