a card pulled (from UUSI Supra Oracle)
Meaning:
Synchronicity is the great, creative, polyphonic dream we share with Nature. It is our imaginations tapping into and mimicking this ingenious dream, and in a sublime, reciprocal act of spontaneous, inner creation, parallel phenomena is formed; an inspired, communal act of creativity that appears as if it were all by design.
Conception / Idea / Fantasy / Visionary / Mediumistic
a prayer
My grandfather passed away earlier this week. On Wednesday I celebrated my 36th year alive, then early Thursday morning I flew to Tennessee to join my parents, who had flown from Colorado, for the funeral. I gathered with extended family, cousins and aunts and uncles, who I hadn’t seen in close to a decade. They all remembered me, although I failed to remember many of them. The majority of them being sweet, Trump Republican, religious folk.
After the funeral, where the pastor had taken full opportunity to let everyone know that if they didn’t accept Christ into their heart before their own death they would arrive in hell for all eternity, we joined to share a homemade, potluck meal at their church. As I spooned various casseroles into my mouth, the delightful drawl of Southern accents laughing and chatting all around me, I thought about Christ, and breaking bread, and religion, and family. The idea of going to hell no longer phases or invokes fear in me, because if hell exists we already created it right here on Earth. Instead what agitated me is that the people who claim to know and be as Jesus—who praise him on podiums every sunday, and sing about him in songs, and have bumper stickers saying I Heart Jesus on their very large trucks—so often misrepresent and misconstrue what he taught, which (from the little I know) is to do our best to extend our love and acceptance not just to our own, but to those unlike us.
The time went by slowly, the pace of life is more of a crawl there, which we filled with memories and simply being together. And yet, no sooner than I arrived, it was time to go. I would end up leaving that trip with a hat from my grandfather with a helicopter on it, learning he spent a lot of his working life as a mechanic fixing military planes and building missle systems. I would wear that hat home, in one of his sweaters too, even as I know the horrors and injustices of war and genocide at the hands of empires and their defense systems. I thought about the people of Palestine, and all people harmed in human warring, while I sat on the plane wearing his hat, and how I both wanted to smell my grandfather, a man I hardly knew but loved, and be repulsed by what he did for a living. Couldn’t both be true at once?
By the time I got home, one day after I had arrived in TN to bury a grandparent—but really to be with my father as he mourned his father—I realized we are all so very connected. And not just connected, but stuck together. I realized that a small town guy in TN had a hand in systems that brought terror and perhaps death to others. That kind, loving, hard working people who care for their families and spread love in their own communities also, sometimes, help build weapons of destruction. That what one person thinks keeps him and his safe, may bring the exact opposite reality to someone else.
I’ve been contemplating hypocrisy and its inescapable nature. I want to invite us to notice where we are being hypocrites—not just where others are being hypocrites. I want us to not deny our hand in having contradictions, and instead notice where they are with curiosity. I want us to consider we belong to a web (of every good thing and bad thing) of which we cannot escape, but can learn to initiate ourselves as part of, nonetheless. And that maybe love (our willingness to participate in and open to life) acts as a lubricant on this web, whereas our disdain (our fear and hatred of life) winds us further into the sticky, caught-ness of existence.
a poem
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
-Rumi
the unconscious
ON MY MIND:
To demand a ceasefire for the people of Palestine, follow this link. It will send an email on your behalf—it’s almost too easy. A great substack to follow for more intimate updates with what is happening in Palestine is
. I am aware there are multiple places in the world in desperate need of aid and are facing the brink of death due to war and the collapse of systems, pick one, pick any, and do what you feel you can. Building community in our own backyard is also incredibly important—now, more than ever! Never forget, it could be us. May this be a prayer to lift us into action and away from despair and guilt and shame. Even the little things count. The big things are the little things.For anyone who follows me on insta, I deactivated my personal account and will only be using my hair account, perhaps from now on. You can find me there (@smmusings) if you want to stay up to date with my hair artistry, writing, and upcoming performances. I no longer wish to fracture myself with two instagrams. Isn’t one enough, lol? My new (but old) one will be less of an extension of my personality and every waking thought, and more of a tool for my business and artistic expression. I will be sharing more on this in an upcoming pod soon.
I’m hosting an upcoming event at my salon (Headdress Salon) in the EV of Manhattan, called Salon et Salon. I am essentially going to be hosting a series of salons (as in the French meaning of a gathering of minds) in the salon I work at! This was inspired from the course I took with Nathan Dufour Oglesby (@nathanology), named Ecosophy—which is a six-week invitation to think about the broader environment and how we can find our values and take action on them. Each of us had to create a project, this one is mine. He’ll be my first guest, and he’s amazing and you won’t want to miss this. ^ follow my insta for more upcoming info! And follow his, too, if you want to learn more about his work.
The solar eclipse is happening April 8th and I am so fortunate to be able to travel upstate NY with my beloved to witness it. Definitely look it up and see if you can catch it where you are. I was supposed to see it in 2020, but then covid hit. I’ve heard from so many people it is a truly remarkable experience not to be missed in your lifetime!
This video on how to breathe properly. This month is all about breath. Honor it, cherish it, learn to do it correctly, lol.