Hello all!

Last week, I was able to spend time playing with waves in Lake Michigan and then a potluck with dear friends to celebrate my spouse’s birthday. The picture at the top of this email is of a white tailed dear that watched me walk by on the River Trail in my home town.

It was a much needed affirmation of relationships and community. July brought rest, solo time to work on writing classes, collaborative recording with fellow dreamers, and recharging with family. Each moment of creation and care feels like an act of rebellion. I wish I had more answers, and I can offer my dreaming to the world in the hope that it offers refuge, sparks change, and models the possibility of a different road.

Upcoming for August

• I will be teaching Boundaries: Mapping the Self in Community for them on Wednesday, August 6th, online from 6-8pm PST/9-11pm EST. Back in 2002 I found the newsletter Yellow from Society of Janus in San Francisco. Just knowing that there were other queer leather folks in the world and having access to some kind of education was a life line for me growing up in the Midwest. This month I get to give back to that same organization.
• Wednesday, August 20th I will be teaching Creating Energetic Containers for Kink online from 6-8pm PST/9-11pm EST for Wicked Grounds
• I am going to be presenting four classes and helping with rituals at Dark Odyssey Summer Camp August 26th - September 1st. If you are going to be at the event, I will also be doing a limited number of in-person readings.
• Month two of the Introduction to the Northern Tradition: Finding Your Fire is live! Kenn Edwards 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
• I am incredibly grateful for everyone who has donated thus far to the GoFundMe towards my medical bills. We are just over half way towards 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 & Thinking This Month

• I reread the book We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice by Adrienne Maree Brown (which grew from this post) about the messy business of being human with other humans and how we might dream of different roads. Which in turn reminded me of the poem “How to Apologize” by Ellen Bass.
• The novel Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett delighted me in the way that good fairy tales do, with truth couched in riddles and lessons about interacting with the Folk held within stories that help make my mind wander deliciously.
• In the vein of fairy tales I finally got to listen to the gorgeous book The River has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar and I cannot express how beautiful it is. The songs in the audio book (like the story) are hauntingly beautiful in the best kind of way.

I appreciate all of you for coming along on this ride with me.

Warmly,

HG Wyndell