new month, new habits.
celebration/devotion in June + last day to register for SUMMER CIRCLE
Happy Monday and happy June! I love when months start on Mondays, what a crisp invitation it is. June is the kind of month that asks us to show up, too. The weather warms (in our part of the hemisphere), street fest season kicks off, there are Juneteenth celebrations, and solstice events at your favorite witchy herb shop, and of course us queers get a little bit extra for Pride festivities, and for our history. It’s a particularly alive month, I think.
Admittedly, as romantic as ‘an alive month’ sounds, thinking about it also makes me feel exhausted. Sometimes, in my body, June feels more like a threatening challenge, and I start looking for outs. An introvert loves a radical political analysis that lets them skip events—me not going to Pride? Oh, only because it’s so corporate.
But I’m trying to show up a little differently this year. I’ll be at Pride with Cleveland Sex Workers Alliance, but at a table in the shade. And I’m finding myself noticing the increasing social media posts about upcoming happenings with less dread and more curiosity: ‘how can I show up for my friends/communities and still feel like I have time for my work and my well-being?’
One reason I feel more capable of this is because I know that facilitating SUMMER CIRCLE is going to be a beautifully grounding experience. This eight week program starts tomorrow and I hope you’ll consider joining us for structured creating. As a reminder, this is a small group creative container where you will enjoy a nourishing space to accomplish a creative goal (broadly defined). You’ll receive all the same things my writing clients get—individual attention to your projects including substantive feedback, accountability, craft and publishing advice, and more. It also includes guest teachers who will bring tools of tarot, somatics, and other spiritually supportive practices. There are worksheets (cute worksheets!) and calendars and you’ll get to hang out with rad people. And every Thursday is time for co-working, which is always soooo helpful for actually getting shit done. Signing up is a way to tell the universe you are serious about devoting attention to your creative practice, which I believe in my heart of hearts, is always an act of service to the world.
For June, I’ll leave you with this, a quote about art and love and devotion, from one of my favorite gays. Eileen Myles names ‘poetry and novels’ specifically, but I think this is true about all creative work. And I think SUMMER CIRCLE could feel like a sturdy home for devotion amidst an otherwise frenetic summer.
“Literature is love. I think it went like this: drawings in the cave, sounds in the cave, songs in the cave, songs about us. Later, stories about us. Part of what we always did was have sex and fight about it and break each other’s hearts. I guess there’s other kinds of love too. Great friendships. Working together. But poetry and novels are lists of our devotions. We love the feel of making the marks as the feelings are rising and falling. Living in literature and love is the best thing there is. You’re always home.”
Payment plans are available and paid subs of the newsletter get $100 off. (And if you’ve taken a class with me before, you get $150 off!). Email me if you need a discount code or to talk payment plans. Sign up today and I’ll see you tomorrow!
