“When all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up to become their brother’s keepers. And that purposefulness and connectedness bring joy even amidst death, chaos, fear and loss.”
Rebecca Solnit
As you enter this week’s newsletter, take a few moments to recall all that cues you to an approaching storm as it rounds the corner: tingling skin… muffled birdsong… stilled trees… plunging temperatures…
What practices have people in your life equipped you with to meet what comes? Perhaps when the electricity cuts out you strike a match — candle flames cast fluttering shadows against the wall, beckoning you to join in their dance to the rhythm of the rain. Or when a green sky signals “Go,” you add to the thundering of feet down an apartment stairwell and into a basement, where stories of past weathered storms turn strangers into neighbors. Freezers empty into feasts. Fear is quelled by company.
Whatever the storms you weather this summer, may you find entry into rooms of generational wisdom that surround you with calm, community, and flashes of delight.
Generative Question
Inspired by Colette Pichon Battle
What practices or rituals offer you calm in the eye of a storm?
Write these down; they may be from experience or something handed down to you. Store them away as anchors — in your journal, a jar, your phone. Return to them whenever you need.
