Swarna, my friend, you've hit gong after gong of truth in this essay. Resonant and powerful, every line. "If we were not in a constant state of discomfort with the present moment, we would not seek validation to numb it" went to yet another level for me -- a truth that, as you point out, people *know* and yet keep unlearning over and over and over. And then, as you also point out, turning against one another when situations get dire. How, how, how, to we change that resonance to help people see that their neighbors, whether lifelong or newcomers to their community, are not their enemy? Keep telling the stories, keep using your voice.
I am incensed about Stripe's policy, and so sorry. That's absurd. Why should it make a difference what country you're in? WTF???
I am grateful beyond words most of the time, grateful with the energy of a flame in the dark to have found another in you, and any way I can support your work, I will. 🕯️🧚❤️🔥
Nia I am so grateful to be in your company and intelligent presence. I have felt this deeply that our mistrust towards the world is mostly learned and not natural. It the culture and its ongoing narrative that has made human feel insufficient and envious. If we realise who we really are there won’t ever be any war again, because at our base our nature is that of the force that creates everything else in the world. We are the universe dreaming of being a human. We all are, each and everyone of us. If we don’t recall our oneness with everything and each other we won’t stop this mindless killing.
I am trying for a resolution for stripe by incorporating a company which is a little long drawn process but maybe it’s for the best. I will push all the doors till one of them opens and will keep you posted about it 😊
I am so grateful to have you Nia, thank you for being so kind and supportive always. I love how you say ‘another in you’ 💜
When you find a way, I will resubscribe, with backdated monthly payments for the ones I'll have missed.
(I was just about to send you an email when my latest payment to you failed and switching to my other credit card didn't work. This explains it, and it's a horribly unfair explanation. I'm so sorry to see it.)
That’s really kind of you Mike. I was about to shoot a mail to you as well but then I thought the problem might not be from your end and when I dig into it with stripe team my conviction proved right. Thank you for noticing this.
I actually am a corporation (LOL!). I incorporated in Montana years ago because it helps with liability if you write something that pisses someone off, though it makes my taxes a little more annoying. But it shouldn't be a requirement to be paid for one's work.
Someone recommended a book to me called "Sitting by the Well," by Marion Woodman. It's only in audio version (at least, that's the only place I could find it, on Amazon's Audible), and I am on my third listen to it. It's about feminine energies and archetypes and Jungian dream analysis, but also about patriarchy and "power over" structures. Made me think of you and several conversations here, and with others -- Freya, obviously!
Wow it never occurred to me that it is actually a great step to get under liability protection given the nature of my work. I mean if I could write well enough to make some significant institution sue me, I admit I would be borderline flattered and taxes won’t bother me much post that 🤣
That book sounds exactly up my alley Nia. Power structures and labour laws can be heavily contested here in India even today and if you toss gender disparity of pay in that mix you could write and research about it for months with frustrating lengths of data showing no respite. Did you know many American and European companies choose to operated in countries like India and Philippines for cheap tech talent in order to evade the minimum wage law of the west? There are no minimum wage or working hours that companies need to abide by in these countries.
Haha, yeah, sometimes getting attention for your work has some unintended consequences!
It is *maddening* how easy it is for companies to do that and then say, "Look at our productivity numbers" and then make shareholders happy. It's just endless extraction over and over and over, for centuries. Millenia, really.
Woodman doesn't get into specifics a lot -- it's more psychology and esoteric masculine/feminine energies -- but she did say at one point that the human world has never known a reality in which feminine power was allowed to exist at its full potential. I'm not totally sure about that (thinking of some Indigenous cultures where women had equal or more decision-making), but it's so important, I think, to see how deep and old this struggle is. Sometimes it makes it feel impossible, but other times I think maybe now is the time when awareness can grow and that's when something actually starts to shift.
It is an endless struggle to bring this in scope of policy making specially because the on field advocacy is often bullied or bribed by these corporations. But I know this much that the battle cannot be fought from within the system. One needs to step out and away in order to understand the true extent of such manipulations.
