#25: sensuous solidarities

Plus rest, Ghosts and women improving by the hour

You’re reading This Might Resonate, a monthly newsletter from me, Emily. Welcome to all 812 of you! A favour: if you enjoy This Might Resonate, please forward it to a friend - they can subscribe right here.

Solstice light, Devon

Reading

Catherine Newman’s house tour. Delightful!

This beautifully illustrated article on Long Covid.

Calling & Roles for Collective Liberation. Which roles are you and your communities playing?

This conversation between Báyò Akómoláfé, Sa’ed Atshan, and Cecilie Surasky about collective grief in the context of Gaza (listen to the audio here). “… Grieving is the performing of sensuous solidarities… we're weaving our bodies together in some way”.

Healing Justice Lineages by Cara Page and Erica Woodland. A critical read that places care back in the collective (a counter to the commodification of self-care), sharing the healing lineages of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and Queer and Trans people in the US. Since training in grief tending (one of many healing practices for cultures in crisis), I also find myself hankering for a version of this book that locates the collective healing practices of the British Isles and Europe (while examining colonisation). If you know of such a book, please let me know in the comments below.

A pertinent take on the past week in

ASK MOLLY

: “When I was younger, I thought I was supposed to lead and not follow. But family is like anything else. If you take the position that you’re going to lead and inform and educate and enlighten, you’re sure to fail. Besides, with family, you’re almost always doing something ego-related that you’re not acknowledging. You’re ultimately looking to be HEARD and SEEN and UNDERSTOOD as a non-cartoon, without having done the much slower, harder work of learning to see everyone around you as non-cartoons”. I also loved

Heather Havrilesky

‘s questionnaire in

Oldster Magazine

: “Women weren’t designed to fade into the woodwork as they get older. Women improve by the hour.”

Moving Mountains by

Louise Kenward

. I devoured this anthology of chronically ill and disabled nature writing. It is rare to see my own relationship with the more-than-human world so thoughtfully represented.

Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by

David Whyte

. The chapter on rest was particularly resonant for me: “The fifth stage of deep rest and arrival is a sense of absolute readiness and presence, a delight in and an anticipation of the world and all its forms; a sense of being the meeting itself between inner and outer, and that receiving and responding occur in one spontaneous movement.”

Last year, I made my lifelong enquiry into rest official by permanently inking it onto my wrist

Most read from the last edition:

• The friendship problem by

  Rosie Spinks

• Sorry I'm Late - a drunk Irishman asked me out by

  Jess Pan

• Holding Brave, Tender Space in Times of War by

  Panthea
  .

Watching

• Bodies (started promisingly, and then tailed off)

• Slow Horses series 3 (a workplace dramedy, set in a pariah branch of MI5)

• Doctor Who (2023-) (Wild Blue Yonder was masterfully creepy, with incredible effects)

• Murder is Easy (worth it for the stunning costumes but it’s not one of Agatha Christie’s finest plots)

• Ghosts (I watched all five series of this perfect sitcom between Christmas and today).

Listening

Writing

An offering for the Winter Solstice. The journalling prompts would do for New Years reflections too, if you’re into that kind of thing. Personally, I observe New Year’s Day on 1st February, the Celtic festival of Imbolc, as part of my commitment to the Wheel of the Year (read more here, here and here). A gentle reminder that you can choose when to take stock, reflect and make promises, skipping over the unrealistic expectations of tomorrow. The Wheel turns, and it turns — hop on whenever you like.

Talking

Rachel Katz

interviewed me (and other chronically ill folk) for an article in Vox. I talked about grief, rage, community and witnessing in chronic illness — all of the reasons I started

GriefSick

.

Still laughing about

This is culture.

@fuzzyfriends07Chick dance. 🥰😂😍 #chicken #chick #chickendance #chickendancechallenge #foryou #foryoupage #foryourpage #viral #viralvideo #trend #fy #fyp #treanding

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If you’re interested in chronic illness and/or grief, you might like my other newsletter, GriefSick (why have one newsletter when you can have two?).