Notes from the Heart (Email Newsletter, May 24, 2020)
(1,300 words)
Hello sweet friends,
I hope you are healthy and doing as well as can be.
When I last wrote to you it was January and now it's May and the peonies are blooming. So much has happened. My world has changed, our world has changed.
First, tender news. We lost my gentle, kind-hearted dad on February 24.
I miss him. To know my dad was to feel welcomed. He loved people and always wanted to hear stories. He built greenhouses and big fires, raised flowers and children, and he absolutely adored my mother ("The Universe").
He was home, where he always wanted to be, surrounded by us all while the daffodils he planted in the woods were beginning to bloom. I have never seen sunlight more beautiful in my life than that early morning his spirit passed. He told me twice of dreams in which he met three Cherokee grandmothers, and it did feel like they were there to receive him on that day.
“My hand met my heart and I thought, “Golden. This day is golden.””
This kind of grief is a new experience for me, and one I am giving myself plenty of time and space to move with. There is great sadness and also light. One exquisite facet of this loss is that I recognize how deeply I loved him and was loved by him--and isn't that most wonderful thing we can ever know in this life?
I know many of you have lost beloved fathers too, and I'd cherish any advice you may have for how you moved through the first year without them.
Caring for Ourselves
And wow, here we are, Memorial Day weekend in the midst of a global pandemic. How are you doing? How are taking care of yourself, your heart, your spirit?
My word for 2020 was "golden" and the truth is that it has been a golden year. Just not in any of the ways I expected in January. The magic of the words we choose, and how they expand our experience and understanding of life, never stops amazing me.
“I’ve been giving myself permission to do less. ”
I have not felt very creative since February and that is okay.
Busy with advisor work, I have been at my computer and on Zoom a lot these days. I take breaks to do virtual strength workouts with Amanda Ford each week and go for long slow walks around the neighborhood. I photograph flowers and light, and I breathe. I do light meditations some mornings, and yoga some evenings. I also drink a glass (okay two) of Pinot Noir most evenings at 6pm and have discovered a newfound appreciation for Chardonnay.
In the quiet moments when I turn off the news and noise, I am keenly aware of the shift taking place. Gaia, Mother Earth, the Divine Feminine, whatever you call her, she's rising. Do you feel it? I have noticed the air is cleaner, more birds and frogs are singing than usual (even for spring). There are more flowers.
I am also noticing that the light is more golden this year. Is it just because I chose "golden" as my word for 2020 and so I'm attuned to it? I don't know. But what I do know is that every morning and evening the light is strikingly beautiful, almost dreamlike.
Change is taking place everywhere, but I believe we were made for these times. They call for light and a higher intelligence than brain. We need more heart.
With all of these changes in mind, I have also been considering where to take Lucia next and how we will fund the publishing of our fourth print volume.
A Collective
Something I've been wanting to invite for a long time is more conversation and connection between Lucia's readers, contributors and followers. There is a rich community waiting here--artists, creatives, writers, healers, growers, nurturers, leaders, publishers… so many powerful, heart-centered women. You encourage and lift others, and I would love to create a space for you to find each other.
If we do start up a small collective, I'd like for it to be housed in an online space that feels clean, quiet, intimate, inspiring...more like a windowed breakfast nook than a typical social media network. I'm thinking cozy sanctuary studio for your soul. Not Facebook. Not LinkedIn.
I'm looking for a tool that can help us do this. I have found a couple, but if you have ideas, I'd love to hear them. The idea is in the "half-baked" stage where things feel solid but not ready to remove from the oven and serve.
Changes
I've also been thinking a lot about the changing landscape of the media right now and how it may affect women's magazines and journals. If you're curious about what goes through my brain on this topic, read on. If not, skip to the end for links to music and books!
Many of you know the reason I started Lucia was to contribute my creativity and skills to support what I felt was an important shift in how women's magazines were created back in 2014.
Magazines were inundating us with all of these false messages about who we should be, how we should live--most of it driven by advertising. "Buy this product and you can be more beautiful, fit, healthy, happy," was the message, the psychological implication being, "You are not enough unless you consume this."
I had picked up the first edition of Womankind in Australia that year and felt my jaw drop to the floor. How refreshing to read intelligent, thoughtful, philosophically oriented content by and for women alongside beautiful photography and illustrations, and see zero ads!
That led me to create a new kind of magazine. I wanted to make something that would inspire and enlighten readers by giving voice to the heart and celebrating true beauty. I wanted it to encourage creativity and optimism, while giving us another way to feel connected to something powerful and deep--our own intuition, wisdom, and heart. Lucia's maiden issue was published in 2015.
I never envisioned Lucia as a media heavyweight, and we are not. I like to think of Lucia more like one honeybee in a beautiful hive. We are unique and do our part to gather pollen from blooms to help make the honey, We buzz in concert with all the rest of the bees likeWomankind, For Women Who Roar, Cherry Bombe, Oh Comely, BUST, etc.
It is curious to witness, though, how just five years after our first issue the economic contraction caused by this pandemic is affecting the big women's magazines that have traditionally been funded by product advertisements. While it is hard to hear about talented writers and creatives being laid off, at the same time I wonder if the shifting landscape will result in more of us seeking, creating, writing for, and participating in women's media that is funded in other ways?
Maybe we will see more people choosing "slow media" magazines and journals like Lucia and other independents. Will women be more likely to participate in small-but-powerful collectives? Will we find the encouragement and support here that moves us toward the creative work we were born into this time to do? I don't have all the answers, but I am so very curious to know what you think! Please drop me a note if you have thoughts, ideas, or insights.
I am wearing these beautiful linen face masks Amanda gave to me when I go for coffee and groceries.
And I am reading through the submissions we received for Volume Four, soaking in the creativity found here. Thank you to those who submitted your work. It's exciting to read and think about how to place the puzzle pieces of the next print issue together. Summer work is cut out for me.
I hope the rest of May and June brings you so much love, good health, long walks, gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, and some very real hugs. I sorely miss real hugs from my girlfriends! You too? Soon, soon.
Breathe deeply and keep caring for yourself. Remember you are a golden gift to this world.
Love,
Laura
P.S. I am reading Dare to Lead by Brené Brown. My favorite quote so far is from Minouche Shafik, director, London School of Economics: "In the past, jobs were about muscles, now they're about brains, but in the future they'll be about the heart." Yes! I also read Chani Nicholas' book, You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance and discovered how to decipher my astrology chart, which explains a few things.
P.P.S. My friend Sarah introduced me to ROSALÍA (thank you) and I've been soaking up her sultry, sassy, strong feminine Spanish voice. It is just what my heart and brain need to hear right now. I also just found a new Spotify channel called Sexy Spanish Ambient Pieces. This is in addition to the channel I often play when my love comes to my place for dinner, Spanish Guitar Lounge Music. Sensing a theme? I am also in love with the music of Ekaterina Zaytseva, who I listened to "live" in Barcelona in 2014 and the experience left a mark of inspiration on me just as Lucia was about to become a sparkle in my eye.
P.P.P.S. Amanda found the linen facemasks here.
P.P.P.PS. To purchase Lucia's print volumes, visit here.
Laura Lowery is the founder, editor and publisher of Lucia. She does her best to lead a creative life. Whether triumphant or stumbling, Laura shares daily notes (that are often weekly) here on luciajournal, including stories, behind-the-scenes happenings, little doses of inspiration, and large quantities of curiosity and heart. She is pleased to meet you.