👉🏽 Register for Sober from Bullshit Recovery Club here. Next one is February 15! 👉🏽 February writing workshop is live, and the theme is Abundance vs. Scarcity. Register here (Sunday, 2/28). ⭐️4 spots left ⭐️
This is so gorgeous y’all (thank you to my bestie // SMS community member Nicole for the share!)
Good morning friends. Happy Friday.
As we round the corner on a year in Pandemia, I am so tender. We are not the same people we were this time last year.
As mentioned in Tuesday’s post, I am haunted by all the invitations I declined in The Before Time. I keep thinking back to the things I was worried about in February 2020, and how totally and completely my concerns have shifted (I’m remembering how many dumb guys I was dating, and how I was allowing my wheels to spin damn near off the tracks; I’m remembering petty upsets with my family; I’m remembering getting caught in self-imposed loops of gossip and small mindedness and self-absorption).
Yesterday at the gym I was bemoaning to my friend Aaron how much less physically fit I am compared to this time last year and as the words came out of my mouth, another thought emerged alongside: Ok hon, your body isn’t as fit. But your mind! Your mind is more fit than it’s ever been.
In Pandemia, I have filled in the leaks in my boundaries. I know what it most important to me, what my life is for. This is all I’ve ever wanted to know.
My life is for you. And yes, I mean you, person reading this newsletter. But I also mean the greater you; I mean us. I am here to be in relationship with all of you, to love without judgement, to be curious and clear and connected. I don’t care about followers or subscribers. What I am so so interested in is you: your story, your desire, your longing for a different way. I am grateful and humbled to walk alongside you. And I MISS you. Particularly, I dream of dancing with you, and long afternoons people watching and “writing” at cafes, and sharing a meal over a kitchen table. Chokes me up to remember, and to imagine a time when we’ll get to do that again.
#summer2021 🤞🏽
What have you learned about yourselves, boo boos? How have you surprised yourself inside this strange and awful time? Who are you now?
Let us know in the comments 👇🏽
We are horizon building…Don’t be shy!
xxoo, dani
—> So many ⛓ ’s today I categorized them for you 🤓
Recovery News
👏🏽 Ok this title wins the day: 'Promising Young Woman,' Covid and the women giving up alcohol to fight the patriarchy. “…by shifting their relationship to alcohol, women can redefine who they are in a patriarchal culture than tells them they have to drink to be themselves.” This article references two of my sober lighthouses - Holly Whitaker and Kristi Coulter. So exciting.
Here’s what movement people understand. The forces that divide us, that keep the gears of oppression and division and hatred moving forward, have everything on their side. They have history. They have institutions. They have the money and the guns. For those of us on the top of societal hierarchies, they also have our hearts and minds, to say nothing of our Gollum-like attachment to our home values, our 401k balance and our children’s SAT scores.
What then, do those of us who aspire towards something more beautiful and equitable have going for us? People. Just people. Lonely, scared, fallible, frequently-harm-causing people. We’ve got each other, and we’ve got a finite amount of time and space that we’re in each other’s lives. That’s all.
🙏🏽 The Lakota Well-Being Project - this is an opportunity to give. 100% of the proceeds go toward providing medical supplies and equipment, as well as opportunities for medical and first responder training. Their focus is providing vital supplies for Covid-19 response and access to local ambulances and emergency medical services for our Standing Rock families. Check it out and consider donating.
…as soon as you add an opponent who is part of a group that has systematically been barred from the kind of power you’ve had relatively unimpeded access to, then things get trickier, uglier, more loaded and fraught. Because you could be arguing with them about ideology or policy, but if you light into them from a certain angle, with a degree of extra intensity or disrespect, if your supporters hate them with a little extra oomph, then questions of systemic discrimination and how it has shaped every American system will come into play.
Beauty
✨ Fucking ASK MOLLY does it again. It was all I could do not to eat every single paragraph. “But why does the world still feel so hostile? Does it drag you down, too? Enraged ignorance keeps bubbling up behind neighborly faces. How do we forget what we’ve seen? Erase my memories and replace them with mercy.”
🌹 WARNING: this poem is hella sexy (read it out loud. Even better: ask someone to read it out loud to you.)
Thank you so much for being a part of this community. If you like this newsletter, please consider leaving a comment, sending it to a friend or subscribing. Or email me and say hi, I’d love to hear from you.
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27 // your mind is more fit than it’s ever been
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Buenos días mi gente!
👉🏽 Register for Sober from Bullshit Recovery Club here. Next one is February 15!
