July 23rd
Good morning!
This is Issue 68.3 of Digestable, your thrice-weekly mouthful of things happening in the world.
Today’s news, fermented:
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about rest. I know it’s not just me; summer is often a time to slow down, unless you grow vegetables (and many other occupations, of course). But on the heels of a verrryyyyyy long year of isolation, which for many is not really coming to an end, this exhaustion is particularly acute.
Emily Atkin, who’s been publishing climate reporting via Heated nearly every weekday for the last year and a half, is scaling back. As she quotes from Susanne Moser in All We Can Save: “Burned out people aren’t equipped to serve a burning planet.”
This points to one of the most difficult parts, I think, of trying to dismantle the systems that make it impossible for us to rest in the first place. Not only do we live in an economic system that demands we work too many hours to leave enough time for all the other important stuff—but also the other stuff includes things like addressing the climate crisis and dismantling white supremacy and empire. The other stuff feels way too urgent to put it off.
While this feels impossible to my oft-overactive planning brain, the calls for rest, from less-frequent publication schedules to organizational slowdowns, point to a broader shift. People are finally starting, en masse, to doubt the myths that keep capitalism afloat.
Now, instead of encouraging young people to dream about what labor they want to toil at, we’re talking about values, and what’s really important. Rather than accepting career trajectories as the only kind of visioning we’re allowed to do, we read and write science fiction and organizing plans that allow us to believe in a different world.
It seems like, as the world continues to end in little and big ways, over and over again, people across identities and geographies are stepping off the speeding train of how-things-are in order to stand on the platform of how-things-might-be, and even to start constructing the life raft we need, the esteemed vessel: What to do Next. With the leadership of folks for whom the complete failure of our systems has never been a question, we just might build a sufficiently sturdy raft.
Here’s to finding our way there.
(via)
~Caro’s Tarot~
Good morning, rise and shine...happy Friday! We’ve made it to the end of the week, and that isn’t always easy. Let’s take a moment before our reading to un-hunch our shoulders, roll them back, unclench your jaw...remove your tongue from the roof of your mouth...and let’s take a deeeep breath in...hold it...count down from five...and then let that breath out in a big sigh.
Our bodies hold so much tension, they hold all of the stress from our busy days, absorbing it and keeping it in our tensed up shoulders, and clenched jaws. I wanted to take a moment to do this brief exercise this morning, because Tarot is inherently about taking care of yourself. Not necessarily your physical self, like we took care of this morning, but your spiritual self. Reflecting, being introspective, this is how we take care of spirit and mind. If you own a Tarot deck, or are curious about maybe getting one, I want to share some helpful three card spreads, along with some guided questions to help you get unstuck, or to simply turn within and pay attention to what is happening in your spiritual realm.
Three card spreads are my favorite because they are quick, easy, and typically pretty revealing. Three card spreads can be interpreted in many ways, but here are three different ways you can inquire within by using this set up:
You, Your Path, Your Potential. This is my favorite when asking serious questions about a decision you’re pondering, or when you simply want to look ahead at the outcomes of a situation, see what you could expect.
Physical State, Emotional State, Spiritual State. This spread can be used to simply inquire about where you are currently at in these three separate realms.
Given what worked well, and what didn’t work well, this is the key lesson. This is a much more dynamic way of reading the cards, it flows really well, and can help you reflect on a situation, an outcome, or you can just inquire about the past day or week.
Alright readers, hope some of y’all are able to practice and play around with some of these spreads. So take out your decks, light a candle, take out some pen and paper, and spend some time with yourself and the cards. Journal, reflect, make space for you to really ponder and think about your inner world.
Ok, onto our reading! Let’s ask the universe, or whatever higher being you believe in, what should we reflect on from the past week?
Five of pentacles!
Let’s see what Vita Ayala’s interpretation of this card is…
Don’t be too proud or scared to ask for help. You’re struggling, and you feel like there’s absolutely nothing to do but put your head down and try and suffer through it. Bit if you look around, you’ll see there’s warmth and loved ones who are willing to help you out in some sense. Even if it’s just a kind shoulder to cry on, they’ll help you weather the storm.
Phew, this one is self explanatory. If you are struggling, or going through a tougher time this week, don’t be afraid to lean on others! Life has plenty of storms we can’t weather alone.
Sending you off with blessings, good thoughts, and a huge hug readers! Enjoy this weekend, reflect, and be gentle on yourselves.
DJ toMoR0’s low-key Music Show and *Hot Goss*
back next week.