Hello all!

As I write this, the feel of summer’s ending is in the air. We are still very much in the summer harvest season, and night time temperatures are starting to dip down to near frost levels. Apple and pear season is in full swing here in Michigan. The colors are starting to shift already in some places, splashes of red and gold among the green. Fierce winds, especially around late afternoon and into evening here in the middle of the state, when the gales are hitting the Great Lakes, driving waves over 10’ tall in some places (cue Gordon Lightfoot singing about the Gales coming early and the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald).

The effort to find beauty, connection, and community is real. Some days it feels like triage, trying to find friendly lawyers, sharing resources, reaching out. Other days it is the fierce joy of dancing late into the night, eating delicious food with loved ones, and perfect rays of light through late summer leaves. It is watching people I love, love each other with the dial turned to 11. It is queers passing the same $25 back and forth to keep us all swimming for another month. Some days it is sleeping through the afternoon after an hour of yard work, and trying to reconcile the level of disability that is rearing its head in my world. All of these things live together.

Happening this month:

• I arrived home from Dark Odyssey Summer Camp on Tuesday. Camp was what I needed right now. It is one of the few places in the world where I don’t have to mask constantly. Where I can say “I am not ok right now, and I am still good, thank you for asking” while having that validated and held with kindness.
• September 21 I will be teaching Conversations with the Runes in Lansing at Keys to Manifestation. Tickets here.
• On Wednesday, September 24 Wicked Grounds will be hosting me online for Invisibile Toybox: The Energy of Kink. Tickets here.​
• Sunday, September 28th, the Portland Leather Alliance is sponsoring Boundaries: Mapping the Self in Community. You can RSVP here for more information.​
• Month three of the Introduction to the Northern Tradition: Finding Your Fire is live! Kenn and I are learning so much as we make the recordings for this course. We have been actively working on this for about a year behind the scenes and having it finally get to folks is a delight. The course is set up as a series of videos, readings, and guided prompts with opportunities for feedback and interaction. Enrollment is available in an ongoing manner at: https://payhip.com/b/c3jRF . It is wild to me that this project is out in the world. We are currently recording month 4 and 5 of the program and I am SUPER excited about it.
• I am incredibly grateful for everyone who has donated thus far to the GoFundMe towards my medical bills. Almost to getting the first bill payed off. The Funds are currently helping handle monthly payments on the medical debt so that I can focus on teaching and writing work. If you are able to share or contribute the link to the campaign is here: https://gofund.me/b79abbfb​

Reading this month:

• Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian https://patriciakaishian.com/forest-euphoria​
  • One of the conversations that this book sparked for me was thinking about the grief/pain of never living somewhere where I am speaking a language fluently that is indigenous. What we talk about, and how we talk about it, shape the way we experience the world. When we grow up speaking colonialized language, language that comes from elsewhere, there is a distance between us and belonging to the places we live.
• On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes" by Alexandra Horowitz
• The Marginalian Newsletter https://www.themarginalian.org/2025/07/26/ellen-bass-kiss/​

Thank you for being here.

Warmly,

HG