no heat wave will ever dissuade you from making poetry out of whatever life throws your way and love the images and the fact of your book tour bringing your talents/spirit to a wider audience envy your audiences
Ha! Tell that to my husband as we have thermostat wars. I eat up the heat, preferring outside and in to be one seamless soup. But he's determined to keep indoors an uninteresting 70. He doesn't see poetry in this hot house plant!
It would be so fun to cross paths with all my Substack family on the tour. I'll post dates and locations soon and maybe just maybe you can be in that audience too. ;)
I have a better option than Milwaukee. I'm actually doing two days in the Fox Cities area because so much of my book originates in that area. Appleton Public Library, Thomas Lyons Fine Books in Neenah, and a house party on Lake Winnebago.
Isn't that the truth? I've always wondered about the term "mindfulness" because meditation feels so much more like an act of emptying that filling. And when we typically speak of mindlessness, it's a negative. Let's start a movement to change this!
Delicious abundance of late summer, sumptuous photos, to fill the readers' mind bowls to remind us of earthfullness.
Our figs and grapes have begun to ripen too, adding to the last peaches and maracuja, filling a daily bowl of Moroccan clay with their juicy colours and tempting sweetness...
I love envisioning the human mind like an empty bowl, filling with earthly abundance, emptying, only to be filled again. Yes, so much earthfullness this time of year!
Isn't it wonderful? A lap that's so easy to sink into, makes me understand how it feels for my kitties to sink into mine! Perhaps I should start making biscuits at the sky. ;)
What's your favorite apple recipe? I'll be making a ton of apple butter this year. And plum butter too. It's too easy, no sweeteners needed, and a perfect mid-winter spread of summer on toast.
My husband makes applesauce. I bake it with oats, ground flaxseeds, nuts, eggs and other fruits, and call it breakfast. Plus apple crisps for potlucks.
Beautiful images Kimberley. We're further along here I reckon, more golden browns and scarlet's creeping in so it's nice to feel the summer in late pregnanacy :)
Kimberly, I felt the heat rise off your sentences—the kind that makes even air taste heavy. You caught that wild swing between ripeness & ruin, how summer swells with sugar yet shadows it with fracture. The image of the quail struck me hard, such a sudden counterpoint inside the abundance. I love how you let contradiction stand without smoothing it, how you bow to it instead.
And still, the figs glowed for me most of all. Perhaps because they hold the same paradox—flesh yielding even as it resists. In one of my own essays, titled The Fig of Remembrance, I have a recipe, well, my uncle’s recipe, a syruped heirloom of late-summer excess. It feels like kin to the earthfullness you’ve gathered here. If you do happen to have an abundance of figs, they may find something here. The recipe, I have found, works equally as well with dried figs too. xx
Kim! I’m currently eating sleeping dressing and bathing in figs so yes please! I’d love your uncle’s syrupy heirloom recipe!
And that sweet quail struck me hard too. I was literally standing in the orchard breathing it all in, feeling abundance in my cells, when she startled and lifted into the south garage wall. Life is always reminding me of the balance, lest I get too greedy with one side or the other.
Let me know if any of the ingredients trip you up any, I know a reader may have stumbled upon the meaning of golden syrup, which I am hoping you'll be able to find in Oregon. If not I'll happily send you some!
Ahh Kimberly, I am so excited for you! A five city book tour sounds unimaginably professional and accomplished from my quiet corner - I wish you unbound and endless success!
What a truly scrumptious stroll into mindlessness...
I join you mindless, and yet somehow mindful, in the gorgeousness of "the raucous bacchanalia, everywhere a celebration: figs, berries, kiwis sugaring; tomatoes, apples, plums plumping; purples purpling, reds reddening; thistles lifting, dandelions puffing, lavender buzzing, sunflowers bowing, corn silking, garlic curing; juncos, finches, grosbeaks chitting, tweeing, lilting; swifts testing then trusting wings above earth always giving", heart open, arms outstretched gathering the warmth of your words while I wander my hill where, hastened by the harshness of summers heatwaves, there is a faint flush of autumn flashing timidly in the branches, J'attends la suite!... xx
"Bowled over" is such a great expression. And a perfect bookend to my mind feeling empty and bowled. Maybe that's what happens when we allow ourselves to be empty... with time, we are then filled again, bowled over by life. :)
Over thinking ,under thinking, trying to too hard not to think.
Mindlessness=lack of awareness. So says its definition. It is interesting how I seem to be more aware of my surroundings, particularly outside in nature, when I allow myself to just be.
