What's in the gallery?
We dissolve stuck and rewrite patterns. We apply radical playfulness to life (when we feel like it!), embarking on internal adventures (credo of Safety First). We have a fake band called Solved By Cake. We build invisible sanctuaries, invent words and worlds, breathe awe and wonder.
We are not impressed by monsters. Except when we are. We explore the connections between internal territories and surrounding environment to learn what marvelously supportive delicious space feels like, and how to take exquisite care of ourselves. We transform things.* We glow wild.**
* For example: Desire, fear, worry, pain-and-trauma, boundaries, that problematic word which rhymes with flaweductivity.
** Fair warning: Self-fluency has been known to lead to extremely subversive behavior, including treasuring yourself unconditionally, unapologetically taking up space, experiencing outrageously improbable levels of self-acceptance, and general rejoicing in aliveness.
What's in the gallery?
We dissolve stuck and rewrite patterns. We apply radical playfulness to life (when we feel like it!), embarking on internal adventures (credo of Safety First). We have a fake band called Solved By Cake. We build invisible sanctuaries, invent words and worlds, breathe awe and wonder.
We are not impressed by monsters. Except when we are. We explore the connections between internal territories and surrounding environment to learn what marvelously supportive delicious space feels like, and how to take exquisite care of ourselves. We transform things.* We glow wild.**
* For example: Desire, fear, worry, pain-and-trauma, boundaries, that problematic word which rhymes with flaweductivity.
** Fair warning: Self-fluency has been known to lead to extremely subversive behavior, including treasuring yourself unconditionally, unapologetically taking up space, experiencing outrageously improbable levels of self-acceptance, and general rejoicing in aliveness.
Presents for future me.
Ah, the continuation to yesterday‘s public recognition of the pain that comes with realizing just how little I have paid attention to the needs of me-from-next-week.
Until next week shows up and then: oh right, I am her.
Yesterday was all about acknowledging grief and loss. Letting it exist, because that’s always the starting point for changing anything.
Today: transitioning into the next part (discovering what I know about the current patterns and how they could change).
What is working?
Well, I’ve gotten remarkably good — through years of practice — at caring for past me and making things easier for her.
It’s become gradually less challenging to remember to do sweet things for me-from-then.
And over time I’ve been able to really notice and feel how doing this helps me-now feel safer and more supported.
So there’s a blueprint of experience.
What else is working?
If I look back at six years ago when I started this business (or really, even just a year ago), there’s clear evidence of progress.
Thank you, Internal Committee of Scientists for your extensive studies on the subject.
I used to never think about taking care of slightly future me. Now I do all sorts of things for her.
Like my Anthology of the Pirate Queen — the binder that has everything I need for teaching, all in one place.
Or the fact that my Dressing Room at the Playground is no longer a storage room but an actual room for me to rest and recuperate.
All the things I do to prepare for voyages.
The various metaphors, systems, processes and rituals that I have developed for her.
Ha. I don’t suck at this after all. I still don’t know as much as I’d like about how to lovingly attend to me-from-next-week, but the “You Are A Disastrous Failure At This” monster narrative has been disproven.
What do I want to happen?
I think I’m finally at the point where I’m ready to learn more about taking care of me-who-is-arriving.
Not just in fits and starts but as a regular way of being in the world.
I want to be the person who leaves secret gifts in unexpected places.
Sneakily seeding kindness for later.
In fact, I asked for help with this in Sunday’s Very Personal Ads:
I want me-of-three-weeks-from-now to look back at now and say, “Wow. Thank you.”
Not to just practice self-forgiveness for all the ways I have not been able to take care of myself and her.
But to feel really and truly appreciative for the things I did do.
It’s like being a secret admirer! Or a secret santa (something I only know about from television). I can be sneaky and silly and have fun!
What does this new relationship with me-who-is-on-the-way give me?
Delight. Courage. Conviction. Sweetness. Power. Radiance. Support. Sovereignty. Presence. Play. Curiosity. Experimentation. Receptivity. Flow.
What would the Best Secret Admirer Ever do?
Actually I think I need to change that metaphor because it’s kind of creeping me out. Where’s the mouse? We need him.
Negative connotations to “secret admirer”? Yes.
[+unasked-for attention] [+vulnerability] [+not knowing]
Negative connotations to “secret santa”? Yes.
