🌗 March Last Quarter Links
"This is the curriculum." — Jeff Warren 🌗
Hi friends
It’s March. Apt name for this month. At least here in the northern hemisphere where it feels like spring is another steep mountain pass (or three) away. Can you tell I’m barely hanging in there? I’ve been encouraging myself with morning meditations in bed, daily gratitude for the elements, weepy acupuncture treatments, and umbrella-free walks in the rain.
How are you doing?
This week in LOVE CLUB we’ve been exploring gratitude and that’s had me even more appreciative than usual of the friendships in my life. I was very lucky to spend last weekend with my friends Dan and Jeff. The three of us differ from each other in a multitude of ways: backgrounds, personalities, career trajectories... and share absolute adoration and support of one another. We recorded another episode of Meditation Party (listen here to the most recent one from our live event last October), and then had a couple of days hanging out together talking about our lives, the state of the world, and our spiritual practices. Also, (along with Dan’s wife, Bianca, and his son, Alexander) watching 80’s movies, eating donuts, and making each other laugh . Once again, we discussed getting matching tattoos (not Alexander). We four adults already have life/meditation instructions seared into our arms… Because that’s what it takes. Kidding. But maybe? 🤔
Bianca has “right now, it’s like this” on her inner forearm — a wise reminder of continually allowing the present moment. Near his left wrist, Dan has “FTBOAB” (an acronym meaning for the benefit of all beings) — the intention he strives to brings to everything. On either arm, Jeff has “relaxed awareness” and “let go” — simple but profound instructions for formal and informal practice.
I have “trust ☆” and “life ♡” on my right forearm — my buddy, La’s, life mantra. These two words have been helpful since I tattooed them ten months ago. Often, with tears in my eyes, I look down at my arm and return to this guidance.
There was a tattoo we all agreed might be the one for next time —
phrase which he named in our podcast recording: this is the curriculum. This is the curriculum feels like a sister mantra to trust life. This is the curriculum affirms that, through some mysterious enrollment process, each of us does get a different program. That our personal syllabus and schedule are always changing. That, often, we don’t understand the lessons until we’ve gone through them. That we are always learning something new. That life itself may be the real magic boarding school.Apparently, this lifetime, I signed up for the Extra-Credit, A.P. track in a well-intentioned but incredibly dysfunctional institution (in fact, not too different from my actual school experiences). This is my curriculum. I am a forever student. Always the nerd. Ready for school. Class is always in session.
March links are below. Hope you enjoy.
With love,
Sebene
P.S. Thank you for the kind messages after my last post few posts. I have always appreciated and do read all your emails. Unfortunately, I can no longer keep up with responding to them. Please note, for now, I will not reply to email responses to my newsletters. BUT, I will (try and remember to) include a comment button in each post. I read and acknowledge all comments. Also, even if I forget the button, you can always comment on any post by clicking the “View in browser” link at the top of the email or by opening the Substack app. Thanks for being here.
Online Groups Begin On Monday: Uncouple from Couple-Dom
Come uncouple your mind from the relational ideals of mainstream culture that simply don’t work for everyone. Join people already meeting weekly in the first-ever online Uncoupling From Couple-Dom practice groups.
I partnered with Banyan to create weekly groups based on my workshop so that you can work with a teacher and friendly peers to re-orient your focus to self-love and fulfillment. All while questioning your current relational status quo and getting honest about what else might suit you better. Learn More & Join Here.
🌗 Last Quarter List 🌗
My gratitude for
has been flowing for months, ever since I subscribed to her newsletter, Sifter, which highlights and summarizes five stories from Ethiopia every week. For someone like me who does not speak Amharic fluently (or read it at all) and knows no other languages from the region, it’s an incredible resource to keep up on the constantly shifting circumstances there.Along with gratitude, LOVE CLUB this week was a reflection on poetry as sacred practice. I was very moved by this interview with Palestinian-American poet and physician, Fady Joudah, who shared that Israeli airstrikes have killed more than one hundred of his family members in Gaza.