“…into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”~John Muir
I read that quote years ago and realized this is exactly why I often escape to the forest. I am not there to work through some mathematical equation, I am just there. One step in front of the other, enjoying the moments. “Earth freely spilling.” (I love that quote). I would recite my own earthly list of grandeur, but it is a very long scroll. The only thing missing was my calendula flowers bright sunny faces☹️.
Speaking of enjoying, I hope you have an amazing time on your book tour. I am so excited for you to have finally reached this point! And remember, don’t over think it or under think it, just be. And you will be extraordinary.
You get it don't you Lor! I can see you now, gliding down mountain trails and snow in perfect aware-fullness, with no mind to be found. Let's go in the woods together and lose our minds. Every time you share your thoughts over here, it feels like you're reflecting back our souls so I can only imagine that you carry this wonderful mindlessness throughout your day, your heart always leading the way.
Oh dear, what happened to your calendula flowers this year? Seems the Oregon climate might be more suited? I have more than I can roll around in as we enter September. If you'd like a bag of freshly picked and dried for winter tea, I'd be more than delighted to send you some.
And believe me, I wanted to badly for the tour to land me in Vermont! I have a few heart sisters in your beautiful state and fantasized about a small gathering in a cozy bookshop with Ranger at my feet. Alas. But you are there with me in spirit, this I know. x
I was so excited last year when your seeds produced such lovely flowers. I even planted in different places in case they didn’t like my first choice . Maybe because they were planted on a leap year, in theory, that would mean they will bloom in 2028. Don’t laugh, there is always a first time. Sure, if you get around to it when you return, I would love to try calendula tea.
Too bad about Vermont, Ranger has a habit of being a great people attractor.
Sumptuous, delectable, my mouth waters at your writing, Kimberly and my heart skips in excitement at your forthcoming book tour. Wonderfully infectious beautiful words.
Thank you Emily! I'll add... I was also inspired to bring my bin of wool down from a high shelf and begin feeling the curves of a special tiny something that might someday make it to you. x
"Yet somewhere else abundance seeks its shadow, flourish insists on perish." This feels like a meditation on change and an invocation for letting go, Kimberly. It's not just Nature--it is also us. Or more specifically, we are part of Nature and not immune from the change in seasons and cycles, on Earth and in ourselves. A lovely reminder to take in the sights and sounds of this shoulder season, to breathe in life wherever and whenever we find ourselves.
I would add that before, around, between and after the meditation and invocation we are meant to listen, to see and reflect: is this in harmony with our nature? Are the changes aligned with our highest good? And what insights can I/have I gain(ed) on what has happened and what comes next?
This shoulder season between summer and fall is an ideal time to engage in this process. In Judaism, we call these the "Days of Awe" between Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, or as I like to break it down, At-One-Meant.
It's a powerful part of the seasonal and life cycle.
I feel like this piece read, almost as poem. Or some special mix of poem and prose and song. Either way it sang, Kimberly. So lovely. It also reminded me of something Alan Watts used to say — “people peopling”
Also, also, also — so happy to hear your going on a five city book tour! That’s so awesome! How wonderful and exciting and, of course, so well deserved. :)
Luscious writing and images for these final days of summer. I’m so excited for your book tour! I doubt Atlanta made the top five cut, but here’s hoping.
And goshdarnnit yes, the south seems to be missing from this tour. Though I did just pitch to lead a workshop at an NPE summit in Atlanta next year so if that works out, it would be so fun to connect in person.
It would be great to connect in person. I still think we should set up a little retreat/gathering with the original crew of us that joined Substack and connected around the same time.
Such beauty, Kimberly. Sending warmest wishes as you enjoy these dog days and inwardly prepare for what surely hopes to be a wonderfully received book tour.
no heat wave will ever dissuade you from making poetry out of whatever life throws your way and love the images and the fact of your book tour bringing your talents/spirit to a wider audience envy your audiences
Ha! Tell that to my husband as we have thermostat wars. I eat up the heat, preferring outside and in to be one seamless soup. But he's determined to keep indoors an uninteresting 70. He doesn't see poetry in this hot house plant!
It would be so fun to cross paths with all my Substack family on the tour. I'll post dates and locations soon and maybe just maybe you can be in that audience too. ;)
Marquette would be too much to hope for but Milwaukee might have me researching dog friendly motels 🤔🤣
I have a better option than Milwaukee. I'm actually doing two days in the Fox Cities area because so much of my book originates in that area. Appleton Public Library, Thomas Lyons Fine Books in Neenah, and a house party on Lake Winnebago.
"Appleton" !! that settles it
maybe the mayor will give me a key! 😉 🤣
Well he better!
