Hi! I'm so glad you're here. This week's note is about items that remind me of care - for ourselves, for each other, and from the earth.

1. Ah yes, the rocks again. I found these two on the left in Rock Creek Park in DC and at the Burnt Mills Resevoir in MD - I love the ways they glitter in the sun and catch the light. (The slate I wrote about in this note, in case you missed it.) The blue one is from a ritual I did around collective care and tending to each other at the end of 2019. When my partner and I moved up to PA last spring, we woke up one morning, walked down the gravel road along the river, and found the trail that runs up along the creek into the woods. The creekbed is full of glittery rocks like these two. Of course, it's because of geological formations, but also, it felt a little like being welcomed home to a place I didn't know I was searching for. I wonder, how has the earth held you, welcomed you back no matter where you go or where you've been?

2. A watercolor + ink painting I made a few years ago during a period when a community member was having a hard time. Crises can often illuminate what's missing, and when care is isn't there or is slow to show up it's just really hard and painful. I made this painting as a way to visualize the care, the sense of being held, that I want all of us to feel. I wrote about it here, too. What makes you feel cared for? What breaks your heart when it's missing? How do you show up for your people?

3. This print by Molly Costello. I look at it often to remember that we can trust in each other and ourselves; that we've been given incredible gifts and resources from our ancestors, from the body of the earth. What reminds you trust in the people around you? What tools have you been given?

4. It's hard to see, but this is a little clay pot filled with folded scraps of colorful paper that each have a regulating practice written on them. Last spring/summer, when I was having to adjust to the pervasive anxiety of COVID, I made these papers as a kind of random self-and-community-care generator for when I was feeling at loose ends. They say things like "take a bath," "sit on the porch without your phone," "walk down to the river," "tell someone you love them." I wonder, as we move through this part of the pandemic, how have you regulated your nervous system over the past year+? And what kinds of care are you longing for?

Sending you love from the river,

Kali

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