We live in an extractive society. We want to know what parts of the whole are the ones to focus on. Quick and dirty - give us the bullet points. All around us, the whole is increasingly being fragmented with a peddler for every part. Promises offered for any malady. Solutions for any problem. A guru for every subject. Everything, including you, broken down into its effective parts.
Dear Tara, I have been a long time follower since instagram and have never commented as words do not come easily to me. I thoroughly enjoy each post and q&a that you publish. This post though has spoken to me on so many levels. I am writing through tears and want to say that you may not consider yourself an enlightened soul, but you have certainly touched those who have had the privilege of reading your musings. It makes me so grateful to know there are others out here, even if I can’t know you all in person. It can get pretty lonely in suburbia of the southeast. Thank you for writing such truth. It is a treasure.❤️
Thank you so much for taking the time to share that with me, Maya. It fills my heart to know that something I put out there might reach some lonely spot in suburbia of the southeast. What magic! The best of these blasted screens. Thank you for being here and for your kind words. It's the very meaning of my time spent trying to figure out how to put the stuff in my heart into words. ❤️
“We are not meant to chase others for answers that they have come to by chasing others for answers.”
THIS. This sentence and the paragraph surrounding have been my internal scream for the past several months. I want depth, I want raw, I want facts that don’t submit to the highest paying dollar. Lately I’ve been on a search for “slowing down”... this “slow living trend” everyone seems to be chasing. It’s pretty on social media, don’t get me wrong - the flowered fields, rolling waves of the ocean, snuggling babies, baking all the things. It’s a beautiful esthetic, no doubt. However, it leaves our minds to chase “the next thing”... there’s no talk of slowing our minds, of receiving things in whole, raw and real as the world - as nature presents them. There’s no reels clip in nature. The bird soars for miles, the coyote devours the rabbit, the cow meanders the pasture, it comes in REAL time. Slowly, messy, raw, yet so beautiful and awe worthy. THAT is why you are one of the only places I come to for “inspiration”. Your writing is true, it’s deep, it’s thought provoking, and most importantly - it’s you, as a person, from your heart.
Three books I’ve read recently that have inspired me are The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Digital Minimalism, and Get Your Life Back. Wanted to share for those also seeking “slow”. 😊
It's wonderful that you feel the misalignment from the pace and are looking for the "slow". Slow and quiet is where we find ourselves, our purpose, meaning, connection. There's no room for any of that otherwise. It keeps us full but craving. Sometimes, when I'm harried, the last thing I can imagine doing is sitting in the grass and watching a ladybug for ten minutes. That's when I need it most. How can anyone sit with a ladybug and not be touched by the divine?
The line from Tara's essay that you highlighted reminded me - I found this lately in my herbal studies. Everyone was saying the same thing, well mostly. And I realized what I need is more hands on work and less reading. I know what they say...now I need to know what the experience is - I think that is where part of our fragmentation may come from. Trying to know too much without the bone deep knowing that comes from doing. I have read those books and enjoyed them too. Though it may be time for another look at Digital minimalism. It's a slippery slope I really have to watch around here.
I was just informed of a book called Atomic Habits - turning knowledge into action. Very fitting for the conversation. 😊 Not sure if you’ve read it, but wanted to share.
Very good good book! Rented on audio from the library and liked it so much I bought the hard back copy to read again. ❤️ but I need to be careful that books don’t become a slower version of social media where I’m an observer, without trying an application of the new material. A paradigm I’m working to understand better in myself!
You’re not alone. I find myself in moving from social media scrolling to reading books, a better swap most definitely, but I’m walking away from books even without any tangible skills.
I'm also finding this to be true with my own herbal studies. There's a point where the absorbing of regurgitated information simply has to stop and experience has to be gained, over years and years of trial and error and exploring and yearning.