Sometimes mindlessness is mindful
Isn't that the truth? I've always wondered about the term "mindfulness" because meditation feels so much more like an act of emptying that filling. And when we typically speak of mindlessness, it's a negative. Let's start a movement to change this!
and my very best wishes for a wildly successful book tour!
Thank you!!!! I'm really looking forward to the celebration.
Delicious abundance of late summer, sumptuous photos, to fill the readers' mind bowls to remind us of earthfullness.
Our figs and grapes have begun to ripen too, adding to the last peaches and maracuja, filling a daily bowl of Moroccan clay with their juicy colours and tempting sweetness...
Beautiful writing as always xxx
I love envisioning the human mind like an empty bowl, filling with earthly abundance, emptying, only to be filled again. Yes, so much earthfullness this time of year!
Now you have me wondering... what is maracuja?
You’ve written of one of my favorite meditations! I Love sinking into connection with creation. I wish I could share my apples with you!
Isn't it wonderful? A lap that's so easy to sink into, makes me understand how it feels for my kitties to sink into mine! Perhaps I should start making biscuits at the sky. ;)
What's your favorite apple recipe? I'll be making a ton of apple butter this year. And plum butter too. It's too easy, no sweeteners needed, and a perfect mid-winter spread of summer on toast.
My husband makes applesauce. I bake it with oats, ground flaxseeds, nuts, eggs and other fruits, and call it breakfast. Plus apple crisps for potlucks.
I could taste this and hear it! Wonderful images! Excited for your book tour.
I'm glad your senses joined me Julie. There's more than enough to go around. :)
What an absolute pleasure, I was there, saaaawing and zhiiiizoing away. And this sentence is just glorious...
figs, berries, kiwis sugaring; tomatoes, apples, plums plumping; purples purpling, reds reddening; thistles lifting, dandelions puffing, lavender buzzing, sunflowers bowing, corn silking, garlic curing; juncos, finches, grosbeaks chitting, tweeing, lilting; swifts testing then trusting wings above earth always giving. Earth freely spilling.
Beautiful images Kimberley. We're further along here I reckon, more golden browns and scarlet's creeping in so it's nice to feel the summer in late pregnanacy :)
I'm glad you liked it. Sometimes abundance has no interest in periods. ;)
I do love the golden browns and scarlets too, I imagine you and the dog are quite happy sniffing all that decay and recycling on your daily walks.
He he. And yeah we’re loving each season’s gifts :)
Kimberly, I felt the heat rise off your sentences—the kind that makes even air taste heavy. You caught that wild swing between ripeness & ruin, how summer swells with sugar yet shadows it with fracture. The image of the quail struck me hard, such a sudden counterpoint inside the abundance. I love how you let contradiction stand without smoothing it, how you bow to it instead.
And still, the figs glowed for me most of all. Perhaps because they hold the same paradox—flesh yielding even as it resists. In one of my own essays, titled The Fig of Remembrance, I have a recipe, well, my uncle’s recipe, a syruped heirloom of late-summer excess. It feels like kin to the earthfullness you’ve gathered here. If you do happen to have an abundance of figs, they may find something here. The recipe, I have found, works equally as well with dried figs too. xx
Kim! I’m currently eating sleeping dressing and bathing in figs so yes please! I’d love your uncle’s syrupy heirloom recipe!
And that sweet quail struck me hard too. I was literally standing in the orchard breathing it all in, feeling abundance in my cells, when she startled and lifted into the south garage wall. Life is always reminding me of the balance, lest I get too greedy with one side or the other.
Here is it my darling: https://oftenandotherwise.substack.com/p/the-fig-of-remembrance
Let me know if any of the ingredients trip you up any, I know a reader may have stumbled upon the meaning of golden syrup, which I am hoping you'll be able to find in Oregon. If not I'll happily send you some!
Ahh Kimberly, I am so excited for you! A five city book tour sounds unimaginably professional and accomplished from my quiet corner - I wish you unbound and endless success!
What a truly scrumptious stroll into mindlessness...
I join you mindless, and yet somehow mindful, in the gorgeousness of "the raucous bacchanalia, everywhere a celebration: figs, berries, kiwis sugaring; tomatoes, apples, plums plumping; purples purpling, reds reddening; thistles lifting, dandelions puffing, lavender buzzing, sunflowers bowing, corn silking, garlic curing; juncos, finches, grosbeaks chitting, tweeing, lilting; swifts testing then trusting wings above earth always giving", heart open, arms outstretched gathering the warmth of your words while I wander my hill where, hastened by the harshness of summers heatwaves, there is a faint flush of autumn flashing timidly in the branches, J'attends la suite!... xx
This is so beautiful. I was bowled over by the lushness pf your expression. I can't wait to read your book!