[+outsider] [+what if I’m doing it wrong] [+discomfort]
Okay! Good to know. That wasn’t the right question then. What’s the right question? Oh. Of course.
What do I know about the thing I do want? What does it contain?
I want it to include:
[+safety] [+permission] [+play] [+silliness] [+excitement] [+tingly anticipation] [+groundedness] [+taking notes about what works] [+curiosity] [+love] [+support]
Like a loving fairy. Or a non-creepy house elf. Ooh. A bunch of Helper Mice. A something something of Heinzelmännchen.
Except that what with time passing and living abroad and all that, they’ve become way more chill.
What did we decide the collective noun was for Heinzelmännchen? A Party? I’m going to go with Huddle!
A Huddle of Heinzelmännchen. Someone write that book, please.
Anyway, there’s a collective. Whose job is to care for me-who-is-coming! And I get to submit ideas and proposals because they need my help.
That way I get to participate but I don’t have to do all the work. I’m an adviser. Sneaky-sneaky!
And maybe sometimes I also get to go on fun present-planting missions.
And Presence-Planting Missions.
Is there a secret mission-behind-the-mission here?
Yes. Yes there is.
My real hope (which I’m whispering because the monster collective has issues with this) is that doing loving things for me-who-is-coming will help me be okay with taking care of me-now.
And by distancing myself from the process (being an adviser, doing sweet things for someone else), I can get closer to the experience of being cared for.
It’s like a safely mediated way of getting to feel what it’s like to be deeply taken care of — something I crave that also terrifies me.
What happens next?
Tomorrow I’m going to make a list of presents and presence.
Things I can do for her that I wouldn’t necessarily do for me.
And we’ll find out if there’s an easier way to get better at this. Because who knows, sometimes there is.
Also I might make this my mysterious project the next time I’m at Rally (Rally!).
Play with me!
Self-practice and the giant communal and commenting blanket fort.
Did that sound like a band name? Ahahahahahaaaaa. It’s just one guy!
Okay. If you want to play with me and think about this theme or ways to care for you-who-is-arriving, that is fabulous. Practicing silently counts too.
I am planning to use the comments today to leave tiny little notes to helper mice. About me-from-the-future.
Like this! Pssst! Havi loves toast. Make sure she gets toast.
Or: Havi can never find her slippers. Can you make a special slipper home for her?
Join in if you like with notes for you.
As always: we all have our stuff. We’re all working on our stuff.
We make this a safe space to play by not giving each other advice (unless people ask) and by paying attention to what we need.
Kisses.
Postscripting:
The November Rally is completely sold out. January is really close to full. See the Rally page for dates and details.
Because I want to eat pie with you. Except that I can’t eat pie. But I can sit with you, and we can giggle and plot craziness while you eat pie. It will happen. And it will be so much fun.
Sweetness for coming-in me.
Today’s post is a woem I wrote a week or so ago.
A woem is a poem of woe! And grumbles.
This is something we invented at McGrumblebug’s Whine Bar (a forum board disguised as a pub) in my Kitchen Table program.
See: My weekend got eaten by bears!
And, as it happens, today’s post also falls in the category of Accidental Poem.
See: The swooping of Fairy Godmothers. The one on invoking protection. The superpowers.
Anyway, let us woe!
A woem about wanting and regret.
I was able to experience being future-me today
for a moment
in that I learned the [thing I’d wanted] won’t arrive for five weeks
but if I’d only come in an hour before…
ah, then I could have had it tomorrow
but now I can’t
because I’m here but I didn’t set things up for being here
I’ve had nine days to take care of this
except I was scared
and I don’t even know/remember what exactly I was scared of
[this is familiar why is it familiar oh right
all pain is legitimate
and there is no such thing as “irrational fear”
it’s just that we don’t remember why the fear makes sense
but it does — it just does
it always does]
and even though I know this in the deep places
there is so much pain when I see how I’ve accidentally sabotaged future me
through wallowing in old hurt-pain-fear-avoidance-ball-droppery
and then I become her and it hurts
(but of course this isn’t true, it’s another pain-narrative…. what else is true?)
once I’m future-me…
then I look back with compassion because future me is always so damn sweet about the past
but oh (pain, again) I wish wish wish wish wish wish
I could be nicer to coming-in me
and set things up for her so that she could have sweetness from now
instead of always just giving back sweetness to then
so many things this past week that I didn’t do or say because it felt overwhelming or too big or out of proportion, and then this giant pile of half-done that I left for myself
tomorrow I am giving the day to compiling and depiling
the gifts to myself are in the stones
one day I will perceive the choices as they’re arriving
I will ring all the bells
right now I just want to plant tiny presents for tomorrow-me and next-week me so that she knows I prepared for her with love…
if I don’t or can’t, she’ll love me just as much anyway
or she’ll try
or she’ll practice the hardest practice, just for me
I am filled with the desire to do something marvelous for her
something marvelous
not out of guilt or shame or regret
just love
Next time.