“Eros is a marker of life, against alienation, against death as a tool that imposes subordination. I am a Palestinian man. An Arab man. A Muslim man. My desires are ordinary. My fragilities, too. In these poems of longing, I reclaim my body from the culture that wants to hear and read me only as a voice in the aftermath of disaster and as a wound at that, not much more.” — Fady Joudah
“To be perfectly honest, neither scientists nor philosophers really know what time is or why it exists. The best thing they can say is that time is an extra dimension akin (but not identical) to space… Nothing in known physics corresponds to the passage of time. Indeed, physicists insist that time doesn't flow at all; it merely is.”
For exactly one year, I’ve been following the work of Kening Zhu, a young artist living in Istanbul who does not use social media. I am always surprised and inspired by their heartfelt and innovative posts, especially their recent series on “world building” and the Internet as a creative practice.
“Rather than constantly consuming, or allowing ourselves to be consumed, we focus our attention, fullheartedly, to creating. Rather than performing our lives and businesses in pursuit of an end goal, we live the internet as a way of being — as an expression of our creative process and practice, made public.” — Kening Zhu
I do not understand their explanation of how they did it, but I am very into the result of someone creating this app that points to the middle of the Milky Way (26,000 light years away).
I’m almost finished listening to Barbra Streisand’s memoir (3 hours to go!). But I needed a break! 48 hours is a long time to listen to anyone… In the past couple of weeks, I dipped back into a few nonfiction books and I devoured Lisa Ko’s brilliant new novel, Memory Piece. I’m a huge fan of her first book, The Leavers (a Finalist for the National Book Award), and now I will talk anyone’s ear off about how much I love this latest gorgeously written nostalgic + futuristic, Gen Xer, narrative. I lucked out with an advance readers copy, but it comes out in just a few weeks, so you can pre-order it now.
I’m Aunt Sebene to Aunt Judy, my older nephew’s other aunt in New York. Besides being a successful executive coach and an adventurous solo-traveler (her trip to Aotearoa last summer greatly influenced mine), Aunt Judy is one of the most delightful people I’ve ever known. She is leading an immersive retreat in Portugal May 8–13 for anyone who wants to create a meaningful shift in their life. I’m certain it will benefit all who attend.
For about one week straight, all my text messages were dominated by the repeated call of “Lionel Richie for President!” which I could not stop proclaiming after watching The Greatest Night in Pop about the recording of “We Are the World” which may sound like something you could skip but you absolutely SHOULD NOT MISS, if only to witness Mr. Richie, who is both an extraordinary organizer and a graceful diplomat (not to mention was a stone-cold-fox). Another surprise: witnessing a huddle of Black men tenderly support a clearly seriously-freaking-out Bob Dylan into finding his voice… that brought me to tears. Two thumbs up! All the stars! All Night Long!
I’m the weirdo immigrant girl who was into Monty Python. Like, really into Monty Python. So, of course, I was chuffed about this podcast episode where legendary astrologer Steven Forrest breaks down the prevalence of 8th House South Nodes in the troupe members’ charts. Always the nerd... now an astro-nerd to boot!
“Who are we? We are the cure, the active principle, the air that saves you. We are daughters and sons of ancestors who taught us ‘that the limit of a land is in our consciousness’. When we learn from the land, it is a book that never ends. Hail our original peoples. The lungs of the world are Indigenous.” — Sônia Guajajara and Célia Xakriabá, in collaboration with Earthrise
If you’d like to practice with me in person:
I’ll be back at Omega Institute three times in 2024! In May, with my friends Jeff & Dan for Meditation Party. In June for The Greatest Love of All with Dawn, Kate and La. And in October for an encore with Dan & Jeff. Scholarships are available for all three programs.
It makes my heart happy to hear you are spending time with Jeff, Dan & Bianca as you March through this season. Your meditation parties provide a generous glimpse into the love y'all share, and I can practically hear the laughter! I look forward to this new gem as I too wade through grey snowy mornings, craving warmth and ease. May you find warmth and ease and acceptance of the curriculum in your cozy morning meditations, in the love of your friends, and in the well wishes of all of us who have the good fortune to subscribe to Ancestors to Elements.
I appreciate your open heartedness and your honesty about your process. I attended by zoom last fall's meditation Party. I really enjoyed the format it was so refreshing compared to the retreats I've attended in the past. I've tired of the religious connection and seriousness of it all.
I'd like to attend the other meditation parties through zoom but I don't see that as an option. will it be offered as we get closer to the start?