#attunedpracticetuesdays: where we share the rituals and routines that are aligned with our sense of peace and wellbeing A couple of months ago, while working on a commission project , I started a new practice. I was listening to audio books while working since the project required my eyes but not my full attention, and since it was fairly labor intensive, I took the weekends off (not something I would normally do). Lacking something to do with my hands, the first Saturday I decided to put my speedy reading to good use and read a novel in one sitting (my preferred method, anyway). Then I read another novel the next Saturday. And now it has becomes a weekly thing. The only rule is that it has to be fiction - I read enough non fiction that a novel a week isn't going to hurt anything (and it wouldn't anyway, reading is reading). Helping out with Paper Heart Books and attending a bring-your-own-book-club meeting last week helped restock my dwindling supply. I like to get hard cop...

#attunedpracticetuesdays: where we share the rituals and routines that are aligned with our sense of peace and wellbeing I have tried to be a morning person. I really have. All through my teenaged years, my mom (who, by nature or through years of practice, is an early riser) insisted on my morning alarm being set for 6am (a concession on her part; she would have preferred five). I have intermittently attempted to get up before the kids in order to have some uninterrupted time at the beginning of the day - but I've ultimately found that the thing that most helps set my day on the right path is not starting it with the blaring of an alarm. Since my natural waking time is... not early, let's leave it at that, that required some adjustment to the generally prescribed daily order that leaves one, according to self-help influencers and Benjamin Franklin, "healthy, wealthy, and wise." Historically, we have done school in the morning. Theoretically everyone is at their best a...

#attunedpracticetuesdays: where we share the rituals and routines that are aligned with our sense of peace and wellbeing During The Dark Years (circa 2004-2019), I recall joining someone in wondering why "those people" feel the need to make queerness "like, their whole personality" (probably over some hapless barista with a small rainbow flag pin on their apron). I was a practiced asshole, a closeted queer person trying to survive in a context that condemned my very existence. (As a side note, I think I have apologized to everyone I need to from that time period, but if I overlooked you, please know the omission was not intentional). At the time of that conversation, I wouldn't have considered it odd for someone to have verses of Christian scripture wrenched from their context and plastered on every conceivable household item and accessory. It wasn't the identifying that was the problem, it was the specific identity . But as someone who is now never out of ...

#attunedpracticetuesdays: where we share the rituals and routines that are aligned with our sense of peace and wellbeing  It's been almost a year since I wrote about astrology , although I've posted on Instagram fairly often. It's not something I plan around, necessarily, but it is still an extremely helpful tool. At the moment, my favorite thing about it is the invitation to rhythm. Tonight I have a full moon circle . The moon will be in Capricorn, so we'll examine the intentions we set six months ago when the moon was new in the same sign, and make any necessary adjustments. We'll pull cards, because journaling is a wonderful tool for introspection but tarot is often direct in the areas I might soften or sidestep altogether. We'll probably also burn stuff - things we're ready to let go of, written on slips of paper and committed to flame. And then in another six months, when the moon is once again new in Capricorn, we'll embrace the culmination of thos...

Attuned [adjective] sensitive to one's needs, desires, values, etc Practice [verb] to follow or observe habitually Attuned Practice: rituals and routines that are aligned with one's sense of peace and wellbeing Welcome to #attunedpracticetuesdays, where I share (either here or on Instagram if I have less to say about it) rituals and routines that are aligned with my sense of peace and wellbeing (I spent a two mile walk trying to think of a non-capitalistic way to express the concept of "what works for me" and this is where I landed). The photo at the top of this post is a good example - that's a little altar I set up for a monthly moon circle, themed around the season of Cancer the crab. Attending that moon circle on Zoom , and doing a little prep beforehand, is one of my attuned practices. But more than just sharing my practices, I also wanted to start a conversation about your practices, as well. I love hearing what other people are doing that's different fr...