Shall we be new in this new moment, in this here and now?
I say yes!
If you say yes, too...
[palms open] here: listen, watch, perhaps sing along with me
Or read, if you prefer:
[00:00:00]
Cassandra: [set scene: seagulls squawk, rocks crunch underfoot]
I look out over seagulls wandering a low, low tide. A seal popping up every now and then.
A few crows.
This poem came to me.
[poem shared as a song]
The worlds are calling us to be soft. To be soft, to be soft. The worlds are calling us to be soft. We are soft. We are soft.
The leaves [00:01:00] are soft. They're soft. Why aren't we soft? The worlds are calling us to be soft. Let's be soft. We are soft.
I wonder how that word feels within you. The word soft. Let's be soft. We are soft.
As I've been walking around, usually with Ernest, I've been touching the buds, the spring buds, and now [00:02:00] more so, the spring leaves that have unfurled. And over the past few weeks, they've been so soft. These small, small leaves, still like in the unfurling, not yet unfurled. They're so soft. These Japanese maple leaves. What else? Um, huckleberry leaves. Any leaves [laughs] that I can touch. So soft.
I, I read up on why are they so soft? [laughs] Why are they so soft when they first unfurl? And then why and how do they become more hard, more rough?[00:03:00]
Why and how is that? I invite you to do your own research. Maybe your research is touching them, witnessing them with some sense of yours. Uh, maybe it's looking it up in a book or online, or, [laughs] what I did was, for the very first time ever in the history of me, I asked ChatGPT, the AI tool, to tell me their thoughts.
It felt like an interesting question to ask: Why are leaves so soft when they come out of buds? I think was the question I asked.[00:04:00]
I'll leave this here, again with the seagulls and maybe another seal or the same seal in a different position popping up, and now a scuba diver heading down to explore. I wish you well in your explorations over this day and into the next days. [laughs] And happy full moon. Happy lunar eclipse.
Happy Cinco de Mayo. Happy fifth of the month. I always like the fifth of the month because my birthday is on the fifth.
Til next time.
Yes, til next time, unfurling-leaf-of-a-being,
Cassandra
P.S. Moment of Slow is open for new members to join! Moment of Slow will be open quarterly through this year for new members to step in.
This year-long experience takes the forms of a secret podcast and email newsletter. Podcast episodes and corresponding emailed note arrive in members' inboxes every two weeks. It's simple. It's small. It's supportive. It's soft!
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