Almost every morning, I have two cups of tea before I do anything even remotely notable. I figure I have a lot of minutes to do notable things, but only the first handful to enjoy a cup (or two) of tea.
I take my tea back to bed, one small puppy snoozing at the foot of the bed, one large one sprawled on the floor, and I just look out the window.
The view from the bedroom window is across the fields next to my rural East Tennessee house, tucked up against the Smoky Mountain foothills, and I just watch the birds for a bit. Now, granted there are occasional moments of excitement during this cup of tea. An escaped cow wandered casually through the yard one morning. Once, a lost semi truck came down our rural road and had to back all the way out again (true excitement for our sleepy neighborhood). And I keep my binoculars nearby in case there is a new bird I haven’t seen in the yard before (a yellow-rumped warbler this week. I know you want to know that.)
This is a special, even sacred time for me. I can note the moment the very first new leaves emerge in the spring (so early this year), the furtive late commute of a pair of red foxes back to behind the neighbor’s barn, the clouds and the changing light as the sun rises over the ridge. It’s all a little bit of morning magic. Every single day.
Lovely.
There is also no other time of the day when my brain is awake enough to wander but not alert enough to remember I have a ‘to do’ list. It’s an opening for imagination and unconstrained wondering. I find that this is often a key moment for gaining new insight about something I‘ve been pondering, or just realizing ‘things-I-want-to-know-more-about’. In short, I let myself get curious about whatever seems interesting. And there is SO much that’s interesting about this time on our planet, and our own human evolution, and why people are so shouty at school board meetings.
The rest of the day is so full of plain old ‘input’. News feeds, emails, Facebook posts, and even….(oh the horror)….other people.
A lot of this input is a bit hard to take: wildfires, war, political soundbites, inflation, the dying rainforest, hungry kids, and your annual performance review (oh, yours is great? ok, fine. Scratch that one.) We are bombarded by images and stories of destruction, loss, and injustice. And it’s real, and often heartbreaking. And we need to know this stuff in order to understand what problems we have to fix.
But it’s not the whole story. It’s not the only input we need.
First of all we need time without any input. The power of the early morning moments for me are about letting in the beauty and the silence, and ultimately, the wisdom. It’s so necessary for us to find and relish those quiet times, so we can tap into our own view of the world. It’s much harder to do that when we are constantly steeping in other people’s opinions and being shown only the bits of the world that others think are important.
But we also need different input. We need to be reminded of natural beauty and human heroism again. We need to be inspired and reminded of how amazeballs this place is (does anyone say ‘amazeballs’ any more? Should we ever have, really?)
This newsletter is about bringing more of those moments of wonder and curiosity back into our lives, reconnecting to the beauty and wisdom, and encouraging some balance and stillness again. I will certainly dive into practical topics - some updates on new environmental policy, insight into organizations working on social justice, ideas about our digital health, our habits, or science (and perhaps even an occasional ‘behind the headlines’ segment.) But, a lot of the topics will be geared around reminding us and encouraging more of what is truly awe-inspiring about our lives, our communities, and this place we call home.
Because I believe that we can’t truly engage in repairing ourselves or our planet until we remember what we love about it all. And then, when our eyes and hearts can see again, we can also go beyond repair to reimagining. And that’s when the magic truly starts to happen.
I hope you’ll join me.
I am posting daily to this newsletter, so many of the regular posts will be brief. And then every once in a while there will a deeper exploration. And if you’d like to join the paid subscription, we will also have some interviews, Q&As, a few private posts or questions for the group, and even occasional in-person meet ups!
But don’t worry - it won’t take any more time to read than having a quiet cup of tea.
But maybe get a second one anyway.
And a cookie. Because life is short.
-Anne
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