Why, yes, those are 2 separate audio links – 1 below, 1 above. || My reading of this essay is right before the opening Hi friends. 👇🏾 || A guided meditation is at the top of this email. 👆🏾 || An archive of meditations lives here.
Registration is open for Soulful Cycles: Creating Sacred Rituals for Life Changes. Tuesdays July 2, 9, & 16th :: 6–8pm ET :: On Zoom :: Space is limited!
🌊 Registration and more info here 🌊
Make Sacred Space is back for four Sundays in June. Come spend soulful time in moonly contemplation and creation. June 6, 16, 23, 30. 7–8:15 pm ET. Come attune to the Moon!
🌑 Register here 🌕
Listen to me read this essay:
Hi friends
How are you doing? Do you too understand not one damn thing about the nature of time? How are we almost halfway through 2024? And still in this quagmire of planetary separation and violence? A great many people I know are going through major life changes and challenges. Most of us are feeling unsteady at times. How could it be otherwise with so much personal and collective chaos? I hope you’re finding ways to stay rooted to your own power and possibility.
My (main) altar holds many offerings — reflections of all the elements, images of ancestors, reminders of Ethiopia, various sacred-to-me objects, a metta bowl filled with names, and a page I printed last fall with scenes from Gaza. When I feel grounded and spacious (also when I need grounding and space), I stand in front of all of this to light candles, to spray water, to burn frankincense, to whisper prayers. This altar sits across from the desk where I type this. It’s usually obscured by my computer. And I sense its presence continually.
Thank you for your presence here, for joining me in these moonly explorations. It’s an honor to write to you.
The answer: “Yes”
Whenever it feels like everything is falling apart, I up my soulful tending: I move, meditate, eat well, journal, go find nature, read fiction, geek out (i.e. study a variety of things), see & make art, cultivate lots of solitude (even more than I think I need), connect with my people… I make space for the tried & tested practices that support my well being — the rituals that allow me to be more present for my writing and teaching, that help me show up for myself and for others. Except when I don’t.
Lately, I’ve also been backsliding. My two yo-yo modes of regression are collapse and control. Collapse skips sessions with my trainer or the pool. Collapse confuses temporary craving and real needs, it eats too many salty (delicious) carbs forgetting to honor all the fresh food emerging with summer. Collapse tries to convince me to immediately re-watch all three seasons of Hacks (No, I will not!). Control is wound-up and anxious, annoyed at others when I let boundaries get leaky and don’t carve enough space for myself. Control believes everything needs to be vigilantly defended, including my heart.
Collapse and control require my tender care too. Soulful tending may be creating a collage. Or jumping on my trampoline. Or going for a walk. Or realizing I’m having a hot-flash and want some cold water. Or laying down on a yoga mat even though I am resisting the call to slow down and stay still for a few minutes, to pause and get quiet, to feel, to really listen, to sense what my body may need in this moment — perhaps more stillness, a gentle rock of my pelvis, windshield wiping my legs, a good cry…
I bought myself peonies. Because I’ve been dutifully following The Artist’s Way. [Thank you Millenials for reviving a book I had not reread since the nineties, when many of you were just being born. I’m so grateful for the wisening ways of your generation.] For anyone who has not encountered this self-help book by Julia Cameron, it’s a twelve-week program for unblocking one’s creativity. It’s filled with instructions and exercises. One of the assignments is to buy a bouquet. My gay-husband-Aaron’s parents have a peony farm in northern California. I’ve never been to visit, but I have been drawn to this flower for thirty years because of him. However, I’ve rarely bought myself these luscious, lovely blooms (hopefully not never, but maybe?). Ten of them currently sit on my desk in baby and hot pink glory. They perfume my office with a sweet aroma. The past few mornings, I wake up and think Oh, I get to see the peonies! Another thought: Someday, I will once again have a garden.
Julia Cameron has encouraged my longing and dreaming before. On a call two nights ago, my bestie Peter and I reminisced about doing this program together twenty plus years ago. Though neither of us remembers actually finishing it, I am reminded of that time with everything I do recall — like how certain prompts produced the same revelations then and that some lists lead to familiar longings. At some point, I will go back through my journals to see if I can recover my youthful dreams.
Right now, I am determined to dream and do the entire program for my middle-aged self. I have three separate notebooks going: one for the morning pages, one for taking notes, and another to keep track of tasks. Chapter by chapter, Julia feeds me inquiries. She quizzes me on how many days I did my morning pages (most) and whether or not I did my artist date (getting better). She asks me to recite affirmations. She insists I cull anything inhibting focus on the creative source within me, which she calls God. Talk about soulful tending! I am not mad at her for telling me what to do with myself for these months. The effects are evidenced by delighting in peonies and crying at the American Museum of Natural History on my artist date. The Artist Date is a weekly solitary experience and one of two primary prescriptions in the program (the other being The Morning Pages, three pages of stream of consciousness writing first thing every day – something I’ve done off & on since my first foray).
Earlier this week, I went to the Hayden Planetarium for this weekly solo adventure. I saw the special exhibition, Worlds Beyond Earth, a 25 minute film that explores our solar system. Narrated by the angelic voice of Lupita Nyong'o, the images are projected onto the domed screen, transporting viewers into outer space. We leave Earth’s atmosphere and witness our fragile planet from afar. This amateur astro-nerd was in heaven. 🫠 The graphics and explanations helped me understand so much more about our galactic home, giving me perspective on the positions, pace, and power of the planetary bodies all around us. I felt an even deeper appreciation for the beauty and uniqueness of each planet (some with various moons) and for the specialness of Earth. For many minutes, warm tears streamed down my face (as the German tourists next to me probably wondered if I was unwell).
I will definitely go to see it again. [FYI, it closes in December.] Until then, I’ll be trying my best to soulfully tend to what needs care in any moment.
With love,
Sebene
P.S. I know many of you have done The Artist’s Way. I’d love to hear about your experiences with it in the comments!
Make Sacred Space JUNE
🌑 Time for Moonly Contemplation & Creativity 🌕
A Soulful Start to Your Week * 30 minutes of guided meditation * 10 minutes of journaling prompts * 30 minutes of open space for dreaming & doing :: Four Sundays in June (6/9,6/16, 6/23, 6/30), 7–8:15 pm EST
Many of us long to bring more sacredness into our lives. But we rarely make space to do so. The Moon, the closest planetary body to Earth, can help us connect to the numinous nature of life. Come attune to the moon!
Soulful Cycles: Creating Sacred Rituals for Life Changes
Tuesdays July 2, 9, & 16th :: 6–8pm EST :: On Zoom :: Space is limited! Registration and more info here.
Life is a continuous cycle of change. Change is both happening and needed in our world now more than ever. When we resist change, suffering happens. When we soulfully flow with the cycles of change, we help shape the change we desire.
Rituals help us in creating a sacred relationship to change.
Rituals are a fundamental part of the human experience. All people engage rituals: small children and top athletes, spiritually inclined and not. And rituals work! Studies consistently show that rituals improve outcomes. They increase confidence and decrease anxiety. They help us savor experience and promote interconnection.
And like, placebos (which originate in and are full of rituals), rituals involve mystery. In this series, we will spend 3 weeks exploring change through intention, ritual & ceremony. Come connect to all change as sacred!
SPACE IS LIMITED. SLIDING SCALE AVAILABLE.
I now cap the size of my three and four-week courses to 30 people max. I have set a sliding scale so those who are able to pay more can help balance the lower end. See here for payment options and to learn more about the course.
There are a few pay-what-you-can scholarships spots available. Please email connect@sebeneselassie.com — first come basis.
🌑 Soulful Tending and the Power of Peonies