No bonfire tonight! A rainy day writing project instead.
Rain drops gathered on a window pane. In the blurry background are warm colours and lights. This is a crop of a photo by Max Bender, offered on Unsplash.
Hello Beautiful.
We were so excited for our Community Bonfire tonight. We’ve been watching the weather like a bunch of bandits since Kim first noticed yesterday that it wasn’t looking good. Now here we are, turning this train around.
The most reliable predictions are calling for 100% chance of rain this evening, so at least it’s clear.
There will be no bonfire tonight.
We didn’t get a backup park permit, so we need to go back to the drawing board on Monday and see what we can book, we’ll fill you in when we know.
All this makes me think about the quality of disappointment, the space it opens up. I looked up Tony Hoagland’s poem Disappointment, last night and fell back in love with these lineshe says:
That's what I like about disappointment:
the way it slows you down,
when the querulous insistent chatter of desire
goes dead calm
and the minor roadside flowers
pronounce their quiet colors,
and the red dirt of the hillside glows.
Can you feel that? “The way it slows you down.” Yes.
So, let’s be in this, and let’s do some writing.
Whether you were planning to come and now can’t, or you have other plans that are cancelled by rain, or if you could just use a little structure to get something creative happening today.
I got up early and made a this video writing prompt to get us moving.
Of course, I can’t miss a chance to tell you what we’ve got cooking!
Insider tip: The online workshops are filling fast this summer. The in-person ones are slower. And the retreat has one bed left.
And, there’s a poem below. Chosen just for today.
We have the sweetest line-up of online summer workshops.
This summer we’re trying something new: Short 4-week versions of our classic workshops.
We’re all busy and broke! We want to meet you where you’re at, and find new ways to gather.
We have in-person workshops too!
Asifa and I are spearheading three in-person workshops at St. Matthew’s Clubhouse this summer — a beautiful, barrier-free space in Toronto’s Riverdale Park. Can’t wait! They are:
BIPOC City Sanctuary. (This one is for people of colour)
We have one spot left in our June retreat.
Spring Thaw is a weekend retreat with Mari and I in a fantastic barrier-free retreat center on 600 acres of wilderness.
We have a wonderful group signed up and we’re looking for one more person to complete it.
A poem about the rain
When I thought I might have to write this email, I emailed Maya Stein to see if we could share this poem. She said yes. I was thrilled.
Here’s to disappointment, and the soft space it makes in us.
Here’s to all the little openings in our day for community, for connection, for art and voice. May we see them, and use them, and keep coming together in the ways that feed us.
In it with you,
P.S. Apologies for the inevitable typos! Normally Lesley would go over all this for me, but I don’t want to ask her to work first thing on a Saturday. It’s just you and me in here today. :)