Today is May Day, also known by many Pagans as Beltane. It is a meaningful date for me for so many reasons. It is International Workers' Day: a memorable date for someone brought up by a father active in the trade union movement and the communist party in Italy (this was before communism fell apart in a myriad of ways). It is also a day when Pagan celebrate fertility, abundance and creation. And, for the past three years, I have lived in Minneapolis (MN, USA), where May Day is celebrated in community, with both political awareness and joyous creativity, welcoming back the sun after a long, cold winter. Therefore, it seems apt to start a new project on this day, especially one that I hope it will last a whole year.
Several friends have 365 projects and my own neighborhood has a photographic project so I am definitely not original in my endeavor. Rather, I have found myself inspired by those projects, seduced by the idea of committing to an enterprise for a whole year and here I am. As I considered what I wanted to focus on and bring forth, many ideas sprang to mind. I thought about devoting 365 days to embodiment, since much of my recent personal work has centered around the body and movement. I thought about celebrating 365 days of pleasure and delight, as I find it so important to live a joyous life as a trans-identified, queer person when still too many would prefer to see us bleeding and lonely. Yet, as I woke up this morning I knew that vulnerability was what I needed to open up to for the next year. It has been a long day and I will save telling you my personal reasons for choosing to open to vulnerability for a whole year tomorrow. For tonight, I wanted to get started, to take that first step on the path, to make that commitment to myself. Yet, I do want to share a video, which originally was suggested by a friend a few weeks ago, and that led to this moment of realization, to this knowing that this was the key to another layer of healing, opening, listening and connecting. Here it is, Brene Brown's TED talk on vulnerability and why it matters. Good night.
2 comments:
Dear Alex, this was just what I neaded to hear today <3
Hello Alex, thanks for the link to the Brene Brown video. It was also helpful in my life and one of my current challenges. (What do I fear and how do I deal with it?)
Looking forward to more posts.
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