Listening is not only about the normative ability to hear, it is a transformative and revolutionary resource that requires quieting down and tuning in.
(Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Undrowned)
Summer’s Greetings dearest community
We continue to move through time, the sun gets up earlier and stays up longer (maybe, just maybe) obscuring the memory of short, rainy days. It’s a PNW thing, isn’t it? Somehow, each year, we shake off all that rain and delight in the lengthening, beautiful days. Perhaps it’s a bit too much to suggest we’ve completely dried off, this has been the rainiest spring since people have been keeping records of such things, and yet, we know, water is precious. We can hold that feeling, whether it’s the feeling of swimming in the river or walking in a sudden spring downpour, as we enter into the dry and the heat. We can hold it much like we hold water, loosely and knowing its nature is to move.
Throughout the ages people have communicated the wisdom of water: Bruce Lee, Suzuki Roshi, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the water protectors and countless other teachers and poets we look to for guidance. Is it a coincidence that (at least in this hemisphere) the start of the summer is also the beginning of Cancer Season? It is a cardinal sign, which means it initiates. Cancer brings us into the dry, into the heat. We are asked to hold, to embody the water we so need. Cancer is also associated with care taking, and wouldn’t you know that’s our thing? Here at Xenana we are shaping a culture of care with tender hearts and tending hands.
As we shift into the expansive and extroverted season of summer, let’s continue to source balance with practices that calm, restore, hydrate, and keep us centered.
However you choose to share time with us here at Xenana, we will hold the space for you to quiet down and tune in.
Sending love
