Happy NEWvember!

Happy new month! The new month is November! So, happy NEWvember. You get it. Thanks for being here!

dear friends,

it’s a new month!
and you know what that means (or you’re about to!):
it’s time for me to wish you a happy new month! so, happy new month!

1) SCARY TIME IS OVER! LONG LIVE NON-SCARY TIME HOPEFULLY!

halloween’s over!
nothing to be scared of now!
foreboding haiku…

welcome to november 1.
the day after halloween.
thank goodness, fake scary time is over.
now, for the approaching election.
REAL scary time.
jkjkjkjk kind of.

i'm actually not scared right now.
i'm optimistic.
i've been doing what i can to help.
i've come to the conclusion that polls don't mean much.
(i polled a lot of people about that, and no one really knew, and the people that knew suggested that polls don't mean much.)

in chinese, the word for "crisis" is the same as the word for "opportunity."
so maybe we're all just having an existential opportunity!
sincerely, this makes a lot of sense to me, and aligns with the fact that sometimes when i'm nervous, i can reframe it as excitement, because the bodily sensations are basically the same.

the point is, i don't know what the future holds
(four days from now, next year, five minutes from now, a million years in the future),
and sometimes the unknown can be a source of fear.
but also the unknown can be a source of excitement!
who knows what will happen?
the answer: Future Us knows.
and Present Us is doing our best to make the best future for Future Us.
if you can vote in this US election, i hope you do.
if you did already, thank you!

2) SPEAKING OF “THANK YOU,” HERE IS OUR NEXT TOPIC: GRATITUDE!

gratitude is here!
i’m grateful for gratitude!
gratitude haiku!

this is the month that the united states celebrates thanksgiving, a holiday that has a beautiful sentiment (thanks! gratitude!) associated with a not-beautiful history (the horrendous treatment of indigenous people). hopefully for those of us in a position to experience gratitude for anything (most of us, i imagine), we can do what we can to help indigenous people today. (for example, i just googled "how to help indigenous people" and found this link. i’m sure there are many other ways as well.)

i think about gratitude pretty much every day. i start most days with free writing, and one of my most frequent starting points is the people and things and experiences that i'm grateful for. my parents. my grandparents. my partner. my friends. my teachers. my summer camp. music. art. comedy. magic.

i usually just let my mind free associate and bounce around from one gratitude unit to another. sometimes, patterns emerge from day to day. like, i'll think of one friend whose name starts with R, and then i'll remember another friend whose name also starts with R. and i'll go through all my R friends. sometimes i'll think about friends whose names rhyme with other people or things. like, i'll be grateful for my friend vance and then that will remind me that i'm grateful for the concept of dance. and these grooves develop and grow.

i've named that groove growth "the groove grove." and as i'm grateful for this and that and these and those, the groove grove grows and grows and grows. thank YOU for being a part of this growing gratitude groove grove.

3) FINALLY, JUST A SILLY THING! (THANK GOODNESS!)

silly like a goose.
though not all geese are silly.
I’M a silly goose.

why is november called november? well it's the eleventh month, so of course it's named after the latin word for the number "nine." because it was once the ninth month, but then they added a couple more months but didn't change all the month names. they were like, "who will notice," and the answer is ME. i will notice. and i'm not alone. a lot of us know. and if you didn't know, now YOU know. welcome to KNOWvember!

and that’s the Happy New Month for November! we did it!
thank you for being here!
much love to you and yours and all!

PS also, last month i shared some information about how to help the people impacted by the hurricane in asheville, and my guess is they could still use some help, so here's a link to the message and info i shared last time. also, if there are other folks who need help or organizations you think it could be meaningful to support, please share with me at any time, respond to this email, or message me, and i'll do my best to spread the word whenever, wherever, however i can.

also, feel free to respond to this email or message me any time about anything. with fun etymological facts. with things that YOU are grateful for. with information about YOUR excitements and opportunities.

i am grateful to you and for you, and i wish us all the best future, near and far, and the best present right now. happy NOWvember!