I am a tiny speck

and it gives me comfort in knowing this

One of my favourite songs to listen on repeat in the last few years has been "I like giants" by Kimya Dawson. It is a song about the vastness of the world, the universe and everything around us. It is a song about mental health, navigating difficult times and just learning about our place in this beautiful world. In moments when I am immersed in the beauty of the world, whether it is in a giant lake feeling like the speck I am or a ride down familiar roads on the way to grocery shopping where the trees have stood for long and will be here longer still (even after I am not).

These moments though sometimes scary are humbling. They remind me to make mistakes, to redo things, to start something over because I wanted to, to wander aimlessly for a bit and to reimagine our experiences with each other and the world around us.

Kimya says it best; so a quote from the song:

"And I do this to remind me that I'm really, really tiny
In the grand scheme of things and sometimes this terrifies me
But it's only really scary cause it makes me feel serene
In a way I never thought I'd be because I've never been
So grounded, and so humbled, and so one with everything
I am grounded, I am humbled, I am one with everything
Rock and roll is fun but if you ever hear someone
Say you are huge, look at the moon, look at the stars, look at the sun
Look at the ocean and the desert and the mountains and the sky
Say I am just a speck of dust inside a giant's eye
I am just a speck of dust inside a giant's eye"

I was holding onto this feeling one morning as I was planning my week with the kids I work with. I wanted to share this feeling with them. I wondered how we could hold onto some of the wisdoms of the world as we grow closer to ourselves. So we spent some time in our session together looking at a tree and finding ourselves in it. In its branches, in its roots, in its fruits, in its energy and 'vibes' (as the kids said). Whether it was things we craved to be or things we want to learn from trees or things we already are - which the tree is also. Each of them wandered to a tree nearby for 15 minutes and wrote down what they felt connected to and what they wanted to learn from it.

Their responses were beautiful, so here are a few:

• "I am silent like the rustling"

• "I was a seed (like the tree was) and we grow too"

• "They can adapt which seems insignificant but important"

• "grow on others, independent but not secluded"

• "I make people feel safe in the rain"

• "Stretching out its branches, inviting in others, ready for a party"

• "Firmly rooted in the ground yet swaying gently"

• "Looks fine on the outside, has a lot going on on the inside"

• "I am generous, like the tree"

• "I easily adapt to my environment and new habitats"

• "Both loud and silent"

In the face of many difficult moments (and world at many breaking points), I wanted to turn to the gentleness of these responses and share them with you.

If you would do the same exercise, what would you find as resonance between you and a tree? I would love to hear from you.

Until next time with lots of love and magic,

Nids

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Poetry for you (and me)

For one who is exhausted - a blessing
by John O’Donohue

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.

Read the full poem here.

I Wonder If I Will Miss the Moss
By Jane Mead

Whenever the experiment on and of
my life begins to draw to a close
I’ll go back to the place that held me
and be held. It’s O.K. I think
I did what I could. I think
I sang some, I think I held my hand out.

Read the full poem here.

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A few lovely things

The Favourite Patient by Richa Kaul Padte

My friend Richa wrote a phenomenal piece about chronic illness and doctors. I highly recommend it.

The internet is ours: Zine

The Internet is Ours is a zine with stories from everyday people where we ponder, interrogate, hope for, speculate, and reimagine the future of the Internet and digital technologies for our multiple truths, by answering this one central question: How do you imagine the Internet could work for someone like you?”

7 ways to see how you're growing (choose one that speaks to you) by Morgan Harper Collins

A list of ways for us to see ourselves as growing and options to see which fits us.