This is the seasonfor disappearing. Slip away to where no one knows to find you. Meet yourself right where you’ve always hungered to be met. Now’s the time to cheaton all the names you’ve taught the world to call you, to be unfaithful to who you thought you wantedto become. Plan a hundred secret rendezvouswith the delicious stranger you’re discovering yourself to be. Don’t tell a… Continue reading Tradecraft
Author: James A. Pearson
How to Listen
I’m not asking youto come down hereand clean out the muddy corners of my life. I’m asking you to be a forestwhere mud and leaves,shadows and light,growth and decayall have their unquestioned belonging. I’m asking you to be an ocean,where even great stormsdon’t trouble the depthsand each tear is welcomedas a homecoming. I’m asking youto be as… Continue reading How to Listen
42 Little Things That Make My Life Better
This year I’ll turn 42. One thing I enjoy about getting older is how much better I know myself. I know what works for my body. My nervous system. My heart. So here are 42 little things that work for me. They might or might not work for you. But I’m trying to highlight things… Continue reading 42 Little Things That Make My Life Better
After Samhain
Now, for a while, the darkstays dark. The long nightswill be long no matter how you pray for light. This god will not be rushed. But she will offer you the thick black folds of her cloak,where you’re finally freeto lose everythingthat can’t be kept.
November Evening
And then there’sthe yellow trees dripping with after-storm light. And then the busy people’s faces, each with its effortless beauty. And then the steely, spacious twilight glow in the west, and to the east the tall poplar shining dimly against dark gray distant clouds. And then I’m walking in a world once again enchanted, once… Continue reading November Evening
The Simplest of All Regrets
I’m in one right now—one of those days that will nevercome again. The brown puzzle piecesof oak leaves scatteredover the sidewalk, and the sunrisestretching itself into a long,luxurious thing. And yousitting across from me laughingto yourself about somethingon your phone, totally unawareof the alchemical morning lightagainst your cheek. Please body! Please mind! Wake fully into this moment. How… Continue reading The Simplest of All Regrets
October Poem
One Good Wind It’s October so, yes, the worldis dying but I always thinkI have another monthat least, maybe two,to marvel in the middleof fall’s kaleidoscope,walking this fractal tranceof kindergarten yellows and(somehow!) iridescent pinks.But then one good windcomes in off the distant Pacific and trees that just yesterday dripped with dazzlestand skeletized, strippedof their abundance for the… Continue reading October Poem
A Door in the Dead End
How loss, heartbreak, and failure open your way to the second half of life In late September of 2013, an old friend forwarded me a mass email. That’s not something I’d usually remember more than a decade later. But it came during a month when my life was going into full collapse. And it had… Continue reading A Door in the Dead End
This Is Not the End
This is notthe end.News that may comeas a salvein the dry cold of winter,or like an unwelcome tugon the hammockof August.However finishedyou’re afraid you areor wishyou could be,remember:this earth that restsso still beneath youis racing around the sun,teaching your bodyto dance the seasons.You are carried with a million years of faith:that there is more in… Continue reading This Is Not the End
All I Mean
There are a thousand wounds but all I mean by healing is this: that you learn to hold yourselfin exactly the wayyou were never held.