⬤ eClips: 2021
The new year commenced with a new moon that will widen into a silvery sliver this week, with Saturn and Jupiter as its visible night-sky companions. Snow and ice encased Seattle over the past week — at first a romantic anomaly that later gave way to frustration as I slip-stepped over thick patches of ice to gain traction on any dry spot of concrete I could find. But I’ve loved the sight of sparkling drifts criss-crossed with footprints and tall evergreens heavy with snow.
Last year, I decided to add the “Spotlight” section to eClips, where I’ve featured interviews with subscribers. In making this change, my hope was to stop focusing on growing my “reach,” and to instead deepen the relationships I already had; to be slow and curious instead of splashy and dogmatic; and to explore myriad expressions of day-to-day life and feature the everyday wisdom we all have to offer. Because I believe we have a lot to learn from listening more carefully to each other, to the land, to other beings — and that this collective wisdom can sustain us and empower us to resist what threatens those connections.
My hopes were met — and then some — through fun, thoughtful interviews with beloved friends and family members and eager responses from readers who have enjoyed the new format. Whether you were featured or a reader over the past year, thank you for being here. I hope you enjoy this look back on my conversations with the people featured in eClips last year and snippets from their interviews.
⬤ Shelley Stonebrook on giving ourselves the grace we give plants: “They’re something you feel like you can count on. Watching them is so hopeful. And you see yourself in those plants — we all morph and change in ways that are sometimes overgrown and messy and sometimes really stunning.”
⬤ Laura Brugger on accepting the passing of time after upheaval: “We lived through a pandemic, and that was hard, and of course time feels weird, and of course seasons passing feels weird, and I’m just going to embrace honoring those transitions in a new way, rather than feeling obligated or stressed that I’m not being as mindful as I was last year or in years past. I’m doing as good as I can right now.”
⬤ Sandy Sorell on “spreading the sunshine”: “‘Shining’ has been a word of mine forever. I try to smile at other people and spread the light. I try to shine on other people. When I did that on purpose, it made me feel so good. I really tried to notice people and be in conversation with them.”
⬤ Hannah Lasorsa on the power of everyday plants: “The herbs that are available at the grocery store and that have continued to have a relationship with humans over so many years, even as we become, generally, as a society, more and more disconnected from plants, it just shows that they’re that much more able to withstand the test of time. It doesn’t make them boring, it makes them amazing!”
⬤ Patrice Hein on how technology prevents us from engaging our senses: “So I guess that would be a plea: to get reconnected and help others to understand. If we want to live on this planet, we need to understand how it works, and work with nature instead of against it. … Get out and enjoy the sun or the moon or the stars, and everything underneath them!”
⬤ Joe Scott on how biking offers a kind of connection to the world that cars prevent: “I had this revelation the first time I was biking in the rain in Seattle, where I suddenly felt a connection to the weather and to the natural world. It was fall, and it smelled really good, and there were leaves on the ground for the first time that year, and I was biking over them, and it felt so good. And I realized, what people were doing in their cars was totally walling themselves off from weather.”
⬤ Luke Brummer on nature’s calming effects: “More and more, as I kind of grow older, if I’m stressed or anything, I just want to be outdoors. I just want to be surrounded by it. Or when we do our hiking and camping, you just take that whiff of the air out there, and I start to recognize it now, where I’m just inhaling, and it’s different. It’s not the city, and it’s invigorating. And it eases any head pain or headache I have.”
⬤ Alysia Brown on working with cacao as a heart-opener and gratitude practice: “When I sit and drink my cacao, I’m also thanking her for the medicine and thinking about all the things in my life that I’m grateful for, which is such a powerful practice. It seems so easy, and I’ve heard it so long: ‘A gratitude practice, pick it up and it’ll change your life!’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know about that.’ But now that I’m doing it, I feel so grateful about everything!”
⬤ Kate Flaming on the joy of loosely following moon cycles. “I really do love the act of listening to the stillness on the new moon, and thinking about the coming month and what you want out of it, or what you want changed out of it, or what you need from it, and setting your own intention or wish, and thinking about the plan for how you’re going to help move that intention along. … There’s so much value in feeling like you have the opportunity to try again every single month, every single moon cycle.”
⬤ K.C. Compton on taking up painting and trying new things: “It has opened up an entirely new part of my life that I never knew was there or was missing. It’s been an incredible gift, and especially during, you know, the previously mentioned terrible time. It kept my mind off things, I guess. But it also gave me this incredible outlet that I just fell in love with. And, you know, another lesson here is that you’re just never too old for life to keep opening up for you. That’s something that I would love for people to know.”
⬤ Becky Sullivan on being present and intentional when returning to routines: “I like being home and being reminded of all the things that I find rewarding and feel really good for me, like trying new recipes, cooking and eating healthy, seeing friends, making sure I’m getting the right amount of exercise. … Like, engaging with my colleagues, and treating people the way that I want to treat people, in ways that I feel good about. And treating myself in ways that I feel good about. … I can slip out of those habits, and anytime that I’m really intentional about getting myself back on track, it always feels good. I never regret it.”
⬤ Suzanne Lindgren on the magic of everyday chores: “I might not like sweeping, but think of the generations of women who swept this floor before me, and how beautiful their work was. Me doing it is also, in a way, tapping into their experience. I’m doing the same thing, the same motions, and I guess, in a larger sense, keeping the house for the family. It’s this idea of sacred housekeeping, not so much as a chore but a contribution to the family. And it helped a lot — it’s so rare to feel like there’s anything that could connect me to someone from three generations ago.”
⬤ Sarah Kirkpatrick on how plants can comfort and enchant: “I feel like when I can be sad in moments or feel alone, flowers always make me feel better, because they remind me that even when life is hard and gross, it’s still very beautiful to be alive and look at these beautiful, enchanting things that just come out of the soil and then are beautiful to us. But then provide pollen to the bees and then the bees do all those other great things. Everything’s connected, but even in connection, something by itself can be admired.”