Glad to her I’m not the only one. I’ve simply come to a point where I need a lot more bodies, of different types, to get feedback from and then I will « know » some things…meanwhile, I’m fine tuning what works for my specific family
Mrs. Walstrom—So true that the real world doesn't condense things into aesthetic clips or tidy soundbites. We get the pile of unfinished work next to the artfully arranged corner shelf. We get the weeds in the garden beds amidst the vegetables, the scrappy chickens with the plumage-filled ones, the shit in the cow pen and the endless battles with flies right alongside the long moments of brushing & the foaming pails of milk. Real time and snapshot time are so very different, even though the two intersect (and even though snapshot time is often what informs the vision fashioned through real time). Thank you for the book recommendations; I'm looking forward to perusing those!
I’m in one those mystical stretches of life where God is conspiring to teach me something. The same messages have been cropping up recently in multiple areas of life-
The essence of them being “drop the rules you’ve created for yourself to live ‘rightly’. Zoom out and see the whole beautiful picture.”
My sister/ husband and I just yesterday were talking about the sheer noise on social media preventing us from actually sitting with anything good we come across. Nothing is changing internally because it’s just a constant inundation.
I am a person who tends toward black and white. Give me the rules of how and what to do, and I will execute it well! But I’m missing so much nuance and beauty.
Instead of the rules on how to be a good wife, for example, I want to learn how to embody who I was made to be. Instead of the prescriptions for exactly how to be healthy, to listen to why resonates in my body. And so on.
It’s all rambly, scattered threads in my head, but there’s a quiet pulsing in my blood of these threads starting to come together.
And I love that you’re one of those threads and voices. Wish I could hug you. *virtual hug*
Thank you, Mallory. I don't think you're alone in those feelings. I hear it from people again and again. This constant barrage of images and sounds and information. It's like all of these people standing in an intersection pointing in different directions, all promising to get us where we need to be without asking us where we think we need to be.
Telling people to come back into themselves and their personal relationships with God, however they see God, to immerse in the unknown and the immeasurable so they can experience humility again, is not something espoused in the latest social media fad. But I think it's really the work of our time. It's hard and without gloss. But it's real. There's no fudging it.
I'm so glad your threads are starting to come together. It's a lifelong work. You are an introspective and determined woman and I know your life will continue to unfold with intention and evolving growth.
Always here for the All of you Tara, feels like having a conversation with a friend. In all honesty since the pandemic I feel I have become very isolated from the friendships I had before. I miss them, I have my partner, cattle and dogs but I'm finding the human connections hard to get back. You're posts keep me company so thank you
That means so much to me. Thank you, Jessie. I lost "friends" during the pandemic. I lost a church. I was so utterly disappointed in the reactions of so many around me. I understand your feelings. I've learned that a solitary life can be beautiful, too. Cows definitely help. But the human connection is necessary and I'm honoured to be in your company. That is no small thing and I am grateful I can do that. Thank you.
Tara, if someone were to ask what the meaning of life is, I would point them to this profound essay. I feel the truth of this deep in my bones, especially when I’m struggling for connection and wholeness. I’ve always found the phrase, “stay in your lane,” particularly offensive and demeaning. I don’t have a lane; I have a life, and like everyone else in this world, it is formed from layers of experience that would pour out of any so-called “lane,” and spill all over the highway. Your thoughts add to my armor of courage in this world.
What an honour it is to receive such a beautiful comment. Thank you, Marissa. Yes, please, blow yourself all over the highway! Who in their right mind would want to be narrow and tight. We are large and layered and multifaceted. The world needs the imperfections and vastness of a human being not the restrictions of an automaton. Otherwise, what's the difference?
Tara, just wanted to tell, I am sure lot of us, subscribers, love and admire your ALL personality, and its not about the recipies only:) sure many of us feel you as soul sister, despite of being far away or not able fully express in your language like me!
It's an honor to be a part of Slowdown Farmstead subscribers with you, Tara, at the helm. I also see how we, your subscribers, have our own footing, make our own blueprints for life being guided by your soulful prose, writings, reflections, being supported by the informative and awesome TnT Q&A's,Kitchen garden nature sharings- your archive is vast... Along with this glorious substack ,backed by our own past experiences, maturity-meaning how long have we been at this thing called Life and Living, preparing for future, but still keeping the one step, one breath at a time philosophy, belief in the Divine, trusting in our innate goodness of our innerself; all this- will keep us from fragmentation and insincerity. You said it so beautifully this morning! Belonging to this group fills me up and supports my life. big hugs to you and Troy
Well this just makes me misty. Thank you, so much, Rebecca. What a beautiful gift you've just given me. It fills me up to know that there's so many of you out there doing things in your way, all of us looking for authenticity and love and growth in our individual lives but being able to share that here. I am honoured.
