LOVE LETTER #1: Making a Joyful Effort
on longing lovers, paying attention & cultivating a foolish appetite for life
What’s up, swimmers?! Happy New Moon in Capricorn, which some say is the official start of the year. If—and truly it is if—you choose to observe the passing of time in this way, I’m hoping that the next few days are rest-full, grounding and illuminating for you!
Below is the first of many Love Letters that I will write to you this year.
If you haven’t yet read the first installment of The Year of Yearning, titled What can the Fool and the Nine of Wands teach us about burn-out?, please do take a peek, and then perhaps even share it with a friend or five?
Then, please consider becoming a paid pal—you’ll be a) supporting the work I’m doing this year, b) receiving my love (letter) in full now and moving forward, and c) you’ll guarantee yourself access to the rest of the Year of Yearning musings.
Longing Lovers,
How is your heart today?
Mine is mostly besotted with fictional gays who’ve rewired my brain and stirred up my blood. But it is also broken over continued violence, beating in a measured, consistent refrain for personal and collective healing, and bursting for my beautiful beloveds, plant, animal and human, alike.
Speaking of—My dear, dear friend Maria Minnis, who was gracious enough to speak with me last year about near-death experiences, new religious commitments, and the Naked Tarot Newsletter, released a book this past week! And it’s a gorgeous and important addition to any witch’s bookshelf.
To reiterate my glowing endorsement: “Tarot for the Hard Work is not only a resource itself, but a collection of resources, offering additional reading materials, voices to listen to, ideas to germinate on, historical and present-day information to research and learn, and tangible ways to put this work into action in your community. With this incredible book in your hands, there are no excuses as to why you cannot engage with antiracism in every aspect of your life. These pages will change you if you let them.”
I am so flipping proud of Maria and I cannot wait to watch the ripples grow as this incredibly potent spell weaves its way through the world. Plus, her Naked Tarot Newsletter, which you can sign up for on her website, is the perfect portal into 2024’s eight year. It’s vulnerable, it’s kinky, and it always comes with a recommended Dildo of the Month. What’s not to love?!
When my copy of Tarot for the Hard Work finally arrived—on its pub date, of course!—I sat down with the chapter on the Fool to see what insights I could glean for us this month as we reset in the void. Of course, there was so much to chew on, but one thing that stuck out to me was Maria’s observation that the Fool can “have a strong appetite for life.”
Burn-out seems to be on the brain for a lot of us these days. I’ve seen discussions about it in group chats, multiple burn-out based workshops advertised in my digital sphere, and “Stress leads to burnout” was even a line of dialogue in a terrible, Christmas movie I watched, guest-starring celebrity chef Bobby Flay.
In the pit of despair, amongst the ashes of burn-out, we might not feel too hungry for much of anything. How could anyone eat at a time like this? However, none of us deserve to stay in this place of exhausted ennui. We deserve to be foolishly full.
In order to revive ourselves—more strategies comin’ atcha next week!—it is imperative that we reconnect to our joy, our thirst, and that which we love. No matter how buried or busheled they may be. No matter how shriveled our hearts may feel.
You’re in there still. I promise you are.
Mary Oliver, our Patron Saint of Paying Attention, teaches us that “attention is the beginning of devotion.” The Fool is apt to agree, reminding us that in order to move forward from a place of reckless hope, we must take the small steps that will eventually add up to the whole damn road. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being where you are, and as we’re reminded by our January oracle cards, Don’t worry, you can do no wrong. All actions are “good” actions.
Case in point: A few years ago, my pals started the practice of making Joy Lists.
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