The day after Christmas, an old friend visited Honolulu and over a specialty pizza at plant-based Floralia (this month’s special “Uncle Paulie” includes mashed potatoes and fried onions, absolute genius 🍕🤤) he told me how much he liked the podcast I had recommended years ago, Krista Tippett’s On Being.
I got so excited that, instead of asking what he liked about it, I started bubbling over about the ways it has informed my life and choices the past decade, including my 2023 trip to Europe (sorry, Dan, thanks for dinner!).
One of the creatives On Being introduced me to is the delightful Maria Popova. She is the reason I stayed several days in Sofia, Bulgaria, her place of origin, and her writing this week helped me to pause and reflect on the wonder of my life.
She reminded me that life doesn’t owe me anything.
I woke up this morning and took a breath, moved my fingers and toes, inhaled the scent of my warm little dog curled up next to me. None of that had to happen, and yet I take it as granted.
And so many things this past week, they didn’t have to happen.
Christmas Eve I found another hot/cold water dispenser, this one a bottom-loader, in nearly perfect condition. People on Nextdoor are giving me things just because I asked: a five gallon water bottle; more window units, most of them working; a mini wine cellar (which I resold for $100!); and a microwave. The microwave will be deconstructed— with Mr. Mo’s supervision! ⚡— so that I can use the magnets inside for my HVAC work.
Christmas day I went to a small venue and watched the Hawaiian Cirque du Solei ‘Auana. All the performers executed their art brilliantly—and safely, which is not a given. I asked a woman to take my photo and not only did she oblige, but she stood me in front of a sign of lights and waited for each color change so I could have the whole rainbow. She did NOT have to think of that and do it, but was delighted to.
On the bus ride home I got a message from a buyer and in the dark I sold a window AC for $50 that I had found in the street. That unit had been found with a handwritten note saying “God Blessed” and certainly we are. But what did we ever do to earn it?
New Year’s Day I found myself in three different spaces filled with supportive and positive feminine energy. First, artist Tammi Salas led a group in choosing a word of the year. I chose BURN ❤️🔥 I’d love to hear if WOTY is something you do, too.
Then, Gina Kananipua of Eco Mindful Lei led another group in creating smudge wands from a local plant named pōhinahina. (Check out the link to see some beautiful photos of her lei creations). Two days later I went to a nursery in Waimānalo and a woman gave me a pōhinahina in a gallon pot for free! She did not have to do that.
I ended New Year’s day getting lost in Kalihi on my way to meet some girlfriends for an impromptu gathering.
Eventually I found my way to Lizzie’s home, fantastically decorated for Christmas. Like me, Lizzie is vegan, and she had laid out a beautiful spread for us while we dabbled in Tarot and reflected on the past year and what we anticipate for 2025.
None of that had to happen. And if I didn’t write it down, note it, I could easily forget it, all this bounty I’m continually immersed in.
And lots of other things didn’t have to happen.
When I woke up New Year’s Day I read the news. The driver in New Orleans didn’t have to happen, so near my alma mater in Baton Rouge. So much heartbreak there already.
The fireworks “cake” across town did not have to fall over, igniting other nearby fireworks and killing three women, sending dozens more to the hospital. Tens of thousands of dollars in illegal fireworks did not have to be found on that street.
The gray and white kitten did not have to run into King Street during rush hour. I did not have to circle back, scrape it up, and hold its still warm little body on my lap as I drove home, the strong smell of death nearly overwhelming me. I dug her a little hole in the backyard and wished her peace as I covered her over.
Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.
—Frederick Buechner
And there is plenty that has happened to you and for you that didn’t have to. In the rush of life we often forget to pause and be absorbed by its sanctity. But always, always things are happening that point it out to us, if we get still and quiet.
And that is why getting still and quiet can be so very, very hard. Can be overwhelming for a body.
If you are looking for a way to start the year being awed and challenged, I recommend the podcast I binged last week called The Telepathy Tapes. Learn why Deepak Chopra got so flustered he left his briefcase and glasses in the home of one of the test subjects.
There is also a thorough and well-stated rebuttal to a critique on one of the researchers and the overall findings of the podcast which is worth reading. I am currently working on a book chapter about Joan of Arc so this all smells familiar to me. 💩
Part of the reason the series blew my mind is that its creator, Ky Dickens, is a phenomenal storyteller. If you are a library nerd like me, you likely use the streaming platform Kanopy. Through my library account I found three of Dickens’ documentaries. You can start with her first film Fish Out of Water in which she skillfully “explores the Biblical passages used to condemn homosexuality in this informative yet entertaining documentary.” If you don’t use Kanopy, you can rent the film here for just $3.
Popova ended her writing about the things we aren’t promised with a blessing that we could all use right now:
Bless knowledge, all the species of it — how the small black seed knows to break into the Fibonacci spiral of a sunflower, how we know that when the house burns down and the tyrant takes office and the toe pokes through the last good sock, we still have each other.
Bless the quiet, bless the stillness, bless and affirm each other.🌻
If anything came up for you about what didn’t have to happen this week but did, good or bad, I’d love to hear from you.
Happy New Year, friends, here we go.
Your angry little yogi,
Shannon
All the things that weave together... when we're paying attention. Thank you, Shannon!
This kind of blew my mind. Thank you (and Maria Popova for inspiring you).