Introducing: Words of Wonder

Dear friends & readers,

I’m excited to offer something new as part of this emergent space of words and wondering.

I’ve always been a voracious reader, an avid consumer of words, a collector of awe-inspiring musings, and a devotee of expression. I’m thinking, because you’re here, that you might be the same.  In the spirit of sharing and caring, I’ve decided - why hoard all this goodness for myself when it has the potential to be of marvel and benefit to others.

So, here we are. At the start of a new venture. With Autumn being the season of abundance and harvesting, it seems a fitting time to give what I’ve gladly received by way of the gifts of other writers and thinkers.

At the start of each new month, starting now, I’ll be sending out a round-up that is a selection of my favourite “discoveries”, things I’ve happened upon in my own wanderings and wonderings, and which I hope might be of service to your own.

This selection will consist of extracts and insights from books, articles, poetry, podcasts and other forms of gathering that have given me cause to pause and wonder - something I feel we can all do with more of in our lives.

For the next few months, to give you a taste of what you can expect to receive, I’ll be sending this newsletter out for free. Come 2024, in the spirit of sustainability and reciprocity, I’ll be switching on the subscription route for this particular aspect of my newsletter, for which I also have a few other offerings in development. More on that in due course, so stay tuned. For now, please enjoy!

A note on the pleasure of reading

If you can, I invite you to take a concerted, mindful and dedicated moment or two, to sit with what you find and really allow this nourishment to drip its way through into your mindspace.

Now I sure know, it can be so easy and feel so necessary to do multiple things at once, and yet in doing so, feel a little cheated for not giving ourselves the chance to really feel and be touched by what we consume. Rebel against the call to do, to be distracted and pulled in multiple directions all at once (Joy Harjo says this even better, see below), and gift yourself a moment of just one thing, just for you, just this time…

Final thoughts

For those of you who are part of the weekly Reflective Writing & Sharing Circle (firstly, thank you for your presence!), you’ll find here some additional readings from the ones we will have considered in class, which might serve as a reminder or an additional prompt to take you deeper into your own insights.

1. On the necessity of pleasure:

“Pleasure is the point. Feeling good is not frivolous, it is freedom. Find the pleasure path of your life amd follow it. Let it reverberate healing back into your ancestors' wounds.” adrienne maree brown, Pleasure Activism

1. On changing our ways:

"Every courageous gesture we make, whether or not we think it's successful, definitely imprints our mind in a positive way. The slightest willingness to interrupt our old habits predisposes us to greater bravery, greater strength, and greater empathy for others. No matter how trapped we feel, we can always be of benefit. How? By interrupting our defeatist story lines and working intelligently and wisely with our kleshas." Pema Chodron, Bodhicharyavata, The Way of the Bodhisattva

1. On the creative process:

"It seems to be, life is mostly spent putting ourselves back together. But hopefully in new and interesting ways. For me that is what the creative process is, for sure - it is the act of retelling the story of our lives so that it makes sense." Nick Cave, Faith Hope and Carnage

1. On love:

“Do not expect to receive the love from someone else you do not give to yourself…The light of love is always in us, no matter how cold the flame. It is always present, waiting for the spark to ignite, waiting for the heart to awaken.” bell hooks, All About Love

1. On owning our stories in all their messy fullness:

"We all seem to blow it one way or another, but how important it is to admit our mistakes, not turn our back on anything. It's in the details of what we have done that we can find our liberation....It's so easy to forget, move away from the heat and honesty of our moments. We need stories to remind us and to mirror our reality. And we need writers to record them." Natalie Goldberg, The Great Spring

1. On healing our ancestral wounds:

“We have inherited a lot. With mindfulness, we can become aware of the habit energy that has been passed down to us. We might see that our parents or grandparents were also very weak in ways similar to us. We can be aware without judgement that our negative habits come from these ancestral roots. We can smile at our shortcomings, at our habit energy. With awareness, we have a choice; we can act another way. We can end the cycle of suffering right now.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Reconciliation

1. On effortless effort:

“Strictly speaking, any effort we make is not good for our practice because it creates waves in our mind. It is impossible, however, to attain absolute calmness of our mind without any effort. We must make some effort, but we must forget ourselves in the effort we make.” Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

1. On reclaiming our place on the Earth:

“Let the Earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitters. Watch your mind. Without training it might run away and leave your heart for the immense human feast set by the thieves of time.” Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

1. On art as a gift:

"Expressing ourselves artistically supports us in realising freedom and generosity...Consider art medicine for the heart...a gift of presence, genuine expression, exchange and care...Art speaks to a truth larger than our suffering and our job is to make a genuine offer...your offering is sure to be medicine for collective wellbeing." Ruth King, Mindful of Race

1. On freedom:

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” Albert Camus

And on that note - go forth, be well, be inspired, be free!

‘Til next time, Aliya x