Q1, the 4th Quarter, and a poem

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I was raised in a family and community which compelled me to rabidly practice competitive sports. In the world of Mesa, Arizona, men and boys played American football. Sports for anyone with an able body seemed normal and practicing to get stronger was like breathing; a daily activity. In fact, if you were on a sports team or in competitions, and if you are not practicing sports like everyday, then it would be your own fault if you cannot win. Life seemed so simple in this way: win or lose - it is mostly up to "you".

It is true that I am female, but had all male neighbors and male cousins for the first 8 years of my life. I saw and did many of the boy things with the boys that I was around. Although I abandoned my love for American Football in my 20's (goodbye forever, Phoenix Cardinals!), I think that this "first quarter" of 2022 feels ripe and raw with the pressures of an American football game in its fourth and final quarter. How about your daily life and things to do list? Is it full?

I often find myself ruminating that, these moments spent as a consumer of time and space, while existing here in very physical ways on a suffering Mother Earth, seem both extremely scary and extremely cool. How bittersweet that there is beauty found in the chaos of shift and improvements, as there is awesomeness and beauty in the godlike natural forces that destroy our towns and homes.

"What are you doing with your time left on Mother Earth?" I have asked myself this question ad nauseum. This perfectly nagging question - of what do I want for my times of aliveness to really, actually, be like - is one that I have obsessed about. In the last year, I have managed to answer it for myself as we are somehow being pulled through a great reset (as the clever dark marketing lords have named it).

What does any of this have to do with American Football? Nothing except, I see more with my own eyes that there is a strategy for staying alive and being happy at the same time. It is not about playing games that only benefit a small percentage of people. It is instead, a better game to balance between happiness and staying alive. There is no alternative route to reaching and maintaining any goal that I have ever written down, but to find that balance.

This year and beyond, I will work to share the projects that fruited over 2020 and 2021. To those that have helped sustain me through the scary moments where I needed your compassion and sharing, THANK YOU. It is my pleasure to contribute back to building a world that is more fun and free than ever before.

Considering the Realities of Life

Contemplating what it will take for me to focus my Q1 project energy - and bear down on the tasks at-hand - is both exhilarating and deeply affecting in personal and professional life. "What are you doing with your time left on Mother Earth?" I ask myself, again.

Recently, I was inspired by the ideas and realities of birth, rebirth, and multiple births. There are both physical and spiritual births. However, the more common births are very outward, and messy, otherworldly and miraculous. If you wish to read it, below I want to share with you a poem which projects these ideas in brief.

To close, may we all be reborne onto the sailing ships of our collective dreams. Thank you for reading, and I wish us all the best at this time of changes.

"Borne!"

[Poem en dectet] 13 January 2022

Closer

Tunnel

Tighter

Squeeze

Release

Emerge

Adjust

Revive

Breathe

Cry