I've been meaning to write a comment on this for ages, but life gets in the way. Sorry. An absolutely beautiful piece written with your signature brilliance. I always feel a brethren (sistren?) with the way you see/feel the world.
¨
"The capitalistic disregard for the essence of life (consciousness and nature), turn me inwards in a purgatorial rage," and "Reclamation of human agency and brilliance lies in rejecting the system and its rules," are both basically my next post condensed to two lines. Thank you Swarnali. It's good to have a partner in (all this) crime :)
Such serendipity my friend, I was reading your previous piece as you are here. It’s the movement of the numen that move us into this holy dance of idea and unplanned collaboration. I am eternally indebted to your brotherly compassion and our belonging 💜
"The composition of dissent and resistance that rises through each molecule of consciousness, and spread like wildfire across our world." Yessssss!
I know I've said it before, and it's a bit on the nose with this particular essay, but your writing never fails to take my breath away. It's incredible. You have world-shaping power in you.
On a slight uplift note, I've been fascinated with how quickly and thoroughly my kids and many of their friends have ditched social media and gotten fed up and bored with AI. I know it's not a watershed moment, but it's interesting and encouraging to see very young people come to the conclusion, on their own, that it's more fun and interesting to use their own minds and brains and *do* things, whether alone or with others.
My sister, I am indebted to your love and appreciation. I don’t know what universe thought before bringing me into your light but I am so grateful to that which dreamt of such a friendship. I have been thinking of what you write about relational belonging, since I read your essay yesterday. You are such a gift my friend. I can’t tell you how important I think it is now to talk about structures of relating deeply.
Children, ah yes, they are the only ones I put all my hopes on. They are the best that we have yet. Their spiritual meridian is straight unlike the generations that run the world and their hearts attuned to language of nature and spirit. May the lands, water, birds, and moon speak to them. May the stars lead their way into a new earth. It brings me such joy and I am tearing up again, to learn that your children are on the right path Nia. You have raised them well. 💜🔥🧚
Ah, Swarna, you always leave me with a throat full of joy and song and a kind of fierceness I can’t full articulate — one that hopeful leads to right action as well as right relationship, though as for many of us it sometimes just leads to tears.
I am so glad the universe brought us together 💚🕯️❤️🔥
Beautiful writing, beautiful observations of the current state of affairs. I had a huge problem with the AI voice—which is ironic given the subject matter. The AI voice did not make the reading of the quotes distinguishable from the text. Also some sentences appeared to have no end as punctuation was not adhered to. I’m sure this technology will improve but I’d rather hear an author’s or a professional narrator’s voice, regardless. Automated narration represents another profession lost.
I so agree! Now that you said, I will make a recording of this essay and upload it here. Substack add these automated audios by default to newsletters if we don’t upload our own voice. Which is annoying because I couldn’t figure out how to disable them.
I usually write these essays crunched between my job which is heavily threatened by AI and stealing hours on weekends. But reading it out for audience like you would definitely be a worthy effort. Thank you for taking time to sit with the unfolding of this essay.
If you have some more time to spare I have one essay where I read things out aloud. I will share the link here.
Thank you Rebecca. I deeply appreciate your kindness. I hope someday Substack will grow over its tone-deafness.
Did you know Substack doesn’t enable any other payment partner than stripe which is not available to Indian users? Its maddening. I was a paid writer here before the stripe fallout happened for Indian creators and now we are left cutoff from our revenue stream. It’s really hard. I complained a lot about it and one of my notes about this issue even went viral, restacked by tons of big accounts calling out Substack for action, but Substack was radio silent - nothing changed in last two years.
Anyway I hope you stay and enjoy this platform. I would love to read your poetry too. Thank you for taking time to connect 💜
This is a living, breathing masterpiece Swarna. Thank you, thank you for sharing it with us.
You saying this means the world to me. Thank you my dear.
I've been meaning to write a comment on this for ages, but life gets in the way. Sorry. An absolutely beautiful piece written with your signature brilliance. I always feel a brethren (sistren?) with the way you see/feel the world.
