Imagine
waves of love
cascading on the shores of your mind
they flow into you from everything
crashing, merging, ebbing, flowing
waves of love radiate from you
and bounce back from all beings
life loves, resounding.
you are loved.
you feel the truth in your bones
you are loved
the birds sing
you are loved
the trees sway
you are loved
says the stranger who smiles first,
and you smile back
love emanates from you
washing the world anew.
āListen, Lean in, & Repeatā
much could be said of this year, but tonight iāll keep it short. I wrote this little missive for my family on Christmas day, and if youāre reading this, then you are a part of us.
the heart of what I learned this year can be summed up as ālisten, lean in, and repeat.ā
listening is essentially receiving that which life has to offer. when done with patience, compassion, and curiosity, listening yields opportunity & integrity. sit long enough with nature, and you begin to hear the harmony the underpins our existence. listen long enough, and you begin to hear your own note in that composition.
leaning in is an act of courage. it is an act of giving. it is recognition, acceptance, embrace, and commitment to a person(s) or place, a deepening of relation. all the most beautiful moments of this past year came from leaning in.
repetition makes small, simple actions stack up and compound. it turns happenstance into grooves carved into the depths of your soul and allows for transformation to occur. the practice of repetition can reconfigure your body and mind, with devotion.
taken together, this little phrase feels to me like a good, concise manual on how to live. wherever you are, listen to whatās around. follow your curiosity, lean into experiences, and listen to how they feel. redistribute your energy. lean in. listen. repeat.
One Kin. Family Grows Forever.
āHere on Christmas day, this celebration of life, love, and family, I wonder what it could look like to live together.
What would it look like for us to dream, build, and co-create life together ā to share our skills, our needs, our connections of friends and families ā like a true village?
When I look around at this family, I see beautiful, passionate, kind people connected to nature and their soul. I see a powerful, positive life force that brings light, love, and strength forward into existence - and we do so through our relationships, a web of respect, reciprocity, and compassion.
Our lives are a process of inquiry that we share together.
We inquire from different angles and different positions. Shaped by all the rest, we remain different, unique, unformed-yet-still-forming, discovering our place in this world. As we do so, we tell stories about ourselves and each other. How might we do a better job telling these stories?
How might we tell a story of kinship & flourishing? A story where love and acceptance are the baseline wavelength between people, the foundation upon which art and play and innovation springs? How can we tell this, cooperatively, together?
It is a question with no static answer - not one to be captured by words. Instead, it lives on in our hearts, in our bodies, through our actions and voices which influence the very shape and texture of the world around us.
We are dancers and builders and teachers and artists and healers; mothers and fathers and siblings and cousins, friends and family alike gathered here on this special occasion to celebrate life - the life of our kin.
Knowing each of you has taught me that kinship is something living, something that grows. While we gather here in our tightest circle, embracing each other with bright and flowing hearts, we know too that our kin extend far beyond this place, far beyond the people gathered here, far beyond the soft swell of human existence and the waves of our time.
We are kin to each other, to the animals and birds and trees, to all people suffering, to all the unborn generations, to all life that ever was, is, and yet to come.
Kin is a process of which we are an integral part, playing our own note in its realization.
(Listening, acceptance, leaning in, compassion, forgiveness, love)
What does kinship mean to you?
How do you treat those that you love, and how do they treat you?
Perhaps, as we live and grow together, we might discover how to further open our hearts, to widen our circles, and invite the rest of the world in.
If we have any charge in this life, I suggest it may be this: to embrace ourselves and all life to the fullest, forever listening and moving towards harmony.
I call us together as a family to give thanks, and to practice telling stories of peace, love, and solidarity. May we do so every day, through our voices and actions. May we give ourselves to the making of a more beautiful world, one filled with laugher, joy, wonder, meaning, and interconnection.
Through loss and shared pain, may we cry together and remember that we are never alone, that we are held in the loving spirit of an inexhaustible and ever-growing family.
You are the greatest gift in my life, and I am so grateful.ā
All my love,
Sam (12/25/23)
Thanks, Sam, for sharing your gift.