Ode to a Newsletter

February 1, 2020

Every month I sit down to write this newsletter. Sometimes again and again with no success. Sometimes with a joyous lust for language. Sometimes it doesn’t get done at all.

And you read it, if you read it, or skim or toss it, with some degree of relationship to me the writer. Maybe it’s annoying to find one more bit of marketing in the box. Maybe you took a class once and it wasn’t your thing but you like to check in every once in a while (hey there hope life is grand!). Maybe you’re my mum (hi mum).

No matter what we are to one another, there remains the unchanging nature of our common makeup. You’re a person I’m a person so even if we’re coming from total opposite ends of the socioeconomic andor geographic spectrum we can still ultimately have a conversation about what’s it like to be a person. Which, pro tip, turns out is not a great dinner topic.

But it still gives us a baseline!
Well in order to have effective communication in this world, especially over platforms such as we construct online, it’s pretty important to have awareness of and some degree of ability with one’s own voice. Physically, emotionally, artistically. How, in any language, can we express ourselves with conviction and certainty?

I believe, like any old timey New Yorker will tell you, the answer to that is; practice practice practice!

I found a deep and nourishing voice of my own in writing. It’s always been there (I’ve been writing since before I could read-true story), but really came into focus during a period of time when I was sending out the newsletters for my father’s business (martial arts, energy healing, consciousness studies). News about events and blog posts. Thoughts on the nature of reality. Heady stuff with not a lot to grab onto for casual summarization.

So, I could either present the facts, what’s happening when and where, and keep it lean or I could use the medium to write a little bit about what the world looks like when you’re thinking about all that stuff. Something a bit from my own perspective on my own path.

I took the project to heart, and struggled just the same to get out those monthly emails. Why such a struggle? Then because I wanted it to be a piece of writing that had impact while being compact. Cut out all the unnecessary words and overly florid language. Keep only what serves the idea and keep that simple too. (You can see I’ve mended my ways.) Now my struggle feels more like tying together the seemingly endless loose threads of one big sweater.

But that process of creation and critique, the journey of setting out to write something for the eyes of others, helped me to clarify not only the way I wanted to speak but also maybe what I wanted to say. And the ability to recognize that clarity (in its many forms) has turned out to be one of the pillars of my life’s happiness.

So I sit down tonight to write. to you. to use words to try to express some unnameable thing that connects the two of us, that I know we’ve both experienced not only through our humanity but also (for most of you) through our shared love of a practice.

That leaves me just one thing to say: Thank you sincerely for your help in creating a space where I can commit myself to vulnerability and growth. I only hope for you the same experience, and I can’t wait to meet you there.

This was my mushy valentine to you dear people.
Thanks for being in the world.
Cheers,
m