¨
"The capitalistic disregard for the essence of life (consciousness and nature), turn me inwards in a purgatorial rage," and "Reclamation of human agency and brilliance lies in rejecting the system and its rules," are both basically my next post condensed to two lines. Thank you Swarnali. It's good to have a partner in (all this) crime :)
Such serendipity my friend, I was reading your previous piece as you are here. It’s the movement of the numen that move us into this holy dance of idea and unplanned collaboration. I am eternally indebted to your brotherly compassion and our belonging 💜
🙏🏽💚
"The composition of dissent and resistance that rises through each molecule of consciousness, and spread like wildfire across our world." Yessssss!
I know I've said it before, and it's a bit on the nose with this particular essay, but your writing never fails to take my breath away. It's incredible. You have world-shaping power in you.
On a slight uplift note, I've been fascinated with how quickly and thoroughly my kids and many of their friends have ditched social media and gotten fed up and bored with AI. I know it's not a watershed moment, but it's interesting and encouraging to see very young people come to the conclusion, on their own, that it's more fun and interesting to use their own minds and brains and *do* things, whether alone or with others.
🪄🧚
My sister, I am indebted to your love and appreciation. I don’t know what universe thought before bringing me into your light but I am so grateful to that which dreamt of such a friendship. I have been thinking of what you write about relational belonging, since I read your essay yesterday. You are such a gift my friend. I can’t tell you how important I think it is now to talk about structures of relating deeply.
Children, ah yes, they are the only ones I put all my hopes on. They are the best that we have yet. Their spiritual meridian is straight unlike the generations that run the world and their hearts attuned to language of nature and spirit. May the lands, water, birds, and moon speak to them. May the stars lead their way into a new earth. It brings me such joy and I am tearing up again, to learn that your children are on the right path Nia. You have raised them well. 💜🔥🧚
Ah, Swarna, you always leave me with a throat full of joy and song and a kind of fierceness I can’t full articulate — one that hopeful leads to right action as well as right relationship, though as for many of us it sometimes just leads to tears.
I am so glad the universe brought us together 💚🕯️❤️🔥
🤗💜🧚🔥
Beautiful writing, beautiful observations of the current state of affairs. I had a huge problem with the AI voice—which is ironic given the subject matter. The AI voice did not make the reading of the quotes distinguishable from the text. Also some sentences appeared to have no end as punctuation was not adhered to. I’m sure this technology will improve but I’d rather hear an author’s or a professional narrator’s voice, regardless. Automated narration represents another profession lost.
I so agree! Now that you said, I will make a recording of this essay and upload it here. Substack add these automated audios by default to newsletters if we don’t upload our own voice. Which is annoying because I couldn’t figure out how to disable them.
I usually write these essays crunched between my job which is heavily threatened by AI and stealing hours on weekends. But reading it out for audience like you would definitely be a worthy effort. Thank you for taking time to sit with the unfolding of this essay.
If you have some more time to spare I have one essay where I read things out aloud. I will share the link here.
https://berkana.cc/p/waiting-on-quietude
Thank you for your quick response. As a writer myself (poet) I understand the demand to have salaried work.
It is maddening when a site provider doesn’t give you a user-friendly way to disable an unwanted feature. Substack? Are you listening/reading?
I’m looking forward to listening to your essays in your voice. Thanks again. I appreciate your beautiful work.
Thank you Rebecca. I deeply appreciate your kindness. I hope someday Substack will grow over its tone-deafness.
Did you know Substack doesn’t enable any other payment partner than stripe which is not available to Indian users? Its maddening. I was a paid writer here before the stripe fallout happened for Indian creators and now we are left cutoff from our revenue stream. It’s really hard. I complained a lot about it and one of my notes about this issue even went viral, restacked by tons of big accounts calling out Substack for action, but Substack was radio silent - nothing changed in last two years.
Anyway I hope you stay and enjoy this platform. I would love to read your poetry too. Thank you for taking time to connect 💜
I love how you come up for air at the end...
Thank you Tamsin. 💜