WHOLE NEW MONTH! WHOLE NEW MONTH!
June 1, 2021
Dear Friends,
WHOLE NEW MONTH! WHOLE NEW MONTH!
I tend to take fresh starts very seriously, so every time a new month arrives, it is cause for celebration and a simple kind of self-loving assessment: What will this new month bring? What will this new month look like? What will I learn, discover, rediscover, try, stop doing? What will I let go of this month? What will I do this month that is for my own healing, health, wellness, happiness?
I just finished a month-long meditation group practice that was 1.25 hours long every Monday through Friday in May. We met on Zoom, each in our own space, to be led in Judith Blackstone’s Realization Process each evening. Our teacher had exactly the right voice for the work. I found myself floating more often than not, and yes--I found myself jerking back from the edge of the cliff of sleep once in a while as I sat in my office, both hearing and not hearing the sounds of life in the rest of the house as I meditated. I will continue this practice in June to see where it takes me.
This month is my son Feliks’ birthday month. In just two sleeps, he will be 18 years old. I am stunned by the fast passage of time, and I am equally stunned that I have lived to see this day. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook about this momentous occasion:
On June 3, Feliks will turn 18 years old. What follows is an understatement: It has been quite a ride.
From hours-long meltdowns every day to being made to sit at the “bad” table in elementary school to being diagnosed with autism to only going outside in full-body costumes to coming out as trans to going back to school for two glorious middle-school years to getting and training Cowboy to help him to trying high school and not being able to do it to making art to discovering horses to finding Eeb to competing in horse shows and sticking with it, it’s a long trail.
Y’all have been so much support to us. I cannot thank you enough for that. Cheering us all on for so many years. Lifting Feliks up. For all the years, really.
And now, thanks to the incredible generosity first of a friend who leased Eeb for Feliks to ride this whole past year, and then thanks to the generosity of K-9 Montana supporting Feliks’ journey with an autism service dog named Cowboy--and more--and thanks to the overwhelming generosity of an incredible friend who wants to remain anonymous, and thanks to the generosity of a whole community of people here on the Facebook, many of whom have never met Feliks or me or John, Feliks is going on yet another ride. Literally.
To everyone who has helped this dream come true, our deepest gratitude and our deepest love. Feliks and Eeb are now in partnership together. When we told Feliks that Eeb would be his horse, he smiled very broadly and then got very quiet. And then he expressed his concern for Joanne, Eeb’s owner. He was worried about her giving up Eeb for him. “Well, she did agree to sell Eeb to you,” I reminded him. “I know,” he said, “but I feel like she’s going to be lonely without Eeb.” Don't ever let anyone tell you that autistic people lack empathy. Seriously.
When Feliks gets his driver’s license, he will be able to drive himself to the barn in just 7 minutes. I doubt we will see very much of him at all, then.
Many, many, kajillion thanks for all the years of cheering him on.
It takes a village.
Tomorrow I will make the pistachio cake he has requested for his birthday. On Thursday, we’ll make cupcakes with piped grass and little chocolate horses on top. And that evening, he will take the cupcakes to his horse riding team meeting along with a small collectible horse for each member of the team to celebrate his birthday and his new horse ownership. The team is mostly comprised of 11-year old girls; he lovingly calls them “the nuggets” and he was delighted to buy small horses for each of them.
Empathy is one of his superpowers, I think.
CLASSES AND EVENTS
Calling All Writers!
Write Where You Are: Virtual Writing Retreats for Women - I am hosting small, 10-woman, virtual writing retreats throughout 2021. We will study together, we will write together, and we will laugh together over that weekend. We will explore in new ways, spending time with color and poetry and short stories and each others’ stories and much much more. It will be unexpected and fun and meaningful and I am very excited about it. While the June retreat is sold out, the rest of the 2021 retreats are now open for registration. The limit for each is 10 participants.
LINKS TO LINGER OVER
She put her unspent love in a cardboard box.
Here’s my reading list for June as of today: Here by Wislawa Szymborska, Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford, Kristen Arnett’s With Teeth, and Jo Harjo’s Crazy Brave: A Memoir.
June is Pride Month. Even the White House is back to celebrating it. Hallelujah.
FREE THINGS
FREE WRITING PROMPTS FOR 2021 - Do you want to get back to a consistent writing routine in the New Year? I am offering free writing prompts every Monday-Friday in 2021. If you’d like to receive them, you can do so in either of the following ways:
By text: Text “writing prompts” to me at 828-248-7513 to sign up for free. Your first prompt will arrive via text the day after you sign up (Monday - Friday).
By email: Go here to sign up for free. Your first prompt will arrive the day after you sign up (Monday - Friday). We added this method because some of you couldn’t participate by text. I hope it is helpful!
I’ll see you next Tuesday from my Orange Desk. Celebrate wildly!
Patti
Patti Digh LLC
Dear Friends, I relax by fake-buying horse farms on which Feliks can enjoy his horse and have other horses and animals. And Emma, too, if by any stretch of the imagination she would ever want to move home again. Both are horse people. I, personally, want baby goats and baby pigs. So, I look around online in the evenings, wondering what is available, and every so often, I find a place I think might be of interest to the family, so I share it with them. Not once has everyone responded with a...
July 23, 2021 A teammate from the horse barn has a birthday this week, and I love Feliks’ commitment to making a gift rather than buying one. Without prior experience, he designed a wooden two-part wall rack for hanging ribbons from horse shows, figuring out what would work best to showcase all the ribbons his friend wins. He got a metal plate and found a place to have the friend’s name engraved on it. He learned how to stain the wood and assembled the design. He also learned to make bridles...
July 16, 2021 Dear Friends, I dreamt recently that I was left in a parking lot at the bottom of a long, steep hill. A friend had promised to take me back to the school at the top of the hill after our meeting, but she had to go elsewhere, and everyone else had left by the time she told me. I started walking, out of the parking lot, and turning left up the hill. In all, I walked for months to get to the top. I am walking uphill with a heavy notebook in my arms and a heavy pack on my back....