Simply, a poem for you this week, from Native American novelist and poet, Louise Erdrich from the poem “Advice to Myself #2: Resistance.” (I recommend reading the whole thing in its entirety).
A reminder:
”Resist loss of the miraculous by lowering your standards for what constitutes a miracle. It’s all a fucking miracle.”
Really glad to be here with you. Week 40! What a miracle!
This week’s OOH LA LA! list includes: communal coffee grinder, public radio show, crunching leaves.
My coffee grinder broke so I’ve been using the communal coffee grinder at Trader Joes. This week while grounding the 28 oz container I got from the shelf, an older man stopped to watch in amazement and we shared a moment of appreciation for the wonder of instant coarse ground coffee. When I turned toward him, his face looked genuinely surprised and before he walked away, he told me he does the grinding at home with his Vitamix. I never heard of anyone doing that before.
I was in a rental car for work, driving on 1-95 through Baltimore in the late afternoon on Tuesday when I decided to browse the FM stations. To my delight, I found a public radio show with a segment about a local D.C. mural artist and his vision to bring peace and love to the world. I loved the conversation, but most especially, I loved the live call-in segment wherein listeners got to be on the air asking questions directly to the host and the artist! In a world of fast-paced, curated content on all my internet feeds, I was grateful for the exhale of live, vulnerable radio. What a dream!
Finally, the sidewalks in my neighborhood are filled with leaves. I get so giddy when I walk through a freshly fallen pile, the scent of sun-soaked sweetness unleashed as I crunch the leaves with my feet. The sound of each step reverberates in my bones, like the boom-ting-tang of jazz drums, and I stomp to the beat of each crinkle and crunch.
Thanks for reading and for being here! It really means so much!
Reply to this email with a few sentences about your OOH LA LA! moments or experiences and I’ll share in the next email! Or write to say hi! I love to hear from you!
XOXO,
LJ
“But mostly I just stand in the dark field, in the middle of the world, breathing.”
-Mary Oliver