Next time (tomorrow?) I will talk about how I am seeding things for me-who-is-arriving.
I will practice preparing for the voyage.
I will practice finding the useful.
In the meantime, I am here.
Play with me. And how the communal comment blanket fort works.
You can leave woems of your own. Or think about this stuff with me.
(Note! The brilliant thing about woems is they don’t have to be written especially well. Because the point is interacting with woe. Tiny or large, they all count. A woem about toe-stubbing is just as valid as a woem about deep grief and loss.)
We all have our stuff. We’re all working on our stuff. It’s a process.
We take responsibility for what’s ours, we let everyone else have what’s theirs. We make this a safe space to practice through not giving advice and not telling each other what to do or how to feel.
That’s all! Love to the commenter mice, the Beloved Lurkers and anyone reading.
p.s. The class on the Art of Embarking (consciously and intentionally setting up experiences so that they’re supportive and fabulous) is today! Sign up for the recording, ebooklet and Chattery transcript.
Very Personal Ads #119: Zombie Nata
Personal ads. They’re … personal! Very.
Each week I write these VPAs to practice asking for what I want. And to get clarity on what that really is, even when asking feels conflicted.
I always get useful information about my relationship with various aspects of the ask. Join in if you like!
Happy Sunday, you guys!
You can VPA all week, if you like.
Let’s do it.
Thing 1: Zombie! Thriller!
Here’s what I want:
So I’ve never participated in Thrill the World, which is weird since it was pretty much invented for me.
And this year: YES!
I have some friends who do it. This could work.
I need to re-learn the Thriller dance. And practice.
And get someone who can do zombie make-up for me, since I can barely put on lipstick.
Ooh, actually I should just put on lipstick my normal way because then at least I’ll have red gunk smeared all over my face, which is totally zombie-appropriate. Right on.
And something to wear.
(Note! I am aware of the existence of a million instructional videos but I still want someone to do it for me.)
Ways this could work:
There are two types of classes happening over the next two weeks. Of course, it’s not like I really need additional things to schlep to.
But maybe through some magical fractal-flower sort of way… this could be working on other stuff for me at the same time. Combinations and multi-directional work.
I could practice at the Playground. If I remember to get the song.
It’s happening October 29th. Which is our day off during Crossing the Line (password: haulaway). Maybe I could convince some of the crossing-the-liners to zombie it up with me too?
That would be so awesome.
Plus it’s early prep for Zombie Yule. Just saying.
Oh and if you’re in Portland and you want to join us, oh please please please! Let me know in the comments?
I could put something up on the Frolicsome Bar?
Come on! Especially Jesse and Danielle — you guys have to do this, right?
My commitment.
To not go crazy.
To just have fun.
To talk to past me about maybe releasing some old childhood dance-class-trauma related to the perception of being-the-one-who’s-behind-on-the-count.
Additional motivation: to also heal some residual related threads that hold the last bits and pieces of my perfectionist tendencies.
Thing 2: love notes from shivanauts who do roller derby.
Here’s what I want:
I’m trying to rewrite the Shiva Nata & Roller Derby page on the Shiva Nata site.
This needs to happen before we go to Denver for Championships because our giant full page ad in the program is going to be sending people there, and right now it kind of sucks.
And what I would really love is tiny sweet stories from shivanauts who do derby and skaters who have done Shiva Nata.
Ways this could work:
There’s Laura in Ireland and @shimmergeek in Scotland.
I could interview Juno and Jess and Havana and Juvie and Sugar.
What else?
I don’t know.
Shivanauts-on-skates! Please raise your hands.
I want everyone to tell me their stories. Maybe add in some other athlete success stories since there are a ton of those too.
And I would like some pics of the team skating. Could be that Grant has some.
I really just want this to come together gracefully and easily, and be INSPIRING.