Posts like this are what draws me in and makes me stay! Oh Tara, your words are like deep and rich waters that we can sit beside and glean ever more wisdom from each ripple if we just sit down next to the edge and listen with quiet + open ears. There is so much to this humbling yet joyful post that I think I am going to have come back each day for the next week just to draw out the next bucket full of thoughts to turn over and inspect like intricate shells; and yes, keep those shells as a part of my life.
My birthday is tomorrow (31 trips around the sun!) and my mind has been asking so many questions that you have touched on here. How can I LIVE more? How can I be me, so others can be who they are? What do I need to let go of do I can expand and not stagnate?
Thank you for your words and thoughts Tara. Even in your corner of the world, you are touching many hearts and souls.
Thank you so much, Caitlyn. I love the questions you are asking yourself on this, your 31st trip around the sun! Happy Birthday! Thank you for making my words a part of your beautiful shell collection. ❤️
This was such a wonderful start to my day. Thank you Tara! I hadn’t really thought about all of what you wrote about in these terms, the bits and pieces from various people as I scroll Instagram (which I spend much less time doing these days). I find that I see things I like, recipes, ideas about life and insight, etc...but they quickly are flushed from my brain. I often feel that “What was that? Where did I see that? Who said it?” frustration when I can’t recall “the thing”. Maybe that is why you and what you do resonates so much with me. This connection with a real whole person is wonderful. I am all in, for all the parts of you that you share here. Thanks for what you do and for allowing all of us to be a part of it.
Oh and that last paragraph, so succinct, so perfectly put together. Words to live by, it says it all. It is something I will return to over and over.
Thank you so much, Noreen. I think you're in good company there. All of these people and pictures and videos telling us what we need to do. I've been going on Instagram about once a week to put up some stories and a link to an essay or something and it's been startling for me, even after having previously been on there for years. It seems like things move faster than ever on there now. Videos with music have taken the place of images. The captions come up only if you scroll through it - like the story of a thing has no relevance (too long to read maybe). If I'm careful, I can really feel the stress in my body by the time I log out and I do a little shake to clear it :)
I think it has a great deal to do with our overwhelm. So many people being shown all these things to do to make their lives better. I had four separate women tell me that they felt "overwhelmed" last week. Some of them were in response to something I shared that I was doing. It puzzled me. If I feel overwhelmed by someone else's stuff, I just drop it. But I think there's this push to "keep up" now and what I shared was probably just #3,445 of the things they took in over the last day and felt compelled to add to their task list to make their lives better. It's insidious, really.
You are so right about the stress from scrolling and the way content is presented seems to have changed. As for our overwhelm, I understand where it comes from. I think social media (Instagram specifically) leads us to believe if we don’t do (read: buy) all the things then we are not keeping up or as you said making our lives better. I’m with you, I just let that stuff go and do my thing.
It is indeed a tough goal to follow through when we have to fight for our attention & sanity everyday. Patience and perseverance is a constant reminder when we see less in ourselves, our loved ones and others.
I think touchstones throughout a day are necessary. Maybe just time outside with our feet on the earth. Leaning on a tree with our eyes closed. Sitting with a grasshopper. If I let myself fall into these things, really just submerge myself in the sacred divinity of a tree leaf or a rock, I am reminded of the glory of creation. And I get to be a part of that?! Whoa! :)
I needed this today, deep in my bones. Thank you so much for this reminder and shedding light on the feelings we all struggle to put into words. I appreciate you!
I"m reading a book called "Deep Heaven" which is a readers guide to the medieval cosmology that C.S. Lewis uses in many of his writings, but especially the Ransom or Space trilogy. And I am fascinated by all the we lost when we moved to a heliocentric/scientfic/space mindset instead of the medieval cosmology of 7 planets and the "heavens" which were full and impactful of the humans on earth instead of empty and waiting to be mastered by the humans. It was much more than just a scientific fact switch, this change in understanding the heavens. And much of it hasn't done us humans any good. Your writing reminds me of the medieval cosmology and the fuller understanding of ourselves and the world and how complete we are body and soul.
