newsletter #3
Good morning, loves. Happy new astrological year / Aries season ☼ birth/death/rebirth happening under our feet as we speak.
& welcome to your Newsletter #3! epa!
I am sitting this morning on occupied Massachusett Ponkapoag territory with my springtime tea of calendula, red clover and cleavers (thank you bbs). I’m imagining / asking these kind lymphatic healers to clear out my waterways the way defrosting rivers clear what the winter froze. This is how I write you. In some form of emerging from slumber. My morning alarms have switched to the sounds of chickadees and crow calls, dog barking conversations and other sounds of an awakening city. I’ve been spending some days sitting in the sun and feeling the body memory of spring - thawing - while grieving winter (space for grief as honor). I’ve grown to really love winter - the stillness, quiet, slowing down, focus on warmth and coziness, y más. What is something you are grateful to winter for?
With Spring comes all the blooming, all the buzzing, all the fire. A sense of hope is felt at the end of a long pandemic winter - sunshine seeping through cracks. Many of us made it to the emergence of a new cycle. Many of us did not. All of us held still by the Earth and Sky - day in, day out, day in. I have some deeper reflections.
Before that though, I want to dedicate a moment of silence for ♥ Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant (maiden name Kim), Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Paul Andre Michels, Delaina Ashley Yaun ♥ - the people (mostly working class Chinese and Korean women, massage workers, maybe sex workers) killed by man / white supremacy in so-called Atlanta last week. I admit I feel deep rage, exhaustion and a numbness I am shaking off. As mass shootings/wars continue to spread largely at the hands of men around the world, I continue to ask the men around me to dig deeper and deeper into the causes of this epidemic that has been seeded in all men. Yes, every man.
Inviting us all to take this moment to light a candle and/or touch your heart in their honor and in the honor of all lost to racialized, gendered, economic violence.
¿en que piensas?
Let’s get into it. As spring excitement frenzy begins to fill the air and vaccine rollouts begin to happen (albeit, with horrrrrible priorities), I have to admit that I feel some nervousness in what people have called this “post-pandemic” life. I see so clearly many of the truths revealed to us in the past year, including the fact that disability justice organizers have always known/spoken about what the path is for us all to live more fully, with more care, with more pleasure (spoiler alert: there are many paths, what do we need to be okay with this?; the path is with creativity towards our varied goals; the path is intention for connection, accessibility, thriving conditions for every-body-; the path is every person determining for themself what is best for their body). For the first time in so-called US history since I’ve been alive, we collectively allowed ourselves to slow down (some more than others, depending on closeness to privilege), got creative with how to cultivate connection, and found a refocus on the foundations of our lives that keep us going and grounded.
As pandemic conditions shift, I am reflecting on these two quotes from two disability justice organizers I admire:
“Will we go back to the ableist normal?” - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
“We don’t have to behave as if we’re devoid of our bodies.” - Patricia Berne, Sins Invalid
As a neurodivergent survivor without physical disabilities, I fear a return to the pace and conditions of the “before”. And I know that my thin and (mostly) physically able body protects me from a deeper fear of what might happen to some of us if we return to the “ableist normal”. I feel called on by more disabled people to get really clear on how I want to continue showing up and cultivating spaces so we don’t have to continue behaving “as if we’re devoid of our bodies”. Can we allow a continued evolution forward, not “back”? Integration and growth and healing? What did we learn and how are we allowing that to teach us? Inviting you into this reflection and integration practice too…
Some books on disability justice:
Care Work - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Kindling - Aurora Levins Morales
Disability Visibility - Alice Wong
Seguimos…. I wish us healing.
some of where I’ve been ~
In the winter slowness, I’ve been building… much of it is still under snow but beginning to peak its head, feeling more ready to be seen.
I’ve been offering astrology birth chart readings for people who are seeking that sort of intuitive vision, guidance, self-learning. For me, astrological birth charts are a tool, a map, a practice of storytelling through which to understand the journey we are each on. I bring my 5+ years of rigorous study and I aim to be strengths-based in my approach. My goal is to hold you with compassion and intention as we thread together different parts of your journey as outlined by the stars as I see them. Below are buttons that link you to a few testimonials and a sign up form if you would like to schedule a reading with me (30 mins/60 mins).
I’ve been co-facilitating Holistic Vision with Danielle Coates-Connor for an HV cohort and for EDGE Leadership as part of their Space to Replenish series. It’s been amazing to be holding space for/with people as they bring their awareness and energy to the places in their lives they want to bring more sovereignty into as they ground more deeply in their values and authentic desires.
I am slowly beginning my liberatory coaching practice and learning how it mixes with my astrology, somatics and other spirituality practices. For now, I am practicing my coaching with close ones as I refine my practice, flow, skills and intentions. Soon I will be opening up to offering Life Coaching services that’ll be a spice blend of my own :) I’m excited! Stay tuned!
Lastly, I have a certain level of comfort caring for plantitas but have less familiarity helping them grow from seed. Growing them from seed shows me my impatience, anxiety and internalized perfectionism. I see this mirrored in other parts of my life where I am birthing something from seed, including my practitioner/coaching practice. I am hoping to learn with the plantitas how to hold more compassionate space for this slow germination process.
❀ y ahora el amor ❀
offered by me:
Playlist: Newsletter #3 (spotify, lmk if you need another platform!)
Writing: Newsletter #1
Writing: Newsletter #2
offered by loved ones:
Poem: My Pronouns are Black by Zenaida Peterson
Class: Post-Patriarchy Futures by Lawrence Barriner II - “Post-Patriarchy Futures is an 8-week workshop for men that will take you back in time to the earliest roots of your patriarchal conditioning and catapult you forward in time to meet and shape your beautiful and whole post-patriarchal self.” (first call is March 28th)
Queer Black business: Savory Bitch Sauces - vegetarian/vegan savory edibles (cannabis infused), all ingredients locally grown and organic - website password = 1992; @savory.bitch on IG
offered by the greater ‘We’:
Queer Indian business: Diaspora Co. - “we source India and Sri Lanka's freshest, heirloom, and single-origin spices, directly from our partner farms”, preorder opens 3/31!
Album: Las Karamba: Camino Así - “Las Karamba is the voice of all those women who, throughout the history of music, remained silent, lingered in the shadows, had to fight on their own, and have so much to tell us nowadays.”
Statement: Red Canary Song’s statement on the white/man supremacist shootings in Atlanta, GA last week. (English, Chinese and Korean version available in link.)
Article: 'Model Minority' Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Black [People] - Kat Chow
you can offer (verified sources):
A Home for BIPOC femmes: Intention — To facilitate an environment where four BIPOC femmes are able to accumulate and generate health & wealth. ($$ & share)
Verified GoFundMes for Atlanta-area spa shooting fundraisers ($$ & share)
Red Canary Song: “a grassroots collective of asian and migrant sex workers, organizing transnationally” ($$ & share)
Thank you all for reading until now ♥ as always, welcoming any thoughts, reflections (including to any questions I offered), feedback, points of resonance you want to share, etc. I love when this becomes interactive.
Also, I’m so excited to be on newsletter 3!! Thank you to my dear friend/co-conspirator Lawrence for the support in getting this newsletter from dream into reality. Subscribe to his newsletter here.
Mucho amor!
✣Sol writes from occupied Massachusett Ponkapoag territory and Black liberator land.
✣For tips: venmo @sol-stice