Hello Reader,
I keep practicing showing up with authenticity and intention, even if I feel anxiety or fear about it.
This summer I attended “Why Feel? Healing Our Lineages and Transforming Our Communities,” a workshop where Prentis Hemphill spoke to how fear can exist alongside courageous actions.
I was invited into a meditation on the source of the water we drink, how our body is water.
I was asked to remember a moment when I felt awe, immerse myself and linger in that awe.
Resources exist within us always, even, and perhaps especially, through our capacity to imagine.
We —with our sensitive big hearts and even bigger dreams of a future of abundance and safety for all— may find our nervous systems buzzing amidst the intensity of our world.
Blanca Stacy Villalobos, a freelance cultural worker & interdisciplinary artist, writes that “dedicating one’s life to the protection of our planet is often full of grief as much as it is full of beauty.”
Author and activist, adrienne maree brown, shares “So much is unveiled about what I actually care about, because I feel so much grief—and then that grief also guides me to the next place.”
If our immediate environment is one of relative safety, we can turn towards a supportive tool or practice to guide us.
Maybe we seek out a moment of awe. Maybe we connect to the water in and around us. Maybe we send a meme to make a friend laugh and spit out their water.
Like flowers we can turn to the sustenance of water and sun, or if we are nocturnal moon-blooming flowers, we can tilt to the stars.
We can care for ourselves even as we turn to nurture our wider worlds.
Reflection
What is a moment, landscape or experience that fills you with awe? Can you cultivate a small moment of awe and wonder in your day to day?
Resources
My Creative Updates & Offerings
Book a one on one session with me here.
Writer friends: I plan to offer a workshop for writers with somatic practices to support us in the creative process. What would be helpful to you? Reply to this email and let me know.
Community & Care
A new piece in Oregon Humanities by Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka, "We Contain Multitudes: BIPOC adoptees rewrite the mainstream adoption narrative." Check out her beautiful IG auction for the Abu Dayer family that ends tomorrow, Friday, 9/13 at 10 a.m. PT.
On IG, the @napministry posted "New Hotline Message! A message of care recorded under a blanket." I called and felt soothed.
Soft Pants for Your Mind
Healing Traditions, a short film “that explores Blackness, healing, and water through the story of Prentis Hemphill, a healer and activist.”
How beautiful to consider the hundreds of words for rain as compiled in a book by Collette Leimomi Akana in Hānau ka Ua.
Notes & Citations
In The Embodiment Institute workshop I attended: Prentis Hemphill spoke on courage and fear; Kasha Ho led the water meditation; Alta Starr led the awe practice.
In an awe research rabbit hole, I found reasons why awe makes life better, alongside awe science and approaches to childlike wonder.
Blanca Stacy Villalobos, a freelance cultural worker & interdisciplinary artist, and their quoted essay "2030 Landscapes: What the Winds Say."
A conversation "On Navigating Relationships With Care" with adrienne maree brown.
https://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/fun-at-home/g61238451/flowers-that-bloom-at-night-guide/
Let’s resource! Let’s play! Let’s happen to notice, together.
In peace,
Vanessa Micale
Founder of Poderosa Voz LLC
(she, they, ella)
P.S. You can show your support by sharing this micro-newsletter with a friend, or you can send me a digital tip and treat me to a pastry.
P.P.S. Sharing resources is one of my love languages. Is there a resource related to somatic and creative realms you want to see or you know of? Hit reply and let me know.
