stay sensitive, gentle-people

see you in 2024

Hello gentle-people,

Hope the end of the year is wrapping well for you.

Sometimes, it feels like the new year rolls in like we all drop off the old calendar onto a new one. And sometimes January 1st feels just as underwhelming as December 28th, or something. However the end of the year is for you, I hope you are steadied in this truth: will not roll off into the abyss at midnight. I promise you.

“‘And it is my prayer that your love may be more and more rich in knowledge and all manner of insight, enabling you to have a sense of what is vital....’; thus writes the Apostle Paul to the Church at Philippi. To have a sense of what is vital, a basic and underlying awareness of life and its potentialities at every level of experience, this is to be an Apostle of Sensitiveness.”

—Howard Thurman, Deep is the Hunger: Meditations for Apostles of Sensitiveness

the pull 

I feel the pull to harden my heart…despite this I hope to
                fight cynicism to contribute to daily life
               reclaim the strength of sensitivity
                find reasons to laugh and laugh without reason
                love despite a world of hate
                sing affirmations loudly

I feel the pull to disappear on those who love me
Because something inside tells me I won’t be honored 
If I show up fully
So I slip away to my own world often 
Collecting my own worries until I am overwhelmed

And ready to be seen 
               for-real for-real
to be known 
              for-real for-real

It's okay to admit it hurts
              for-real for-real
On the journey to find gentle landing

You won't be the last one standing 
If you hold your people close
You won't be the last one standing 
If everybody (you decide is everybody) knows
              How ready you are to fall

Gravity never takes a break 
              But you do not have to be broken to deserve one

stay sensitive

It won’t be easy. You will find yourself coming up against reasons to harden your heart. I repeat the refrain of my dear friend Robert : “My heart is open and it is kind.”

I am thankful for who I remember myself to be when this simple mantra rings true. I am sensitive, empathetic, caring, and silly. I can bring reflections into a room to help people navigate heavy feelings…and I can use humor to disarm and charm. As a naturally inquisitive person, my questions have gotten me into a lot of trouble (some good some bad)…but my best self is most curious about how to do good in the world. How to feel good in the world and then how to share that good with others.

I find my creativity flourishes when my heart is open, and it can feel risky to go there. Some days there is no certainty opening up my heart will not weigh me down and make it impossible to be “productive.”

When I am sensitive (or more aptly, when I tune into my senses instead of drowning them out with distractions), relationships matter. They become bold and undeniable parts of how I got here. I feel a connection to those who share breath in the same space as me, even if they are strangers. I feel a connection to those who have come before me, leaving their mark on the world I walk through in subtle or overt ways. The words of my ancestors mean the world to me when I stay sensitive enough to believe they speak into my present.

Stay sensitive—it won’t be easy.

But take it from someone who knows, at least by reading this, that some part of you seeks a gentle landing…staying sensitive will help you find or create that gentle landing in the new year.

Thank you, gentle-people, for an awesome two years of A Gentle Landing! What started as a side project has become an experience of finding my voice and owning my particularities. This has been a space I have decorated to feel at home and it has been cool to know it feels that way to others.

A special thanks to my paid subscribers and founding members. Most of you have no idea how your support keeps me going and makes gentle landing real for me.

This is my 77th post! Everyone who knows me knows I love moving on and trying new things. Once I am tired of something, it’s done when I say it’s done, regardless of what metrics of success might say. Rest assured, we are continuing with AGL because I like it here.

landing track

I have been loving the music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland lately. Stumbling on his work felt like falling into a dreamscape for A Gentle Landing. I offer this track as a celebration of what this space has been and as a way of dreaming forward with expectation and hope for this new year.

It is 6.5 minutes long. Take that time, whether through activity or inactivity, to listen in a way that welcomes your sensitivity.

Happy New Year, gentle people.