That sounds profound Nia. I pretty much understand why she might think that the world has never lived in an era of full potential of feminine power and wisdom. The eras where women had more egalitarian or leadership roles are now either too buried in the unreachable past (like Indus Valley) or intentionally erased from the collective memory since the rise of abrahamic religions. Maybe there is a hope for a revival of such power and maybe we are more closer to it than we realise.
This book sounds insanely fascinating, I am immediately bookmarking it. It is so much in tune with my ongoing seasons of writing. Than you Nia 💜
"Maybe there is a hope for a revival of such power" -- YES. That is what I keep hanging onto. I can't help but think that this imbalance of masculine/feminine energies reflects people's disconnection from nature, the belief that tells them what we do to water or trees is right and good and has no effect on us, and is at the root of so much that's wrong with the world.
Dearest Swarna. I love how your words flow with such passion and power. I feel so seen when I read your writing--and that despite our opposite ends of where we live in this beautiful, broken world, their are rains starting in earnest here, mirroring your own. This is something I often think of and yet I love the words you use: "What if the whole of life is a process of unbecoming, of stripping away layers of ego that keep our narrative small? Maybe it is the butterfly that goes through the process of chrysalis to un-become the caterpillar she thought she was." YES. Let us know what comes of the inanity of Stripe deciding who can receive funds--like Nia, I will always support you in any way that I can, my sister firefly. 💜🧚🏼
Dear Freya, I feel just as much seen in your words and I think often of you and your Northern latitude magic when I quietly observe the rain. The separation between us is an illusion of space and time, a conditioning of the dominant narrative of nations, languages, borders. The truth is you and I are borderless- like birds and fireflies. Thank you for witnessing my existence and I am grateful to witness your journey too.
I am working a resolution for the stripe account so there is still some hope. I will keep you posted about the same. So much love my sister, I hope you know how much I adore your beautiful presence in this world. 💜
Swarna, I've missed your voice, and I'm glad you've returned. This is so powerful. You have a way of saying out loud with clarity and passion the things that we're thinking. Yes! to the spiritual revolution. It's hard to keep that need in focus when so much of our lives must be devoted to the business of surviving in the world as it is. We have to use the tools of capitalism to try to liberate ourselves from it.
Dear John, you have been so kind to me and I am grateful for your wisdom and presence. I am glad I could return with my insights which have been arriving sharply given the present state of the world. I am promising myself patience and persistence to over personal blocks in order to be of service to this community and all the rest where my voice makes a difference. Maybe together we will beat capitalism at its own game.
I am working towards a resolution for stripe and hopefully it will work out. I will keep you posted, thank you for your thoughts and support. So appreciate it 💜
This is an amazing essay. I am still digesting it… But echoing what everyone else has said in the comments. Thank you so much for taking the time to write it.
Maia, your presence is so deeply appreciated. Thank you for taking time to read and being present with your voice and insight. Your work inspires me a lot as I am practising mindfulness and hope we can stay connected through these priceless interactions. 💜
What a searing, yet beautiful way to describe our world today that, on some days feels crushing and painful and others somethiing of hope. I love your work!!
Thank you Lita! It means the world to me that you are here reading my words and responding to them. If I am able to move you to envision a hopeful world despite its brokenness, I must not live in vain. Much peace to you. 💜
I don't think much of what we do is in vain, thought it often feels like it. I plan to post my first story today. Nothing beautiful and flowing like yours, but truth nonetheless. Sending love, support and good energy - and a thank YOU for your beautiful work.
I am sending so many positive thoughts and energy your way my friend. May your truth rage through like wildfire and may your voice find the ones who understand it. I see you. Much love 💜
Swarna, my friend, you've hit gong after gong of truth in this essay. Resonant and powerful, every line. "If we were not in a constant state of discomfort with the present moment, we would not seek validation to numb it" went to yet another level for me -- a truth that, as you point out, people *know* and yet keep unlearning over and over and over. And then, as you also point out, turning against one another when situations get dire. How, how, how, to we change that resonance to help people see that their neighbors, whether lifelong or newcomers to their community, are not their enemy? Keep telling the stories, keep using your voice.