That sounds like an incredible book. I'm going to get it. I have just cracked the first page of a book in a similar vein called, "Empire of Scientism". We have replaced God with the capital S god of science. And like you so eloquently said, we are losing so much, have lost so much, because of it. Thank you for adding another book to my list (I think) 😉
I will have to read Empire of Scientism too. My next read in this vein is Planet Narnia. I would love to reclaim some of that worldview, especially the astrology as it was when it was the astronomy of the day and not the silliness it is today.
Wow, I'm in the middle of sifting through C.S. Lewis and Steiners forecasting of a science based, material based world. It all ties in, doesn't it? Currently reading 'That Hideous Strength', the final book in the Space Trilogy. James Tunney has some wonderful discussions on his website that navigate these writings and themes, such as The Mystery of Golgatha. I'll have to check out Deep Heaven. It sounds right up my alley! All very interesting and related to this beautiful essay :)
These are the same names whose work I have been so drawn to. I have been encouraging people in my circles to read these authors, too. I think it's too easy to see what's going on around us and get sucked into the vortex of reaction in the same direction they want to keep us going - the physical, scientific, mechanistic viewpoint. It's common that you see people searching for scientific facts and "authorities" to back up their claims. What if we didn't do that at all? What if we asked deeper questions and eschewed what's on offer? I think that's the way - the world of the immeasurable.
Exactly. I've been called to step outside of the problem-reaction-solution madness after the last few years revealed so many hidden agendas. I'm exhausted for those who are still currently chasing the finite and material and very drawn to the works of mystics and esoteric minds from our time and from the past. Your writing carries so beautifully many of these rich themes within it, and it's reassuring and moving to find others in these threads who are excavating beyond the layers we've been served in our modern world :)
I like Chesterton for this line of thought also, though he is a different sort of writer, and I end up googling people to figure out exactly why he is calling them out. Another book I want is Planet Narnia which discusses all this too but with the Narnia books.
I think you’re onto something- the increased parsing out, mechanization, theorizing and explaining away of every bit of mystery has done away with just as much as it’s answered.
In former ages, people- today’s folks would call them stupid and superstitious- has so much more of a holistic, intertwined understanding of our reality. The supernatural and natural walk side by side, and we are entangled with all we do not see.
Well said, Mallory. Another book that I bought that I'm looking forward to digging into is James Tunney's "Plantation of the Automatons". It's 800 pages though so it's going to have to wait until winter. Here's a review that, I think, aligns with this conversation:
"This weighty volume of nearly 800 pages may be James Tunney's finest book yet! It combines enormous scholarly detail with a poetic imagination and a deep appreciation of the perennial mystical tradition. Tunney clearly sees the mechanistic worldview of modernism, for all of its material benefits, as a potentially dangerous social force that serves as an obstacle to spiritual awakening."
Something else spinning around my mind is this rise of AI and it’s implications for humanity. I’d love to read some scholarly explorations theorizing about it.
On a tangential note- did I completely imagine that there was a thread about kids books? I scrolled for a while yesterday hunting but couldn’t find it!
Dear Tara, I have been a long time follower since instagram and have never commented as words do not come easily to me. I thoroughly enjoy each post and q&a that you publish. This post though has spoken to me on so many levels. I am writing through tears and want to say that you may not consider yourself an enlightened soul, but you have certainly touched those who have had the privilege of reading your musings. It makes me so grateful to know there are others out here, even if I can’t know you all in person. It can get pretty lonely in suburbia of the southeast. Thank you for writing such truth. It is a treasure.❤️
Thank you so much for taking the time to share that with me, Maya. It fills my heart to know that something I put out there might reach some lonely spot in suburbia of the southeast. What magic! The best of these blasted screens. Thank you for being here and for your kind words. It's the very meaning of my time spent trying to figure out how to put the stuff in my heart into words. ❤️
“We are not meant to chase others for answers that they have come to by chasing others for answers.”
