A little update
An intuitive writing workshop and finding love in the dark
Dearest Community,
It has been a while, and I wanted to say hello. I hope you are having a lovely summer—it is going by in a wink! I also want to take a moment to express my gratitude for your continued support.
Over the past year, I've been on a journey of personal growth and hardship, navigating through a mix of challenges and blessings, including the loss and change of a dear and significant relationship, adapting to changes in a job I've held for 20 years, learning new systems, stepping into teaching Yoga again and expanding my communities and networks and creating new relationships, coaching and facilitating writing classes, volunteering and fostering, being uncomfortable with COVID, healing and restoring my body, and finding solace in the warmth of family and friends.
Amidst the tears and laughter, I've been rediscovering my inner strength and welcoming new love and life into my world.
I've also been preparing some opportunities for you to join me in writing.
For local individuals, I am offering an in-person Intuitive Writing Workshop at Indigo Yoga Studio in Walnut Creek on Sunday, August 25, from 1:30 to 3:30 PM.
The synergy and intimacy that can be co-created in just two hours is truly remarkable, and I look forward to sharing this experience with you.
Registration and details here.
I will also be hosting Intuitive Writing and Grief Writing for Women this fall. Stay tuned for the dates and series information.
Writing has not been something that I have been called to lately. However, I am learning that, like seasons in nature and in our lives, creativity and inspiration also have seasons.
With current circumstances and continued change, inspiration has not been easily accessible, nor have I had the energy to write publicly. While at times that is hard to accept, I am learning and trusting that my inspiration and creativity will return when needed as I ebb and flow the seasons of my life.
In late June, I fostered a kitty named Sam. He soon stole my heart as I nursed him back to strength and health. I wondered and worried if it was the right time to adopt and introduce new life and responsibilities.
It was a journey, and it took some extra coaching, logistical and clarity searching, loving through new layers of grief, and lots of grace to arrive at a YES; a knowing my body and heart realized long before the mind's worries and planning.
Sam has brought so much love and joy into my life. I am adjusting to a new life, rituals, and morning and evening practices that now include playfulness.
He has reminded me that we can still look for and find love even in the darkest places.
More on our journey to come.
As I continue to navigate loss and significant change, I find myself ebbing and flowing between hard and challenging moments and days to moments and days filled with grace and ease.
Since my dad and Jax died, they often speak to me through musical lyrics.
Last Monday, I had a particularly tough evening and went to the park to lie in the grass. As I lay there, a familiar phrase sang in my head: Every little thing gonna be alright. I was called to turn on Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds."
Listening to the repetitive chorus I was reminded that my angels are never far away. They continue to have my back and remind me to breathe, hold me as I cry, and remind me that everything will be alright, even on the most challenging days.
Tomorrow, I am off to the land where I will call my spirit back. Two years ago, after two losses, I traveled to Montana. Two years later, I find myself drawn back to the land as I process another significant loss, which I briefly touched on in my recent story in the Tonic of Gin.
As I embark on an adventure to open sky, prairie, and stars, I feel like I am on the cusp of something new—a wild adventure where I will return to myself and the land and be held in ritual, community, and horses.
This year has brought many challenges, fear, worry, grief, and sleepless nights as I navigate the dark and scary places of the great unknown. I am learning to lean into and practice surrendering to it with more grace, yet it still riddles me with discomfort.
I am grateful for the many people and resources that call my spirit back, anchor me in the abyss, and hold my hand in the dark: Mynx, teachers, and communities—teaching, giving, and receiving. The spiritual and shifting practices I have learned, embodied, and adapted along the way continue to offer a sweetness of stability in the most unstable times. Devoted self-care practices that leave me genuinely cared for. Nature. Movement and stillness. Noise and quiet. Conversation and connection. Songwriters that resonate and write about universal truths and timeless messages through lyrics. Surrendering to the faith that with space and rest, my body would heal. Poetry. Reading. Asking for support. Space for old relationships to rekindle, forgive, and heal. My healers and their devoted care to my nervous system and body. The return of energy, health, and ability to travel. My mom and Joe, for taking care of Sam while I am away and for Sam's sweet, loving, playful, curious, calm, and confident nature. Family, good friends, and soul sisters. My three little birds: grandma, my dad, and Jax.