I am incensed about Stripe's policy, and so sorry. That's absurd. Why should it make a difference what country you're in? WTF???
I am grateful beyond words most of the time, grateful with the energy of a flame in the dark to have found another in you, and any way I can support your work, I will. 🕯️🧚❤️🔥
Nia I am so grateful to be in your company and intelligent presence. I have felt this deeply that our mistrust towards the world is mostly learned and not natural. It the culture and its ongoing narrative that has made human feel insufficient and envious. If we realise who we really are there won’t ever be any war again, because at our base our nature is that of the force that creates everything else in the world. We are the universe dreaming of being a human. We all are, each and everyone of us. If we don’t recall our oneness with everything and each other we won’t stop this mindless killing.
I am trying for a resolution for stripe by incorporating a company which is a little long drawn process but maybe it’s for the best. I will push all the doors till one of them opens and will keep you posted about it 😊
I am so grateful to have you Nia, thank you for being so kind and supportive always. I love how you say ‘another in you’ 💜
When you find a way, I will resubscribe, with backdated monthly payments for the ones I'll have missed.
(I was just about to send you an email when my latest payment to you failed and switching to my other credit card didn't work. This explains it, and it's a horribly unfair explanation. I'm so sorry to see it.)
That’s really kind of you Mike. I was about to shoot a mail to you as well but then I thought the problem might not be from your end and when I dig into it with stripe team my conviction proved right. Thank you for noticing this.
I actually am a corporation (LOL!). I incorporated in Montana years ago because it helps with liability if you write something that pisses someone off, though it makes my taxes a little more annoying. But it shouldn't be a requirement to be paid for one's work.
Someone recommended a book to me called "Sitting by the Well," by Marion Woodman. It's only in audio version (at least, that's the only place I could find it, on Amazon's Audible), and I am on my third listen to it. It's about feminine energies and archetypes and Jungian dream analysis, but also about patriarchy and "power over" structures. Made me think of you and several conversations here, and with others -- Freya, obviously!
Wow it never occurred to me that it is actually a great step to get under liability protection given the nature of my work. I mean if I could write well enough to make some significant institution sue me, I admit I would be borderline flattered and taxes won’t bother me much post that 🤣
That book sounds exactly up my alley Nia. Power structures and labour laws can be heavily contested here in India even today and if you toss gender disparity of pay in that mix you could write and research about it for months with frustrating lengths of data showing no respite. Did you know many American and European companies choose to operated in countries like India and Philippines for cheap tech talent in order to evade the minimum wage law of the west? There are no minimum wage or working hours that companies need to abide by in these countries.
Haha, yeah, sometimes getting attention for your work has some unintended consequences!
It is *maddening* how easy it is for companies to do that and then say, "Look at our productivity numbers" and then make shareholders happy. It's just endless extraction over and over and over, for centuries. Millenia, really.
Woodman doesn't get into specifics a lot -- it's more psychology and esoteric masculine/feminine energies -- but she did say at one point that the human world has never known a reality in which feminine power was allowed to exist at its full potential. I'm not totally sure about that (thinking of some Indigenous cultures where women had equal or more decision-making), but it's so important, I think, to see how deep and old this struggle is. Sometimes it makes it feel impossible, but other times I think maybe now is the time when awareness can grow and that's when something actually starts to shift.
I know right!
It is an endless struggle to bring this in scope of policy making specially because the on field advocacy is often bullied or bribed by these corporations. But I know this much that the battle cannot be fought from within the system. One needs to step out and away in order to understand the true extent of such manipulations.
That sounds profound Nia. I pretty much understand why she might think that the world has never lived in an era of full potential of feminine power and wisdom. The eras where women had more egalitarian or leadership roles are now either too buried in the unreachable past (like Indus Valley) or intentionally erased from the collective memory since the rise of abrahamic religions. Maybe there is a hope for a revival of such power and maybe we are more closer to it than we realise.
