​If you've visited this space before, you may notice a new name for the monthly posts. My intention is to shift my focus to writing and writing as a conduit for emotional healing. At some point I hope to also publish these posts as a newsletter on Substack, so over the next few months I will be trying a new format. 

I recently took a Therapists Who Tarot training with Dreya Bloom. I was already interested in Tarot & oracle cards, but this took it to an 11. I've already purchased multiple decks and have been drawing a card every day on my Instagram. So, I thought I would do a community pull every month and post it here. I'll share information on the card and the deck.

Though not yet realized it has also been a dream to start a Little Free Library. I will update you here on my progress. 

As usual, I will post the groups I will be facilitating, classes or trainings I attended, and any recent publications. Along with the books I'm reading or completed in the past month and some of my favorite haiku, poetry, music, and quotes. 

Enjoy. ​

​Community Card Pull: 

What is important for you to know right now? ​

Deck: The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

Card: The modern interpretation of the High Priestess represents the unknown, mystery, intuition, spiritual knowledge, and the subconscious mind. ​

My Little Free Library: 

(Doesn't exist yet) but it will soon. My plan is to have a Little Free Poetry Therapy Library to bring together my loves of personal exploration and poetry. I hope to find ways to bring more attention to poetry and the ways reading & writing poetry is therapeutic. 

Books I Finished in January: ​

• The Wedding People by Alison Espach 

Current Book Club Selection: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi 
​
"His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers.

Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their "rightful owners." With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered." ​

Haiku: 

snow melting . . .
the village floods
with children!
​
Issa​

​Dead Poet (replace): 

After great pain, a formal feeling comes (372) 
by Emily Dickinson 

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions 'was it He, that bore,'
And 'Yesterday, or Centuries before'?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –


This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –​

Vintage Art: 

​Song on Repeat: Undiscovered by Ashlee Simpson

"I can't try any harder than I do
All the reasons I gave, excuses I made for you
I'm broken in two" 
​
Quote to Remember: "You think I’m not a goddess? Try me." - Margaret Atwood 

Upcoming Events:

• Groundhog Day is January 1st, 2025
• ​National Wear Red Day is February 7th, 2025 
• Galentine's Day is February 13th, 2025
• Valentine's Day is February 14th, 2025 
• President's Day is February 17th, 2025
• ​Rare Disease Day is February 28th, 2025

 
Facilitating: 

• Center for Chronic Illness - Living with Rare Chronic Illness Support Group, Tuesday February 4th, 2025 at 4pm PST. 

Attending:

• Not attending any events or trainings this month. 

​

Book Club: All Fours by Miranda July 
​
"A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive."
​
​(I'm a proud member of the sloth reading club, so what I'm reading will not always change monthly) 

​Vintage Art: ​

​Song on Repeat: ​The Origin of Love from Hedwig And The Angry Inch 

"I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul
Was the same as the one down in mine
That's the pain
That cuts a straight line down through the heart
We call it love"

Quote: "The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." - David Bowie

Publications: 

• 1 of my haiku was published in the The Haiku Foundation Haiku Dialogue, January 29th, 2025.

long story short falling star 

Attended:

• Camerawork in Poems with Jenny Johnson 

            

​Poem:

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
by e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                      i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)​

Quote:
"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice." - T.S. Eliot ​