People will see our gorgeous ad and they will have to go to the page, and then the page will be a spark of shivanautical joy for filling the world with people who are actively rewriting their patterns and taking stuff apart.
YEAH!
My commitment.
To keep wanting the want and asking the ask.
To pay attention to where I get shy.
To find out how I can make this easy on everyone.
To write an OOD (and use my notes).
To flail and then flail some more. Dance dance dance!
Thing 3: Going dark
Here’s what I want:
Going Dark is my metaphor for retreating, hiding, running away.
Sometimes it’s part of preparing for the voyage as a way to practice conscious entry.
Sometimes it’s part of recovery time. Sometimes both.
I want this week to be like that. Pool time, massage time, bath time, nap time.
This is going to be hard because there’s a lot to do to get the Playground ready, but it needs to happen.
Ways this could work:
I could really truly deeply commit to it.
I could interview Slightly Future Me about what I did for her that helped her feel happy and cared for.
And I can set things up.
My commitment.
To call W. And H. To rendezvous with them.
To sleep lots. To dance and flail. To do lots and lots of stone skippings.
To break out the flannel sheets in the pirate queen quarters.
To blanket-fort it up.
To play.
Thing 4: Related! Planting secret surprises for slightly future me.
Here’s what I want:
I want me-of-three-weeks-from-now to look back at now and say, “Wow. Thank you.”
Not to just practice self-forgiveness for all the ways I have not been able to take care of myself and her.
But to feel really and truly appreciative for the things I did do.
Ways this could work:
It’s like being a secret admirer! Or a secret santa (something I only know about from television).
I can be sneaky and silly and have fun!
Let’s see.
I can make sure there are flowers in her dressing room. I can do laundry for her and fold up her clothes. I can hide presents and snacks, wrapped in pretty paper.
I can buy her a beautiful journal. She’ll love that!
What else? Not sure. This will require some more processing. Maybe I can work through this on the blog this week…
My commitment.
To pay attention.
To ask smart, loving, curious questions.
To detach from what I think she wants and discover what she knows she wants.
To be receptive to learning about her and what she needs.
Thing 4: The Art of Embarking
Here’s what I want:
Related to conscious entry…
I’m teaching this class on how to enter experiences so that you can change the experience by changing how you are present in it.
It’s on Monday, and it’s going to be great fun.
Let’s have some more people! Let’s have excitement! Let’s have it be amazing!
Ways this could work:
I could remind the Havi’s Announcing A Thing list. And tell the Frolicsome Bar.
And interview slightly wiser me.
And, of course, practice ENTRY for the class so that I am living by the teachings.
Which I can document for the people there as well.
My commitment.
To play. To laugh. To ring the bell. To take ten breaths. To recite Ounce, Dice, Trice.
Progress report on past Very Personal Ads.
Just to update you on what’s happened since last time.
Hmmm. I wanted chinook book dates and had a few. Still wanting more! Maybe that can happen as part of Going Dark? Planting the wish…
Then I wanted to do some seasonal updating for the Book of Me, which happened in a very unlikely way. Now I need to type up some of those notes — the stuff I learned was surprisingly useful.
I asked for tiny mini snack-sized Drunk Pirate Councils. And we had three. Drunkette Councilettes! Very happy with this new development.
There was an ask about Sixteen Days Inward, and I have been practicing in fits and starts, but it’s happening.
And I wanted an early and celebratory end to Plum Duff (password: extraraisins).
Which did and didn’t happen. Crossing the Line sold out, as expected. The available rallies are close to sold out.
We still have a few calendars, and I never got around to sending out an email. Whoops! So I want to rethink how I do the plum duff days. Will meditate on it and see what comes up.
Play-filled comment zen. Here’s what I’d love today.
- Wanted: Your own personal ads, small or large. Updates on past ones if you like.
- You can also do these on your own or in your head. You can always call silent retreat!
- Leave your gwishes! Throw things in the pot!
- Things we try to keep away from: the word “manifest”, telling people how they should be asking for things, unsolicited advice.
- VPA amnesty applies, of course. Leave yours any time between now and next Sunday (or whenever, really) — it’s all fine by us!
xox
Friday Chicken #168: warm sock chicken moon
In which I cover the good stuff and the hard stuff in my week, trying for the non-preachy, non-annoying side of ritual and self-reflection.
And you get to join in if you feel like it.
Sneaky, sneaky Friday! There you are.
