Weeds and Hope (vol. 6, no. 5)

Here are a few things I’m sharing this month:

1. Question(s):

• “What if we’re a lot more unconscious than we know?  What if, even when we think we’ve got everything worked out and planned out, we’re actually, in certain ways, just reacting to things? What if it were possible to be a little more awake, a little more conscious, so that you can do what you really want to do—so that you can find out what that is—and so that you’re not just blundering along from one thing to the next in life?” – John Shirley (from Take My Advice by James L. Harmon)

2. Quote:

• “We are shaped by our shaping of the world and are shaped again in turn. The way we face the world alters the face we see in the world.” – David Whyte (Consolations)

3. Poem:

Excerpts from “Hope” by Lisel Mueller from Alive Together.

It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segment
surviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs
from the eyes to the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
of the child that has just been born.

It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.

4. Something inspiring:

“Flotsam and Fluorescent Splendor” by Christine Kwon

I watch the weeds pop up
after spending days weeding

I could spend my life like this

5. Project Update:

• My Football is… project is moving into the manuscript preparation stage. I’m committing myself to a September 1, 2025 book release.

Thanks so much. And, have a great day! – shawn