THIS. This sentence and the paragraph surrounding have been my internal scream for the past several months. I want depth, I want raw, I want facts that don’t submit to the highest paying dollar. Lately I’ve been on a search for “slowing down”... this “slow living trend” everyone seems to be chasing. It’s pretty on social media, don’t get me wrong - the flowered fields, rolling waves of the ocean, snuggling babies, baking all the things. It’s a beautiful esthetic, no doubt. However, it leaves our minds to chase “the next thing”... there’s no talk of slowing our minds, of receiving things in whole, raw and real as the world - as nature presents them. There’s no reels clip in nature. The bird soars for miles, the coyote devours the rabbit, the cow meanders the pasture, it comes in REAL time. Slowly, messy, raw, yet so beautiful and awe worthy. THAT is why you are one of the only places I come to for “inspiration”. Your writing is true, it’s deep, it’s thought provoking, and most importantly - it’s you, as a person, from your heart.
Three books I’ve read recently that have inspired me are The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Digital Minimalism, and Get Your Life Back. Wanted to share for those also seeking “slow”. 😊
Thank you dear, Mrs. Walstrom. :)
It's wonderful that you feel the misalignment from the pace and are looking for the "slow". Slow and quiet is where we find ourselves, our purpose, meaning, connection. There's no room for any of that otherwise. It keeps us full but craving. Sometimes, when I'm harried, the last thing I can imagine doing is sitting in the grass and watching a ladybug for ten minutes. That's when I need it most. How can anyone sit with a ladybug and not be touched by the divine?
The line from Tara's essay that you highlighted reminded me - I found this lately in my herbal studies. Everyone was saying the same thing, well mostly. And I realized what I need is more hands on work and less reading. I know what they say...now I need to know what the experience is - I think that is where part of our fragmentation may come from. Trying to know too much without the bone deep knowing that comes from doing. I have read those books and enjoyed them too. Though it may be time for another look at Digital minimalism. It's a slippery slope I really have to watch around here.
This is very wise, Emily.
I was just informed of a book called Atomic Habits - turning knowledge into action. Very fitting for the conversation. 😊 Not sure if you’ve read it, but wanted to share.
I haven't read that one, but I think my husband has on Audible...so I may listen while I sew. Thanks!
Very good good book! Rented on audio from the library and liked it so much I bought the hard back copy to read again. ❤️ but I need to be careful that books don’t become a slower version of social media where I’m an observer, without trying an application of the new material. A paradigm I’m working to understand better in myself!
You’re not alone. I find myself in moving from social media scrolling to reading books, a better swap most definitely, but I’m walking away from books even without any tangible skills.
Same!
I'm also finding this to be true with my own herbal studies. There's a point where the absorbing of regurgitated information simply has to stop and experience has to be gained, over years and years of trial and error and exploring and yearning.
Glad to her I’m not the only one. I’ve simply come to a point where I need a lot more bodies, of different types, to get feedback from and then I will « know » some things…meanwhile, I’m fine tuning what works for my specific family
Mrs. Walstrom—So true that the real world doesn't condense things into aesthetic clips or tidy soundbites. We get the pile of unfinished work next to the artfully arranged corner shelf. We get the weeds in the garden beds amidst the vegetables, the scrappy chickens with the plumage-filled ones, the shit in the cow pen and the endless battles with flies right alongside the long moments of brushing & the foaming pails of milk. Real time and snapshot time are so very different, even though the two intersect (and even though snapshot time is often what informs the vision fashioned through real time). Thank you for the book recommendations; I'm looking forward to perusing those!
I’m in one those mystical stretches of life where God is conspiring to teach me something. The same messages have been cropping up recently in multiple areas of life-
The essence of them being “drop the rules you’ve created for yourself to live ‘rightly’. Zoom out and see the whole beautiful picture.”
My sister/ husband and I just yesterday were talking about the sheer noise on social media preventing us from actually sitting with anything good we come across. Nothing is changing internally because it’s just a constant inundation.
I am a person who tends toward black and white. Give me the rules of how and what to do, and I will execute it well! But I’m missing so much nuance and beauty.
