Welcome to The Meadow.
You are invited to join me, in this quiet place of sun-lit field, flowers, and sky, for conversation to help our soul and spirit to thrive. Here I share what I am learning, what is helping me move towards life, light, and thriving, including what obstacles I encounter along the way. It is my dearest hope to hear from you too, to share our journeys and learn from each other.
Photo by Kevin Grieve on Unsplash
Why the Meadow? It’s a place that lives in my imagination. If you press me, I might say it was inspired by the same-named chapter of a certain infamous vampire series that no one names in good company anymore. Or that it was the name of my Animal Crossing island. But it’s really much more.
Here’s a little prose piece I wrote that seems to capture it best:
We are in this place again, where it's just you and me, and time stands still. It’s TS Eliot, and footfalls, and Zefferelli’s love song, and I want to know: Will I ever be loved as deeply as I desire be loved? This longing; it breaks my heart. Can I live in the world like this, half-cracked, oozing? I think, put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Put me back together again. And so I do. Tears wiped and gone. A coating of makeup on the face. I straighten my dress. But no!
I want to lie in the meadow with soft sun on my face, drunk on wildflowers and warm pine, with soft grass underneath me. No ants, no mosquitos, no flies. No rain, no chill, no sweat. There’s a place I know exists, always has existed. I’m sure I was there once. I can remember the stream and the thick green trees opening to a circle of grass soaking in the sun, with cool shadows off to the side. It was my meadow. There were wildflowers there, so small you had to get on your knees to see them, but they were there. I have since tried to return, but the path is different, and memory fades, and I don’t know which path to follow. But I am certain the place exists, and there might be more than just one.
Will you help me find it? Will you take me there? What does it take to leave behind all of this planned attempt to live a good life? For I know that there in the meadow lies my only good. I want to be there with you. Till then, I wait, punching the numbers in my alarm app, punching heavy bags at the gym, punching phone numbers, trying to find someone else who understands. My arms are heavy and tired. I want to lay down my arms, open the clock doors of my heart, till the soft white pearl resting there escapes on her way to the sun.
I am writing to those who also are seeking the Meadow, a community where we help each other remember how to get there, opening the clock doors of our hearts, as we discuss matters of soul and spirit and how to live a good and meaningful life. In other words, the kind of conversation that gets you uninvited back to cocktail parties, but might have been a discussion back in your college days, at 3 am, when an empty beer can skittered down the brick path.
Trigger warning: My world-view is framed by my: late-blooming and now deconstructed Christian faith, varied wanderings through almost all of the world religions, bleeding heart, love of yoga, pop culture (obvs), fondness for technology and apps, tendency to over-earnestness, utter uncoolness, and almost crippling self-doubt. If any of these things make your eyes roll, this is probably not the place for you, but you are welcome to try it out anyway.
What are you signing up for? Emails whenever the spirit moves me. Connection. Maybe even community. Note that The Meadow is my safe place, so it is not a place for attacking each other. Rather it is a place where we can share where we are, without challenge or rebuke. I am the curator of this space, and comments that I deem hurtful or attacking or not in the spirit of the Meadow will be plucked, just like thorny weeds from a field of wildflowers.
PS. Want to share the Meadow with other like-minded souls? Here’s a link for you:
A little housekeeping….
Gmail often puts newsletters hosted by Substack in a separate folder from the inbox. If that happens to you, you can drag emails from the promotions folder to your Inbox to make sure you receive your copy of the Meadow when it’s delivered.