This was a really weird and crazy week for me.
I haven’t decided yet which parts were good and which parts were hard, but that’s why we’re chickening. Let’s do this.
The hard stuff
Old pain. Having to work through it.
Hard hard hard.
Sadness.
Sometimes I miss my friend who is dead so much that I can hardly stand it.
And I want to tell him things. Nothing important or meaningful.
Just stuff.
The in-between drying season of nothing drying.
In the winter, I put the drying rack over the heating vent, and everything dries quickly. In the summer, it’s warm and everything dries quickly.
Now we’re in that in-between thing, and I have nothing to wear because everything I own is spread out over the living room in a state of not-quite-dry.
Indecision. And then all the other problems caused by that.
I put off a bunch of decisions this week because I just wasn’t in the head-space for it.
And now I have to deal with the fall-out.
The phone! Aaaaaaaagh.
So the iPhone is not just not-working. It is apparently unfixable.
Then I delayed another decision (what to do about it, when to upgrade).
And I was too late and now there won’t be a new phone for a few weeks.
And being without a phone for a week means seventeen billion (by monster-count) voice mail messages and I don’t want to listen to any of them!
HIDING. NOW.
Timing and pressures.
After three weeks of trying to get information from the derby girls about sponsorship at Championships, we get the specs.
Aaaaaaaand the ad for the program is due the following day.
Luckily my graphic designer is amazing, brilliant, speedy and always puts my stuff first. And luckily I am really good at writing copy. Off the top of my head.
Because otherwise we would have been screwed. But it was still way too stressful. And then dealing with the derby world brings up all my stuff from the yoga world, so there’s more to work on there.
Sometimes I want to run awaaaaaaaaaay.
Sometimes a lot.
Being surprised.
I was unexpectedly thrust into doing something that I wasn’t prepared for.
(It was fun and I’m glad I did it. But the way in which it happened was not supportive of me and didn’t give me what I needed to be able to do it and remain present/stable.)
The recovery time for that took a lot longer because of not getting time and space for conscious entry. Even having a minute or two would have changed the entire experience.
Still hurt and angry about something that is over.
I thought I was done with it but then I had a dream that reminded me. Not done. Very much not done.
The good stuff
Music.
The most beautiful haunting violin performance that split my heart in two and revealed another heart underneath.
Wow.
Help and support.
Lots of amazing help from Juno — without her I don’t think we’d ever have heard back from the Continental Divide & Conquer. The event we’ve been trying to sponsor.
Casey gave me her old phone to use in the meantime so that I am no longer phoneless.
The First Mate has been working overtime and being unbelievably great.
I might have a new helper mouse person in my life, and this is going to make everything better!
Sukkot.
The festival of blanket forts!
I am really loving this right now.
Dancing.
I love it.
Things working out.
Lots of perfect simple solutions showing up out of nowhere.
Fall!
Crisp air, crunchy leaves, sweaters!
The Board of Surprisers call on Monday.
I had been pretty nervous about meeting with my Board of Surprisers.
We did Show & Tell, which is my new metaphor for “presentations”.
I told them all about the new changes in my business for next year, and they were ENTHUSIASTIC.
It was so full of fun and laughter. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a meeting like that before.
Feeling grateful and happy.
No really, I am a crazed genius!
Which is even better than being an unlikely business savant, because there’s more rainbow confetti.
Between the shivanautical epiphanies and the new systems I’ve been implementing, things are changing in the most silly and beautiful ways.
I’ll be able to tell you more when I’ve done some more Show & Tell sessions with the Enthusiastic but the point is: feeling really good about where the pirate ship is headed and all of our new adventures.
Amazing things happening at the Kitchen Table.
I am seriously in awe of the progress people are making.
Bath time and other reassuring rituals.
It all helps.
Sweetness.
Lovely cards and gifts in the mail from Leni and Kylie and Maryann and Char.
THANK YOU.
The fun part of the Chickening happens here.
Tabstravaganza! Or: what’s Havi been up to with all those open Firefox tabs?
This wonderful post from Eve.
This from Briana (she let five-year-old-her take over her yoga class, and it’s awesome).
As if I wasn’t already completely in love with @harto from My Drunk Kitchen, this video: show me where ya noms at. ADORABLE.
Playing live at the meme beach house — it’s the Fake Band of the Week!