Instead of the rules on how to be a good wife, for example, I want to learn how to embody who I was made to be. Instead of the prescriptions for exactly how to be healthy, to listen to why resonates in my body. And so on.
It’s all rambly, scattered threads in my head, but there’s a quiet pulsing in my blood of these threads starting to come together.
And I love that you’re one of those threads and voices. Wish I could hug you. *virtual hug*
Thank you, Mallory. I don't think you're alone in those feelings. I hear it from people again and again. This constant barrage of images and sounds and information. It's like all of these people standing in an intersection pointing in different directions, all promising to get us where we need to be without asking us where we think we need to be.
Telling people to come back into themselves and their personal relationships with God, however they see God, to immerse in the unknown and the immeasurable so they can experience humility again, is not something espoused in the latest social media fad. But I think it's really the work of our time. It's hard and without gloss. But it's real. There's no fudging it.
I'm so glad your threads are starting to come together. It's a lifelong work. You are an introspective and determined woman and I know your life will continue to unfold with intention and evolving growth.
Always here for the All of you Tara, feels like having a conversation with a friend. In all honesty since the pandemic I feel I have become very isolated from the friendships I had before. I miss them, I have my partner, cattle and dogs but I'm finding the human connections hard to get back. You're posts keep me company so thank you
That means so much to me. Thank you, Jessie. I lost "friends" during the pandemic. I lost a church. I was so utterly disappointed in the reactions of so many around me. I understand your feelings. I've learned that a solitary life can be beautiful, too. Cows definitely help. But the human connection is necessary and I'm honoured to be in your company. That is no small thing and I am grateful I can do that. Thank you.
Tara, if someone were to ask what the meaning of life is, I would point them to this profound essay. I feel the truth of this deep in my bones, especially when I’m struggling for connection and wholeness. I’ve always found the phrase, “stay in your lane,” particularly offensive and demeaning. I don’t have a lane; I have a life, and like everyone else in this world, it is formed from layers of experience that would pour out of any so-called “lane,” and spill all over the highway. Your thoughts add to my armor of courage in this world.
What an honour it is to receive such a beautiful comment. Thank you, Marissa. Yes, please, blow yourself all over the highway! Who in their right mind would want to be narrow and tight. We are large and layered and multifaceted. The world needs the imperfections and vastness of a human being not the restrictions of an automaton. Otherwise, what's the difference?
THIS is why I am here. If I didn’t feel your soul in your writing I wouldn’t be. Thank you for sharing from that space.
Thank you. I'm so grateful for the many of you that are out there, sharing this path with us all. It makes me feel so hopeful.
Tara, just wanted to tell, I am sure lot of us, subscribers, love and admire your ALL personality, and its not about the recipies only:) sure many of us feel you as soul sister, despite of being far away or not able fully express in your language like me!
Thank you so much, Modesta. I'm so grateful for the interaction and the learning I get to do with all of you, too. It's a privilege and a gift.
It's an honor to be a part of Slowdown Farmstead subscribers with you, Tara, at the helm. I also see how we, your subscribers, have our own footing, make our own blueprints for life being guided by your soulful prose, writings, reflections, being supported by the informative and awesome TnT Q&A's,Kitchen garden nature sharings- your archive is vast... Along with this glorious substack ,backed by our own past experiences, maturity-meaning how long have we been at this thing called Life and Living, preparing for future, but still keeping the one step, one breath at a time philosophy, belief in the Divine, trusting in our innate goodness of our innerself; all this- will keep us from fragmentation and insincerity. You said it so beautifully this morning! Belonging to this group fills me up and supports my life. big hugs to you and Troy
Well this just makes me misty. Thank you, so much, Rebecca. What a beautiful gift you've just given me. It fills me up to know that there's so many of you out there doing things in your way, all of us looking for authenticity and love and growth in our individual lives but being able to share that here. I am honoured.
thank you, Tara!
a beautiful act of reciprocity, all of us together sharing and making what feels right for our own authentic self.💙
Amen to this! I deleted Instagram and Fb off my phone the other day because this is the only *real* virtual community I need. ❤️
Posts like this are what draws me in and makes me stay! Oh Tara, your words are like deep and rich waters that we can sit beside and glean ever more wisdom from each ripple if we just sit down next to the edge and listen with quiet + open ears. There is so much to this humbling yet joyful post that I think I am going to have come back each day for the next week just to draw out the next bucket full of thoughts to turn over and inspect like intricate shells; and yes, keep those shells as a part of my life.