Offerings
I leave you with a couple of things that always offer support, whether it's good times or bad, happy or sad: music and poetry.
Here's my latest playlist for those hard days or days when you want to sing out loud and dance in your kitchen!
A poem I love dearly and a writing prompt to consider:
For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet
By Joy Harjo
Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop.
Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.
Open the door, then close it behind you.
Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth gathering essences of plants to clean.
Give it back with gratitude.
If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and back.
Acknowledge this earth who has cared for you since you were a dream planting itself precisely within your parents’ desire.
Let your moccasin feet take you to the encampment of the guardians who have known you before time, who will be there after time. They sit before the fire that has been there without time.
Let the earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitters.
Be respectful of the small insects, birds and animal people who accompany you.
Ask their forgiveness for the harm we humans have brought down upon them.
Don’t worry.
The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises, interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and those who will despise you because they despise themselves.
The journey might take you a few hours, a day, a year, a few years, a hundred, a thousand or even more.
Watch your mind. Without training it might run away and leave your heart for the immense human feast set by the thieves of time.
Do not hold regrets.
When you find your way to the circle, to the fire kept burning by the keepers of your soul, you will be welcomed.
You must clean yourself with cedar, sage, or other healing plant.
Cut the ties you have to failure and shame.
Let go the pain you are holding in your mind, your shoulders, your heart, all the way to your feet. Let go the pain of your ancestors to make way for those who are heading in our direction.
Ask for forgiveness.
Call upon the help of those who love you. These helpers take many forms: animal, element, bird, angel, saint, stone, or ancestor.
Call your spirit back. It may be caught in corners and creases of shame, judgment, and human abuse.
You must call in a way that your spirit will want to return.
Speak to it as you would to a beloved child.
Welcome your spirit back from its wandering. It may return in pieces, in tatters. Gather them together. They will be happy to be found after being lost for so long.
Your spirit will need to sleep awhile after it is bathed and given clean clothes.
Now you can have a party. Invite everyone you know who loves and supports you. Keep room for those who have no place else to go.
Make a giveaway, and remember, keep the speeches short.
Then, you must do this: help the next person find their way through the dark.
Writing Prompts
Some potential jump-off lines to ignite your writing:
The heart knows the way
Speak to it as you would to a beloved child
Grab a pen and paper or your favorite journal. Begin with one or more of the prompts. Use them as a starting point, repeat them throughout your writing.
Set your timer. Write for 15 minutes, pen never leaving the page.
To my paid subscribers, I have paused your subscription until I return and feel inspired to co-create with my creativity and show up here more consistently.
Thank you as always for being here; your support and interest in my work and writing means a lot, and I would not be here without you!
Take good care and stay well.
Oh Dina, I am delighted to see these sweet photos of Sam and read that you two are keeping eachother. Yay. The best! It is great to have you back in my inbox whenever inspiration lands you there, here. And if it’s any consolation, your words offer inspiration even when you aren’t feel inspired yourself, so thanks for sharing. Inspiration and creativity can be sneaky rascals at times, evasive even, but they always return. I hope your trip to Montana is healing, creative, transformative; and I hope that you return feeling connected to your power and full of life. ❤️🐾Sending you love. Erin
thank you for sharing this poem by Joy Harjo, it just brought me to tears, AND for your candor about where you are with your writing ~ it’s not easy to be a creative, the words don’t always flow, and even sometimes when they do, they whisper “not year.” I appreciate you telling us about your life in all
your ts ups and downs. Neither are easy; both can be rich.