This book sounds insanely fascinating, I am immediately bookmarking it. It is so much in tune with my ongoing seasons of writing. Than you Nia 💜
oooo i’m in on that book, sounds fantastic! 👏
"Maybe there is a hope for a revival of such power" -- YES. That is what I keep hanging onto. I can't help but think that this imbalance of masculine/feminine energies reflects people's disconnection from nature, the belief that tells them what we do to water or trees is right and good and has no effect on us, and is at the root of so much that's wrong with the world.
Dearest Swarna. I love how your words flow with such passion and power. I feel so seen when I read your writing--and that despite our opposite ends of where we live in this beautiful, broken world, their are rains starting in earnest here, mirroring your own. This is something I often think of and yet I love the words you use: "What if the whole of life is a process of unbecoming, of stripping away layers of ego that keep our narrative small? Maybe it is the butterfly that goes through the process of chrysalis to un-become the caterpillar she thought she was." YES. Let us know what comes of the inanity of Stripe deciding who can receive funds--like Nia, I will always support you in any way that I can, my sister firefly. 💜🧚🏼
Dear Freya, I feel just as much seen in your words and I think often of you and your Northern latitude magic when I quietly observe the rain. The separation between us is an illusion of space and time, a conditioning of the dominant narrative of nations, languages, borders. The truth is you and I are borderless- like birds and fireflies. Thank you for witnessing my existence and I am grateful to witness your journey too.
I am working a resolution for the stripe account so there is still some hope. I will keep you posted about the same. So much love my sister, I hope you know how much I adore your beautiful presence in this world. 💜
My sister, love you so! 🧚🏻 💜
Love you too sister 🧚🏽♀️💜🕯️
Swarna, I've missed your voice, and I'm glad you've returned. This is so powerful. You have a way of saying out loud with clarity and passion the things that we're thinking. Yes! to the spiritual revolution. It's hard to keep that need in focus when so much of our lives must be devoted to the business of surviving in the world as it is. We have to use the tools of capitalism to try to liberate ourselves from it.
Thank you for keeping that flame alive. 🕯️
Let us know how we can continue to support you.
Dear John, you have been so kind to me and I am grateful for your wisdom and presence. I am glad I could return with my insights which have been arriving sharply given the present state of the world. I am promising myself patience and persistence to over personal blocks in order to be of service to this community and all the rest where my voice makes a difference. Maybe together we will beat capitalism at its own game.
I am working towards a resolution for stripe and hopefully it will work out. I will keep you posted, thank you for your thoughts and support. So appreciate it 💜
This is an amazing essay. I am still digesting it… But echoing what everyone else has said in the comments. Thank you so much for taking the time to write it.
Maia, your presence is so deeply appreciated. Thank you for taking time to read and being present with your voice and insight. Your work inspires me a lot as I am practising mindfulness and hope we can stay connected through these priceless interactions. 💜
You might value the work of Astrida Neimanis - Bodies of Water. I love that the etymology of the word radical stems from root, radix.
The capitalist construct is one where we have 'reduced the universe to the individual'. I think Báyò Akómoláfé said something like this.
More of this is needed: Ecologies of care. Cringey journalism but gorgeous tale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybRKrJQSCNk
Wow such beautiful insights! I shall check out all of these. Thank you so much adding this to the discussion. 💜
Do drop me a line if you feel to share any thoughts on your explorations.
‘What if the whole of life is a process of unbecoming, of stripping away layers of ego that keep our narrative small?’ Yes. ✨
💜🙏
What a searing, yet beautiful way to describe our world today that, on some days feels crushing and painful and others somethiing of hope. I love your work!!
Thank you Lita! It means the world to me that you are here reading my words and responding to them. If I am able to move you to envision a hopeful world despite its brokenness, I must not live in vain. Much peace to you. 💜
I don't think much of what we do is in vain, thought it often feels like it. I plan to post my first story today. Nothing beautiful and flowing like yours, but truth nonetheless. Sending love, support and good energy - and a thank YOU for your beautiful work.
I am sending so many positive thoughts and energy your way my friend. May your truth rage through like wildfire and may your voice find the ones who understand it. I see you. Much love 💜