My birthday is tomorrow (31 trips around the sun!) and my mind has been asking so many questions that you have touched on here. How can I LIVE more? How can I be me, so others can be who they are? What do I need to let go of do I can expand and not stagnate?
Thank you for your words and thoughts Tara. Even in your corner of the world, you are touching many hearts and souls.
Thank you so much, Caitlyn. I love the questions you are asking yourself on this, your 31st trip around the sun! Happy Birthday! Thank you for making my words a part of your beautiful shell collection. ❤️
Thank you for the birthday wishes! ❤
Happy birthday to you!
Thank you so much! ❤
This was such a wonderful start to my day. Thank you Tara! I hadn’t really thought about all of what you wrote about in these terms, the bits and pieces from various people as I scroll Instagram (which I spend much less time doing these days). I find that I see things I like, recipes, ideas about life and insight, etc...but they quickly are flushed from my brain. I often feel that “What was that? Where did I see that? Who said it?” frustration when I can’t recall “the thing”. Maybe that is why you and what you do resonates so much with me. This connection with a real whole person is wonderful. I am all in, for all the parts of you that you share here. Thanks for what you do and for allowing all of us to be a part of it.
Oh and that last paragraph, so succinct, so perfectly put together. Words to live by, it says it all. It is something I will return to over and over.
Blessed Wednesday everyone!
Thank you so much, Noreen. I think you're in good company there. All of these people and pictures and videos telling us what we need to do. I've been going on Instagram about once a week to put up some stories and a link to an essay or something and it's been startling for me, even after having previously been on there for years. It seems like things move faster than ever on there now. Videos with music have taken the place of images. The captions come up only if you scroll through it - like the story of a thing has no relevance (too long to read maybe). If I'm careful, I can really feel the stress in my body by the time I log out and I do a little shake to clear it :)
I think it has a great deal to do with our overwhelm. So many people being shown all these things to do to make their lives better. I had four separate women tell me that they felt "overwhelmed" last week. Some of them were in response to something I shared that I was doing. It puzzled me. If I feel overwhelmed by someone else's stuff, I just drop it. But I think there's this push to "keep up" now and what I shared was probably just #3,445 of the things they took in over the last day and felt compelled to add to their task list to make their lives better. It's insidious, really.
You are so right about the stress from scrolling and the way content is presented seems to have changed. As for our overwhelm, I understand where it comes from. I think social media (Instagram specifically) leads us to believe if we don’t do (read: buy) all the things then we are not keeping up or as you said making our lives better. I’m with you, I just let that stuff go and do my thing.
"cultivate a life that brings you into harmony with your own spirit"
Mhmmm, that's the goal these days.
Thank you for encouraging us to step fulling into ourselves and accept others in their fullness as well. 🥰
It is indeed a tough goal to follow through when we have to fight for our attention & sanity everyday. Patience and perseverance is a constant reminder when we see less in ourselves, our loved ones and others.
I think touchstones throughout a day are necessary. Maybe just time outside with our feet on the earth. Leaning on a tree with our eyes closed. Sitting with a grasshopper. If I let myself fall into these things, really just submerge myself in the sacred divinity of a tree leaf or a rock, I am reminded of the glory of creation. And I get to be a part of that?! Whoa! :)
❤️ thank you, Jess
Wow, if that message and writing doesn’t feed my soul, I don’t know what would❤️
Thank you, Shelagh.❤️
I needed this today, deep in my bones. Thank you so much for this reminder and shedding light on the feelings we all struggle to put into words. I appreciate you!
Thank you, Caitlyn. And I'm so glad it found you when it needed to.
