Tiny Revolutions №111: Homecoming & homemaking 🕯️

sometimes “not no” is about as clear as it gets

Photo by Nick D’Andria via Instagram

Friends, I have been having an absolute blast this summer. Which feels weird to say amidst the general chaos. But it’s true! It kicked off with my trip to Japan, which I wrote to you about last time, and it has continued with so many little experiments and paths of inquiry. If I had to give this summer a theme, it’s been that I have allowed myself to dream in ways that I never really used to. If the world is ending, which it so often feels like, why the hell not?

Mind you, I’ve been in a phase of exploration since I left L.A. in July of 2023 after 18 years. My intention when I set out was to be a digital nomad for a year and see where it took me before making any decisions about where to land. I’ve spent the largest chunks of time in Atlanta and Minneapolis, where I have family, with frequent side trips to places farther afield.

You might remember from my last email that I planned to host a community-building experiment in the Hudson Valley town of Kingston, NY, where my friend and friend and collaborator

Steph Soussloff

lives. (Thanks to everyone who got in touch — lots of us out there looking to spark new relationships with like-minded folks!) We got as far as gathering a bunch of great people and setting up the parameters for how we might convene — and I got as far as reserving an Airbnb where I could stay and host friends and events — but I ended up calling it off. On the surface level, the trip was going to be expensive and I had upcoming doctors appointments and an aging pet that needed care. But on a deeper level, it just didn’t feel like the right move. My mind hadn’t seemed to catch up to something that was beginning to feel true in my heart, which is that I wanted to stay closer to Atlanta, my base of operations since the beginning of the year.

Which didn’t stop me from visiting Asheville, North Carolina for a long weekend last month, falling in love with it, and loudly proclaiming that I was going to move there! And then realizing as weeks passed that I wasn’t making any material steps to do it. Which was, again, a sign that my heart wasn’t in really in it. At least not right now.

I’ve pretty much always been this way. More heart than head driven when it comes down to it. My mind likes to conjure up big ideas that don’t always match up with my actions. But what has been interesting this particular go around is realizing just how much I have been expecting to feel more convicted about wherever I decided to land. One of the reasons I decided to be a nomad for a year is that I wasn’t stoked to move to any one place, I just knew it was time to get out of L.A. In fact, not being *excited* about anywhere was one of the things that kept me from leaving that city for years. I didn’t like the idea of running away from a place; I wanted to run towards another one.

And I wouldn’t exactly say I’m *excited* about Atlanta either. Without going into it, there’s a lot I don’t like about this city and never have — that’s why I left nearly 25 years ago. And yet I…keep coming back? Turns out the “right” place right now has less to do with the geography/culture/climate, and more to do with the people. Which in hindsight was probably always going to be the case, but you know, I sure liked to think I was gonna start over in some perfect city that checked all my little boxes.

Have you ever heard someone say, “If it’s not a fuck yes, it’s a no”? Let’s be honest, I probably never have either — it’s a textbook example of the kind of reductive bullshit that gets passed off as wisdom on the internet — but I was waiting for a “fuck yes” that never came. I think what’s more true is that sometimes “not no” is about as clear as it gets. I could list a dozen reasons why Atlanta is great, but this decision is coming from my heart, and I’m pretty sure my heart is smarter than my head 99% of the time. At the very least, it’s taking in way more information than I’m consciously aware of, and it’s telling me that the work ahead is to make this place mine, warts and all. Like, maybe the “fuck yes” only shows up after you’ve put in the effort. (Fans of The Little Prince would surely agree.)

I will say that what I am excited about is digging in here and opening a lot of new doors. As I wrote in a recent issue (one in which I emphatically declared that Atlanta was merely “a stop along the way” lol), “I miss being in rooms with others who are excited about the things that I’m excited about. I do that all the time on Zoom, but it’s not the same. It just isn’t.” When I wrote that I thought I needed to go to where the people I already knew were. But I think what I actually need to do is reconnect with old friends and find new ones to hang out with IN PERSON. So here we go, Atlanta. I’m excited to meet you again and do fun stuff together.

On to some things I found worth sharing recently…

Love and Magick are Our Best Hope

I loved this recent essay from

Douglas Rushkoff

, who is apparently feeling the same way I am about reading or publishing anything online these days:

People don’t listen to facts, anyway. They find the facts they need to fit their story, whether or not the facts are contextual or even true. Saving ourselves and each other is not a matter of convincing anyone of anything. What we need to offer each other manifests less like words than an embrace. It happens in real life, and through artistic or spiritual interventions that bring us together in pre-cognitive ways — before our belief systems mangle the essential transmission.

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Q̾u̾i̾c̾k̾ ̾F̾i̾r̾e̾: Creation anxiety

And here’s another piece of writing from the creative studio

MØRNING

that captures the zeitgeist. The whole post is well worth reading, especially if you’re making any kind of creative work online, but here’s the kicker:

Culture emerges from the connections between people, and I believe these are always strongest in person. Face-to-face cultural engagement is necessarily participatory, online cultural engagement rarely is. Nearly all of my most fulfilling and exciting experiences, those that have made me feel part of a community or moment, have happened in person. I think the feeling of being surrounded by likeminded people is unparalleled. And don’t tell me you’re an introvert, this is something we all need.

Let’s take more affirmation from the people around us, people who can see us as whole beings and not merely as collections of achievements. A creative practice is not a substitute for living alongside people, for sharing memories and learning from each other. A portfolio is not a substitute for a community. 

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What I’m up to, how you can join, and I need your help!

Over the past five years I’ve gotten pretty dang good at facilitating community spaces. Between workshops, retreats, and writing circles at

Foster

, talks and meditation at

Angel City Zen Center

, and workshops I’ve been hosting for The Fire Inside, I have been putting in major reps.

I am now looking to host more of these types of events in person, including but not limited to:

• Fireside talks and hangs

• Facilitated group writing sessions

• Public meditation sessions

• Group and 1:1 coaching sessions for women who are looking to find their next chapter

• Coworking at Switchyards

Are you interested in joining any of these? Do you know someone I should invite? Do you have a space where I could host? Do you know someone in Atlanta I should meet? Are you in need of a facilitator or creative consultant for how you can host your own impactful community space?

Please get in touch! I’ve got some things brewing, but would love to find some co-conspirators. You can reply to this email, comment on this post, or email me at sara@tinyrevolutions.co.

Note that I will also still be hosting stuff online periodically! Watch this space for details.

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I’ll leave you with this lovely bit from ATL resident Morgan Harper Nichols.

Thanks for being here, as ever.

😘

Sara

p.s. Tiny Revolutions is free to read but if you’d like to support my work, please share this with someone who’d appreciate it, or just like this post!

p.p.s. I kinda said this whole thing more succinctly on twitter.