Hello, imagination? It's me.

An exploration of passions vs distractions, plus a 25% off sale announcement

Hi friends! Before I dive in today, I want to announce that I’m running a storewide sale on everything at my shop: internationally bestselling tarot and oracle decks, apparel, courses and more. All 25% off with the code ‘luckyfriday13’ at checkout. Sale ends June 17th at midnight EST!

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Oh, the irony of writing this on a screen, where countless distractions abound.

But let this serve as a little reminder for your weekend.

I saw the above note back in March and it hit me hard. I don’t know who this “Dylano” person is, but they have an absolutely massive presence on notes for slaps to the face just like this one.

As a follow up to my latest piece:

…I wanted to talk about what I remember from my pre-internet days, coupled with some sad admissions.

I used to take the same route to school every day. My parents and I lived downtown and the elementary school was midtown, so it was quite the trek. Having nothing else to occupy my mind with, I studied every house, every tree and shrub, every park and church, every street name. I had it all memorized. I found it very magical. We lived right next to one of the main rivers that carries freshwater through the Great Lakes, and there were tons of cargo ships, some a thousand feet long, that would meander through - occasionally blasting their horn (one long two short meant ‘hello’).

I remember James, he was one of my favourites.

I knew all of the ship company flags by name and colour. I’d be able to identify favourite ones from a long distance, by shape alone. In essence, every single detail of that hometown growing up was etched into my mind’s eye, and still is. I had a powerful sense of presence and connection there. It was real.

Nowadays, and I’m ashamed to admit it, but I still haven’t bothered to memorize the streets that surround me in this neighbourhood despite the fact that I’ve been living here for seven years. The reasons for this are threefold: a lack of trying, a lack of presence, and a lack of necessity - if I had to know, I could just look at Google Maps. Sigh.

In this piece:

…I spoke of how, a mere few weeks after ejecting myself from Instagram (where I was chronically online for almost a decade) my creative impulses grew back - with a vengeance, no less! It was astonishing! It reminded me of how nature reclaims quite literally everything after humans abandon it, and quickly.

My mind, body, psyche, everything wanted to be reclaimed by the nature of imagination, growth, flow, exploration, experimentation - not hedged in by ones and zeros.

But the thing - oh, that pesky little thing - is that we are addicted to the ones and zeros. The internet has our brain chemistry on lock. It knows we’ll keep pushing the button for dopamine even if it means creating an ash pile from our once lush inner garden.

I feel that we are all conduits for universal expression - it desires making its way through us, it wants nothing else. Sometimes as I lay in bed falling asleep I have the most amazing visions. I cannot describe or remember them most of the time. Occasionally I will think of rolling over to write them down, but often I am simply content to let them pummel my mind’s eye until I fall asleep, trusting that they’ll show up again if they really need to wriggle from me. Some do. This gift of being a portal is there all the time - believe me, all the time. But as Dylano (who are you, stranger?) points out, we’re waterboarding this fertile space all day every day, and then lamenting the fact that we’re unable to tap into our divine flow.

Yes, some things we see here on these screens can serve as inspiration, motivation or important reminders on our creative journeys…but in this case, less is more - being wildly and radically discerning on what we allow into our minds and bodies is key. This is why ‘the scroll’ can be so harmful. Not only are we filling ourselves up, period (which would be enough on its own - if, say, we were spoiling our appetite by eating a massive bowl of ice cream) - but we are filling ourselves up with a smorgasbord, a veritable cornucopia of voices, all screaming from the void, all vying for attention. This is more akin to stuffing ourselves at a buffet and then wondering why we aren’t hungry. We feel tired but wired, apathetic, overloaded and still can’t seem to piece it together.

I, for one, want to re-embody the kind of presence I had when I was a child. Time felt slow then. The only reason I have ever been able to come up with for this is because I was fully there, fully embodied, fully alive in whatever moment I was in…and because everything inspired awe. I had not become jaded. My mind did not skip over things in order to get to the ‘good part’. Everything was equally good, equally fascinating. I believe we can undo the overwhelm that the internet has caused (and the desire for it! Let’s not forget that part, like a moth to a flame) over time. But it takes practice, and intention.

If you’ll excuse me, I found a hummingbird nest yesterday - and I’m going to go back and feel absolute awe towards it, and it towards me. Maybe on the way home, I’ll memorize the street names.

Until next time,

Love and wolves.

D xx