I"m reading a book called "Deep Heaven" which is a readers guide to the medieval cosmology that C.S. Lewis uses in many of his writings, but especially the Ransom or Space trilogy. And I am fascinated by all the we lost when we moved to a heliocentric/scientfic/space mindset instead of the medieval cosmology of 7 planets and the "heavens" which were full and impactful of the humans on earth instead of empty and waiting to be mastered by the humans. It was much more than just a scientific fact switch, this change in understanding the heavens. And much of it hasn't done us humans any good. Your writing reminds me of the medieval cosmology and the fuller understanding of ourselves and the world and how complete we are body and soul.
That sounds like an incredible book. I'm going to get it. I have just cracked the first page of a book in a similar vein called, "Empire of Scientism". We have replaced God with the capital S god of science. And like you so eloquently said, we are losing so much, have lost so much, because of it. Thank you for adding another book to my list (I think) 😉
I will have to read Empire of Scientism too. My next read in this vein is Planet Narnia. I would love to reclaim some of that worldview, especially the astrology as it was when it was the astronomy of the day and not the silliness it is today.
Wow, I'm in the middle of sifting through C.S. Lewis and Steiners forecasting of a science based, material based world. It all ties in, doesn't it? Currently reading 'That Hideous Strength', the final book in the Space Trilogy. James Tunney has some wonderful discussions on his website that navigate these writings and themes, such as The Mystery of Golgatha. I'll have to check out Deep Heaven. It sounds right up my alley! All very interesting and related to this beautiful essay :)
These are the same names whose work I have been so drawn to. I have been encouraging people in my circles to read these authors, too. I think it's too easy to see what's going on around us and get sucked into the vortex of reaction in the same direction they want to keep us going - the physical, scientific, mechanistic viewpoint. It's common that you see people searching for scientific facts and "authorities" to back up their claims. What if we didn't do that at all? What if we asked deeper questions and eschewed what's on offer? I think that's the way - the world of the immeasurable.
Exactly. I've been called to step outside of the problem-reaction-solution madness after the last few years revealed so many hidden agendas. I'm exhausted for those who are still currently chasing the finite and material and very drawn to the works of mystics and esoteric minds from our time and from the past. Your writing carries so beautifully many of these rich themes within it, and it's reassuring and moving to find others in these threads who are excavating beyond the layers we've been served in our modern world :)
I like Chesterton for this line of thought also, though he is a different sort of writer, and I end up googling people to figure out exactly why he is calling them out. Another book I want is Planet Narnia which discusses all this too but with the Narnia books.
Woah, that sounds like an incredible read.
I think you’re onto something- the increased parsing out, mechanization, theorizing and explaining away of every bit of mystery has done away with just as much as it’s answered.
In former ages, people- today’s folks would call them stupid and superstitious- has so much more of a holistic, intertwined understanding of our reality. The supernatural and natural walk side by side, and we are entangled with all we do not see.
Well said, Mallory. Another book that I bought that I'm looking forward to digging into is James Tunney's "Plantation of the Automatons". It's 800 pages though so it's going to have to wait until winter. Here's a review that, I think, aligns with this conversation:
"This weighty volume of nearly 800 pages may be James Tunney's finest book yet! It combines enormous scholarly detail with a poetic imagination and a deep appreciation of the perennial mystical tradition. Tunney clearly sees the mechanistic worldview of modernism, for all of its material benefits, as a potentially dangerous social force that serves as an obstacle to spiritual awakening."
That sounds incredibly fascinating.
Something else spinning around my mind is this rise of AI and it’s implications for humanity. I’d love to read some scholarly explorations theorizing about it.
On a tangential note- did I completely imagine that there was a thread about kids books? I scrolled for a while yesterday hunting but couldn’t find it!
Oh yes! It's such an awesome thread! Such great books! Keep looking!!
Can you share a screenshot of what the thread picture is? I can’t find it!
Oh gosh, I'm not techie enough. Ahh! Sorry!! I looked it up and it looks like it started as a thread of Tara's on February 25th of this year!
I love and feel this so much, all of it. Thank you for saying it so perfectly and beautifully, and please keep doing you in all of your wholeness. 💚
Thank you, Carly.
I am in tears with the last paragraph. I so, so agree. Thanks so much for wrestling this paragraph into being.
Thank you, Louisa.