a decade ago . . .

(not about the election)

photo credit: Milan Popovic, unsplash

Hi Friends,

This is a brief missive to say hi-bye. Tomorrow I begin a 10-Day Vipassana meditation retreat. I’ll enter silence Wednesday evening and won’t resurface until the morning of the 17th.

The last time I sat a meditation course I didn’t own an iPhone. It was radical to drop out then, but the implications feel multiplied now. There’s the fact that I likely won’t know who won the election for another 11 days. But it’s broader. Even as someone who tries to put my phone in a drawer on the regular, I’m highly attuned to the personal goings-on of SO MANY people on a daily basis, aware of global strife and intimate human dynamics and the emotions and circumstances of people who are not me all day every day. To lay all that down sounds impossible, insane.

In the past week as I’ve told people where I’m headed, the most common response has been some version of, “YOU? Not talking for 10 days?! Good luck.”

I get it. Conversation is like my favorite thing in the world. I love connection with humans and the majority of people who see me out in the world see a high-energy social force who can’t not talk.

I do also have a quiet and calm inner life. When I carve out the space for it. The place from which everything sincerely caring originates. I used to carve out space for that all the time. In my 20s I went to a total of 3 Vipassana courses, and I still contend I was my most spiritually sound at age 26.

Heading to this course feels like a homecoming. A signal to myself that I can always get back on track and never mind what it “means” that I haven’t meditated substantially in 10 years. It is, like everything, a remembering.

Catch you on the flip side.

photo credit: Landsmann, Unsplash

Your Optional Assignment:

What’s something you haven’t done in a long time (like a decade) that used to be a huge part of who you were? A hobby or a practice or an activity or art form. Maybe something that would surprise many people you know. Take one actionable step today toward reconnecting with that part of yourself (sign up for a class, order materials, tune the ukulele).