"Bowled over" is such a great expression. And a perfect bookend to my mind feeling empty and bowled. Maybe that's what happens when we allow ourselves to be empty... with time, we are then filled again, bowled over by life. :)
Over thinking ,under thinking, trying to too hard not to think.
Mindlessness=lack of awareness. So says its definition. It is interesting how I seem to be more aware of my surroundings, particularly outside in nature, when I allow myself to just be.
“…into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”~John Muir
I read that quote years ago and realized this is exactly why I often escape to the forest. I am not there to work through some mathematical equation, I am just there. One step in front of the other, enjoying the moments. “Earth freely spilling.” (I love that quote). I would recite my own earthly list of grandeur, but it is a very long scroll. The only thing missing was my calendula flowers bright sunny faces☹️.
Speaking of enjoying, I hope you have an amazing time on your book tour. I am so excited for you to have finally reached this point! And remember, don’t over think it or under think it, just be. And you will be extraordinary.
You get it don't you Lor! I can see you now, gliding down mountain trails and snow in perfect aware-fullness, with no mind to be found. Let's go in the woods together and lose our minds. Every time you share your thoughts over here, it feels like you're reflecting back our souls so I can only imagine that you carry this wonderful mindlessness throughout your day, your heart always leading the way.
Oh dear, what happened to your calendula flowers this year? Seems the Oregon climate might be more suited? I have more than I can roll around in as we enter September. If you'd like a bag of freshly picked and dried for winter tea, I'd be more than delighted to send you some.
And believe me, I wanted to badly for the tour to land me in Vermont! I have a few heart sisters in your beautiful state and fantasized about a small gathering in a cozy bookshop with Ranger at my feet. Alas. But you are there with me in spirit, this I know. x
I was so excited last year when your seeds produced such lovely flowers. I even planted in different places in case they didn’t like my first choice . Maybe because they were planted on a leap year, in theory, that would mean they will bloom in 2028. Don’t laugh, there is always a first time. Sure, if you get around to it when you return, I would love to try calendula tea.
Too bad about Vermont, Ranger has a habit of being a great people attractor.
Sumptuous, delectable, my mouth waters at your writing, Kimberly and my heart skips in excitement at your forthcoming book tour. Wonderfully infectious beautiful words.
Thank you Emily! I'll add... I was also inspired to bring my bin of wool down from a high shelf and begin feeling the curves of a special tiny something that might someday make it to you. x
🥹🙏💛
"Yet somewhere else abundance seeks its shadow, flourish insists on perish." This feels like a meditation on change and an invocation for letting go, Kimberly. It's not just Nature--it is also us. Or more specifically, we are part of Nature and not immune from the change in seasons and cycles, on Earth and in ourselves. A lovely reminder to take in the sights and sounds of this shoulder season, to breathe in life wherever and whenever we find ourselves.
Thank you!
“An invocation for letting go.” Such an important insight Robin, and too easily forgotten in the celebration. Oh how one depends in the other! 💜
I would add that before, around, between and after the meditation and invocation we are meant to listen, to see and reflect: is this in harmony with our nature? Are the changes aligned with our highest good? And what insights can I/have I gain(ed) on what has happened and what comes next?
This shoulder season between summer and fall is an ideal time to engage in this process. In Judaism, we call these the "Days of Awe" between Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, or as I like to break it down, At-One-Meant.
It's a powerful part of the seasonal and life cycle.
Days of Awe. What a perfect way to frame it. Thank you for your wisdom Robin!
I feel like this piece read, almost as poem. Or some special mix of poem and prose and song. Either way it sang, Kimberly. So lovely. It also reminded me of something Alan Watts used to say — “people peopling”
Also, also, also — so happy to hear your going on a five city book tour! That’s so awesome! How wonderful and exciting and, of course, so well deserved. :)
People peopling is awesome. Going to use that one!
Isn’t it the best! :)
Luscious writing and images for these final days of summer. I’m so excited for your book tour! I doubt Atlanta made the top five cut, but here’s hoping.
Thanks Ben. Summer just can’t help herself. :)
And goshdarnnit yes, the south seems to be missing from this tour. Though I did just pitch to lead a workshop at an NPE summit in Atlanta next year so if that works out, it would be so fun to connect in person.
It would be great to connect in person. I still think we should set up a little retreat/gathering with the original crew of us that joined Substack and connected around the same time.
Gosh. That’s the dream Ben.
Such beauty, Kimberly. Sending warmest wishes as you enjoy these dog days and inwardly prepare for what surely hopes to be a wonderfully received book tour.