Right now, the activities I embrace without hesitation are playing with children and holding babies. And holding the hands of grown up people who need their hands held. And hugging those who need or want to be hugged, including animal companions. The particular difficulties of my life feel like so much drivel when there’s a baby asleep on my chest, or I’m making pillow forts with a five-year-old, or holding the hand of someone happy or grieving, anxious or excited. Those experiences reinforce a believe that the love inherent in those actions has the power to vanquish political leaders who break people and infrastructure with no intention of mending. I need to feel that love as often as possible. We need to step into a deeper conversation about enchantment and agape, and to actively explore a greater capacity to love other humans. The old ideas—the crushing immorality of maintaining the nation-state, the life-destroying belief that to care for others is to be weak, and that to be generous is to be foolish—can have no future with us. ~Barry Lopez, from Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World What if holding was the starting point? What if hands and children were held as much as they needed to be held? What if the Donalds and the Petes, the Pams, the Kristis and the Elons got the love they needed at all the crucial points they needed to receive it? How about that? Everything is about love and the absence of love. When I am not tethered to love I am lost. I want lie down, pull the blanket to my chin and sleep for a very long time. But babies, children and grieving adults, even pets, do not owe me love or comfort, so when they are absent, I find both, walking, hiking woods and mountains, and meandering through fields and along riverbanks. Long ago, I stumbled into a grove of pine trees in a Maine forest, and one invited me to lean against it. The only requirement was a desire to lean. It is more important now to be in love than to be in power. ~Barry Lopez This is an essay from my Substack newsletter, Glorious Ordinary, which you can read here. Regarding AI: I do not use it in any part of my writing or recording processes: from conceiving and nurturing ideas, to editing drafts, to writing and recording the final essay. Everything you read and listen to is the work of one human. Let’s work together! * I’m an executive and life coach, and my niche is working with people living with type 1 diabetes. I've lived with T1D for 30+ years, and share a compassion borne of lived experience. I work with people "in the gap.” Folks who are doing "fine" clinically, but get little support navigating daily life events. Diabetes inserts itself into every aspect of life. You don’t have to manage alone. Contact me here on Substack, or LinkedIn. * Mindfulness is key to my work and writing. Find my talks and guided meditations on Insight Timer. Get full access to Glorious Ordinary at valeriespain.substack.com/subscribe