👉🏽 February writing workshop is live, and the theme is Abundance vs. Scarcity.
Register here (Sunday, 2/28). ⭐️4 spots left ⭐️
This is so gorgeous y’all (thank you to my bestie // SMS community member Nicole for the share!)
Good morning friends. Happy Friday.
As we round the corner on a year in Pandemia, I am so tender. We are not the same people we were this time last year.
As mentioned in Tuesday’s post, I am haunted by all the invitations I declined in The Before Time. I keep thinking back to the things I was worried about in February 2020, and how totally and completely my concerns have shifted (I’m remembering how many dumb guys I was dating, and how I was allowing my wheels to spin damn near off the tracks; I’m remembering petty upsets with my family; I’m remembering getting caught in self-imposed loops of gossip and small mindedness and self-absorption).
Yesterday at the gym I was bemoaning to my friend Aaron how much less physically fit I am compared to this time last year and as the words came out of my mouth, another thought emerged alongside: Ok hon, your body isn’t as fit. But your mind! Your mind is more fit than it’s ever been.
In Pandemia, I have filled in the leaks in my boundaries. I know what it most important to me, what my life is for. This is all I’ve ever wanted to know.
My life is for you. And yes, I mean you, person reading this newsletter. But I also mean the greater you; I mean us. I am here to be in relationship with all of you, to love without judgement, to be curious and clear and connected. I don’t care about followers or subscribers. What I am so so interested in is you: your story, your desire, your longing for a different way. I am grateful and humbled to walk alongside you. And I MISS you. Particularly, I dream of dancing with you, and long afternoons people watching and “writing” at cafes, and sharing a meal over a kitchen table. Chokes me up to remember, and to imagine a time when we’ll get to do that again.
#summer2021 🤞🏽
What have you learned about yourselves, boo boos? How have you surprised yourself inside this strange and awful time? Who are you now?
Let us know in the comments 👇🏽
We are horizon building…Don’t be shy!
xxoo,
dani
—> So many ⛓ ’s today I categorized them for you 🤓
Recovery News
👏🏽 Ok this title wins the day: 'Promising Young Woman,' Covid and the women giving up alcohol to fight the patriarchy. “…by shifting their relationship to alcohol, women can redefine who they are in a patriarchal culture than tells them they have to drink to be themselves.” This article references two of my sober lighthouses - Holly Whitaker and Kristi Coulter. So exciting.
🙌🏾 It’s Hard to Stay Sober in a Pandemic, But Holly Whitaker Wants to Help “ ‘That place that scares you—keep walking in that direction.’ ”
The Work
🤝 More from our friend Garrett Bucks "I may not get there with you" AOC, MLK and what it means to be a Movement Person
🙏🏽 The Lakota Well-Being Project - this is an opportunity to give. 100% of the proceeds go toward providing medical supplies and equipment, as well as opportunities for medical and first responder training. Their focus is providing vital supplies for Covid-19 response and access to local ambulances and emergency medical services for our Standing Rock families. Check it out and consider donating.
🧘🏽♀️ Lama Rod Owens is offering a 7-week online course and practice group: LOVE AND RAGE: The Path of Liberation Through Anger.
🔥 The always incisive Rebecca Traister: With Biden we’ve restored our country’s favorite tradition: basic, middling, white patriarchy.
Beauty
✨ Fucking ASK MOLLY does it again. It was all I could do not to eat every single paragraph. “But why does the world still feel so hostile? Does it drag you down, too? Enraged ignorance keeps bubbling up behind neighborly faces. How do we forget what we’ve seen? Erase my memories and replace them with mercy.”
🌹 WARNING: this poem is hella sexy (read it out loud. Even better: ask someone to read it out loud to you.)
💍 Diamonds Aren’t Special and Neither is Your Love “I do not want my sense of self to be based on what others do not or cannot have. I want to feel the true abundance of love.”
Joy
🕺🏽 Let it be known! As a proud elder millennial, I am not on TikTok. But sometimes….yeah. This one’s been on a happy little loop all morning.
🐹 I am also NOT a fan of hamsters (my sister knows why) but this Twitter thread about a dad who lost his daughter’s hamster is cute as hell.
🎶 As briefly referenced in Tuesday’s post - a bunch of Fleetwood Mac (Fleetmac Wood!) remixes that are so so fun.
Thank you so much for being a part of this community. If you like this newsletter, please consider leaving a comment, sending it to a friend or subscribing. Or email me and say hi, I’d love to hear from you.