Background? Ez and I make up bands. Stu (retired Bolshevik-fearing voice-to-text software) once translated “people will hate me and be jealous” to “they’ll hang out at my Meme Beach House“. It’s just one guy.
This week’s band might be my favorite band ever. Ever!
Public Anemone
They’re loud and kind of floaty at the same time. Shows are happening all weekend so check them out.
Though, of course, it’s really it’s just one guy.
Hallo Hallo! I am saying Hallo Hallo. Announcement time.
Picture me wearing that crazy hat…
- Reminder! Plum Duff days (password: extraraisins) end MONDAY.
- Rally prices have to go up soon. Take a look at the 2012 schedule and make a Gwish about when/how.
- The Art of Embarking is really soon. And really great.
I think that’s everything? If not, I’ll add stuff to the Very Personal Ads this weekend.
That’s it for me …
And of course you can join in my Friday ritual right here in the comments if you feel like it.
Yes? Anything hard and/or good happen in your week?
And, as always, have a glorrrrrrrrrrrrious day, a restful weekend and a happy week to come. Shabbat shalom.
p.s. It’s okay if it’s not Friday anymore. There’s complete chicken amnesty — join in whenever (or not) and it’s no big deal.
The Festival of Blanket Forts.
So it’s Sukkot right now, which is my favorite holiday.
And yes, I continue to say this about pretty much all the holidays… but that’s really only because each one actually IS my favorite while it’s happening.
I mean, come on. How is every single one of these not the best?
- Purim. Wear costumes. Drink wine. Bake these cookies! Deliver them to friends!
- Rosh HaShana. Release your regrets into the river. Eat a pomegranate!
- Tu B’Shvat. Celebrate the birthday of the trees. Eat dates and almonds!
- Lag B’Omer. Have a secret picnic of remembering!
- Shavuot. Midnight beneath the stars. Study texts. Blintzes and sour cream!
- Pesach. The holiday of Spring Cleaning. And kneidelach!
- Hannukah. Light candles in a row. Eat fried things that are delicious!
All exclamation-point-worthy. Also: Yum! Do you see how hard it is?
But this…
This is the holiday of Hey, build a temporary shelter and go rest there and eat things — for a week!
It is the Festival of Blanket Forts.
It is everything I love.
It is safety and permission and hiding. Sometimes in an invisibility cloak.
It is a canopy of peace.
It is shelter, support, containment.
And you build it! For yourself! And then take it down again.
It is construction and deconstruction, just like in Shiva Nata.
The shivanautical principle that especially applies here: Using the same elements for building, undoing and then reconfiguring so that the new thing you want emerges from the old pattern.
It is peeking at the stars.
It is, as I wrote last year, “both sumptuous and temporary”.
“The roof must be made from something that once grew in the ground, and is no longer attached to the earth.”
(See: the best description of the sukkah and how it may be constructed.)
It is about structures and shelter as a field of safety to move you through the passages.
It is about harvesting. And celebrating what has been harvested.
It is safe rooms. We had one yesterday too.
Here’s what I’m practicing.
Consciously interacting with the tradition that I inherited. In my own way, with my own presence and my own understandings of how to care for myself.
Bringing play, curiosity, enthusiasm and mindfulness to the experiment.
Examining the essence of shelter and blanket-fort-ing and retreating.
Filling up on the qualities of safety, sovereignty, compassion, sweetness.
Intentionally hiding.
Invoking gestation.
Looking for the passages.
Peeking at the stars.
Making circles and circles. Inspired by the hakafot.
Discovering and inventing internal holidays just for me.
I’m also wondering if maybe in 2013 we should have a special indoor-outdoor Rally that happens over Sukkot, so that we can have blanket forts inside and a communal project-space sukkah outside. An idea…
Comment zen. Ooh, let’s make it a commenting sukkah!
This is our safe space to play and experiment.
You never have to share anything if you don’t feel like it. You can always call Silent Retreat!
We make this experience spacious by invoking amnesty. We make this experience safe by agreeing to let people have their own experience, and committing to not giving unsolicited advice. By not telling people how to feel or how to be.
We ask ourselves questions and look for the patterns that live inside of the questions.
So yes, the comments can be our own symbolic sukkah.
I have juice and tea. And my mother’s amazing honey cake. Help yourself.
Bring snacks if you like. Sit and take some time under the hanging gourds. The air is cool and crisp. There is somehow always enough time for whatever needs to happen.