Hello
Last summer I was napping while listening over the course of weeks to an audio conversation with Tricia Hersey (a podcast shining light on the Nap Ministry).
This summer I find myself napping for other reasons -- a newborn -- & it feels good to come full circle.
Something Fun
"It Runs Through Me" by Tom Misch
Been waiting to share this song for a while.
Tom Misch and company are vibing and a-grooving, feeling something, making a tune that logically ordered words fit tight together can hardly contain.
The joy runs through me, so I spin it once again...
Interesting
It's Time for a Summer Slowdown (Charlie Warzel)
Though written in May 2021, the piece holds resonance even now, three months later.
Brief aside:
Some things that Americans dream of have already been realized in other places.
Like, Americans who dream of having permission to slow down in summer (for real!), to not be pressured implicitly and explicitly to 'be productive', to be able to totally relax ... that American dream is lived every August in France. The nation shuts down for vacation, and this is widely accepted.
The French do not have 5 weeks of annual paid vacation by accident. The labor laws in France took political organizing over decades, and the cultural shift that has remained firmly in place ever since ensures the laws are not politically retractable. The French know how to take real vacation.
Anyways,
Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen are Americans. Both left jobs at mainstream media companies in 2020. They moved together from NYC to Montana, and they are now writing newsletters supported in part by paid subscribers. They are publishing a book (of which this is an early taste), so the article really is something with a long-term relevance. They're working it into a book!
If you've struggled fighting the inner demons or the external pressures keeping you from slowing down this summer (because you know you need it), then let this article be of additional encouragement. (It has been for me.)
Also I'm going to take a break from The Bridge until September 1st, so you have time to think about it.
Seriously
Rest is rarely so easy to come by.
It needs peace o' mind and a confidence.
It isn't only sleep.
On the surface it means not moving, though things could move internally while resting.
Rest is rarely so easy to come by.
It sometimes has to be stolen in fits and bits.
It has to be chosen.
Doing nothing -- being bored -- isn't rest, yet it will find you if you stop to rest.
Rest isn't something so easy to come by.
That said, it doesn't need to be over-complicated.
It takes a surrendering and an un-raveling, a laying down, a giving up.
The rest is easy.
Yes?
The Friendly Thing
Thanks to my daughters who remind me how to receive, how to lose gracefully, how to be ourselves, how to be heard even when it'd seem we lack the power. We have the power.
Thank you, daughters.
One, two, three, four /
I love the way it flows /
I love the way it grows /
There's something in this sound that takes me far /
It's like a special song /
Can move my mood along /
But I cannot say you'll hear through my guitar /
She told me add a baseline /
And everything will be alright /
She told me that the groove is mine /
It will take us through the night /
(see you in September)
JPC