Simply Sundays

Winter announces itself around here in the form of giant fallen oak leaves, broken pecan shells, bright red holly berries, and the winged seeds of loblolly pines. These treasures collect in yards and parks, each one a symbol of nature’s brilliant scheme. In winter the world sheds, stores, conserves, and casts off what it doesn’t need for survival. It sleeps and recharges knowing that rest is the powerful engine of growth.

As climate change takes an ever greater toll on our planet and all of the life it sustains, now is the exact right time to rediscover reciprocity with the Earth. And an excellent place to start is to rediscover the natural abundance of the place where you live. Whether you are indigenous to the place or not, you can see your area through indigenous eyes.

Do you believe in magic? How about spells? A little alchemy maybe? Some enchantment, surely. Or, may we suggest some hocus pocus? Yes, it’s a sleight of hand. A diversion. Some words spoken to redirect the listener’s attention. And yes, we think there’s no better time than now to try it out.

That which we tend—wherever we shine our attention, it tends to grow. Whether we shine our attention on the people, places, and dreams that mean the most to us or on our worries and fears. They grow. What are you growing in your life?

It’s that time of year when all the signs announce that we should be shopping. It’s back-to-school sales, Labor Day sales, fall wardrobe restocks, and on into the fall and winter buying seasons. Now might be the right time to remind ourselves that what we need and even what we want may already be in our houses.

This is the time of year when the Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak and, in a dark sky, you can watch starstuff streak across space one after another like little miracles. There’s nothing quite like it for reorienting yourself in a universe that is wild, massive, mysterious, and really freaking beautiful.

A question for you: what did you feed yourself in the last 24 hours? And we’re not just asking about food.

Trees in ball gowns, winged musicians flying about, and oh the decorations everywhere. There’s a party on your block. We invite you to attend .

Usually, we want you to know—to deeply feel—your interdependence. Independence does have its place though. And as we enter the July 4th holiday in the U.S., it’s as good a time as any to think about the ways in which we want to grow our independence.

It’s Simply Sundays—Father’s Day edition! Collectively, our fathers and grandfathers are knowledge keepers. Through their memories, their stories, their hobbies, and their skills—they hold great wealth and deep knowing.

It’s free, it’s dreamy, it’s what summer wants from you. May you enjoy a good bask today!

Does it feel like the direction of life is always forward? Like the world insists on progress, growth, and endless betterment? Does it feel like, if you’re not setting and achieving bigger and better goals, you’re not adulting right? If you took two steps back, what would you notice about the path that you’re on?

When we speculate, when we imagine, when we make our best guesses, we’re telling ourselves what we expect the future to hold. Let’s tell a better story.

In her new book, Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock, Jenny Odell guides us to understand time as told by the natural world through a practice she calls “unfreezing in time.” What spaces around you live by a different sense of time than clock time?

Thank you to the friend who told us she had “fed two birds with one seed.”  What a glorious reframing of the old, worn-out language. Because so many of the actions we take hour-by-hour ripple out into the environment, and either diminish it or feed it. 

Changes are an inevitable part of nature’s cycle. When you notice them, you can follow the leads to make discoveries about the way the local flora and fauna—both human and not— interact to maintain earth into the future. So, break out your observational skills. Because the clues are right in your own neighborhood.

If you know a teen, maybe you’ve heard them say it: “Go touch grass.” This may be some of the best advice the internet currently has to offer. Here’s why we should all go touch some grass.

We pay such detailed attention to the weather because the calms and storms change the texture of our days. Our own lives have weather systems, too. Some days storming and others all rainbow. Author, teacher, and Buddhist nun, Pema Chödrön, reminds us that our mental states are important and also temporary. When we get to know them and watch them pass in and out, we can become more finely tuned to how they change the way we see and act.

How this charming interview between Robin Wall Kimmerer and the Icelandic musician Björk got us looking for all that’s hidden in our neighborhoods. Ready for a walkabout?