June 26, 2025 Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Exciting news: This summer, starting in mid-July, I’ll be at REVEAL Healing Arts on Friday's in SE Portland. Schedule an in-person one-on-one session or get a group of besties together to book a private group session with me. Learn more here. Hello Reader, My naturopath doctor asked if I bought the weightlifting gloves he recommended months ago. The gloves are to support my hand and wrist conditions during my workouts with five pound weights....
16 days ago • 3 min read
May 29, 2025 Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Portland: Last call to sign-up for my in-person series in June. Details below! Hello Reader, On May Day, I drove an hour to Salem to volunteer for an annual march organized by PCUN (Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste), a farm workers rights organization. I get nervous about the volatility of large public crowds, but my desire to support this event was a full embodied “yes.” I was seeking collective joy and tenderness. In a podcast, Ross...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Portland, save the dates! I will be in conversation with Caro De Robertis May 20 at Powell's. I also have an in-person Somatic Sometimes workshop series in June. More details below. Hello Reader, I was gifted a beautiful book,“Bowie: Una Biografía,” by Mária Hesse and Fran Ruiz. The book incorporates elements of David Bowie’s life with speculative vivid illustrations. I turned the pages and wondered: What would have happened if Bowie had to work a day job...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
May 1, 2025 Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Portland, save the dates! I will be in conversation with Caro De Robertis May 20 at Powell’s. I also have an in-person Somatic Sometimes workshop series in June. More details below. Hello Reader, I’ve noticed an earnest, genuine effort of people reaching out in community spaces. We want and need to stay connected to joy, purpose, and deliberate action. Dr. Robert Waldinger, happiness researcher, shares the importance of investing in...
2 months ago • 3 min read
April 17, 2025 Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Hello Reader, I was in the audience of a live show in a packed theater. At the intermission, the venue flooded with the sounds of hundreds of people moving, talking. Even though I saw some friends, I felt sensory overload and related anxiety. I recognized my state in the moment. I chose to go on a night walk in the cold air around the neighborhood. I felt kinship as trees swayed in front of homes with soft lights on. I greeted the moon. I...
3 months ago • 3 min read
March 27, 2025 Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Hello Reader, The past several months have dug in with heartbreak, the active rendering of loss, both immediate and anticipatory, private and collective. I’ve been thinking about legacy after the sudden passing of two young creative friends and one of my older siblings in Uruguay. Today I draw strength from the legacy of multidisciplinary artist and performer Dahlia Kash who once texted me, “I got the fish. U got the fire. Together, it’s...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Join us tonight at 5 p.m. PT for a virtual poetry reading hosted by poets Melissa Ferrer Civil & Kay E. Bancroft. Come with your love, your big feelings, and let's stir things up. Free to register with funds raised to Trans Latin@ Coalition and Trans Lifeline. Hello Reader, Over the past year I’ve received gestures of love to celebrate, congratulate, acknowledge grief, or just because. A bouquet from a friend’s garden. Mysterious directions to a surprise...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Hello Reader, Lately, I’ve been ink-drawing images from my day with playful acceptance. I’m inspired by American cartoonist Lynda Barry who says, “Adults think that kids playing is some nothing thing [...] But play is a different state of mind, and it can help us do so many things if we just allow ourselves to get back to it.” I drew the shape of my body-mind one day: a sieve or ultra-fine-mesh strainer, not a colander with large holes that lets most...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Happen To Notice with Vanessa Micale Hello Reader, I continue to be moved by active practices of community care and solidarity. In the wake of the Los Angeles fires, musician, director and photographer Vice Cooler, wrote an article in which volunteer Justine Suzanne Jones says, “Don’t wait for some external authority to give you permission to ask another person what they need.” We also can’t wait for external systems to give us permission for what is called “self-care.” I don’t mean luxury...
5 months ago • 3 min read