Dear Kindreds #4
Life update, and the gentle return to some intentions I began before everything got upturned
Hey friends,
Carlos and I, shockingly, are not sitting at a cafe for this Kindred letter (I know we were for the last two one of which you can read here). Instead, I’m sitting in my office watching cars drive past the light blue water of the bay, and feeling a tiny bit jealous of the sunbathers and beach-goers below (even though that water has to be really freezing despite the warm temp). Here, let me snap a pic…
Later, I’ll have to take my customary walk down on the trail right by the water so I can feel the healing energy of the Puget Sound, which always soothes me. As many things felt like they were falling apart at the beginning of the year, this view every day was one of my saving graces—it helped me remember that beauty exists even alongside hard things, that nature is cruel, yes, but also beautiful. That sometimes—sometimes—good things do happen.
Today feels like the first day in a long time that I am settled into something new*. For a while there I was looking towards a “new phase” but I hadn’t actually entered the new phase. Instead I was still stuck cleaning up the messes and resolving the griefs of what had happened—and while I was feeling better and very much cleansed and very much relieved in many ways, I was still in the thick of it, still there.
But now, at least for today, I feel here instead of there. It feels kind of like a new now somehow—the cusp of a new adventure, or leg of the adventure. And that always feels nice.
One of the things I’d been starting to feel before the onslaught of “contrast” that began last November was a lot of excitement about possibilities for this newsletter that I have grown to love quite a lot (as I’m sure I’ve mentioned). I was considering Zazen. I was considering daily posts. I was considering so many things! Best laid plans, and all that.
But today it is settling in that there are some gentle intentions I want to map out for myself in Quarters 3 and 4 of this year—and beyond—‘round these parts. And instead of making promises, I’ve learned that, for me, it’s gentler to express intentions while still allowing time (and my quirky, beloved brain) to fill in the details over time. I’ve found that for me, reaching certain goals takes longer than for other people. (And at the same time other types of goals that take a while for others seem to happen for me almost instantaneously with what looks like zero effort—even though that is not actually true. But no time to hop into this rabbit hole!) Anyway, yes, for something like this I have learned that I have to give myself room to grow into my intentions slowly and organically and with tons of self-care and self-forgiveness and tenderness. And that’s okay, because when I do so some pretty cool things are brought into existence!
So, here are some general intentions I’m thinking about here at the Driftless Letters in case you are wondering what has been on my mind as I think about this experience:
—More driftlessness in subject matter; more breadth; more expansiveness
—I’d love to eventually have a consistent schedule. Sometimes this works for me, and sometimes it doesn’t. I feel positive feelings about the idea of giving it a try—perhaps posting every Tuesday.
—I’d like to post my first paid subscribers post soon (which in this case will be the letter I read at M’s funeral, which I mentioned in an earlier letter.)
—Some different types of letters is sounding fun to me! such as:
——open letters to living entities, groups and concepts.
——digests of mini-letters to folks/situations that require only small communiques
——letters to my past or future self
——letters to some of you in an “advice column” format (no idea how that would work as of yet… just an idea.
In addition, I have felt an intuitive push to share some personal posts from the “spiritual” journey I’ve been on the last few years. (I put it in quotation marks just because I feel like we need to use a pretty loose definition of the term to describe all that has happened to me in this regard.)
There has been a lot happening on that one, and it’s probably time to start sharing more of that soon.
I also might end up sharing some random writings extracted from my morning pages, which I scribble into yellow legal pads most days. And like I did that one time in an earlier Dear Kindreds letter, I might just do my morning pages right here. I went back and re-read the one I shared before. I had forgotten how I was doing the work to lower barrier of entry. And it was working! So, perhaps that will resume so that I can build lattice-work necessary for me to achieve some of the objectives outlined above.
Anyhow, onto some
}}}}NEWS AND EVENTS{{{{
cuz there a couple of things I want to tell you all about:
First of all, I have started Threading and it’s been pretty fun—I’ve taken a break the last few days, but I’d love to have anybody follow me there if you have also joined. I’m at threads.net/@joshmayoweed . Would love to see you over there! :-)
At the same time, I also experimented with posting things on Threads and Twitter at the same time, and by doing so accidentally had another viral Tweet thread, this one about why I feel it is important for parents to record themselves for their children. You can read that here:
https://twitter.com/The_Weed/status/1681797543959883776?s=20
This led to an incredibly poignant discussion in which a reporter friend of mine, Jennifer Dobner, posted a beautiful video of her great-grandparents playing with her grandmother as a baby right before they both passed away in the Spanish Influenza pandemic (which was especially touching to me because my own grandfather lost his father in the Spanish Influenza the same year, 1918, when he was a baby.) That footage was incredibly touching, and turns out the Academy has demarcated it as the only home video in existence for its time. You can see that here
And lastly, I’m going to be doing a presentation about neurodiversity for mental health practitioners at the Mormon Mental Health Association TOMORROW, Thursday the 27th, so if you’re a practitioner and you’re interested you can register here! (I’m always so hilariously proud of myself when I remember to promote a thing I’m doing because I often forget. GO JOSH! ;-) ) Sorry it’s the day before! But if you have the chance to register I think you will enjoy it!
Okay, before this letter gets away from me and I accidentally move on to other things before pressing post, I’m doing it NOW. (I didn’t do it “now.” I got distracted when I started it on the first Monday in July, and then got distracted AGAIN when I almost posted it last Tuesday. But it’s finally happening, today, right now, and I’m not rereading it because I have a presentation for tomorrow to finalize!!!! Wheeeeee!!!!)
Much love to you all,
Joshua
Glad to see you are back at it!!