Hello Friends,  

Do you feel it? The rivulets of knowing just under the surface?

Tuesday's eclipse shined into my bedroom and stirred me from a deep sleep. Its glow bounced from the framed gurus atop my shrine and landed somewhere in my being.  My eyes opened, confused. Is there a light on? No, it's the moon. I sat up to see it directly, but the angle was wrong. Too cold to get out of bed, I fell back to my warm sheets, and soon, that space between sense and non-sense.

They Say, It’s A New Chapter

The last lunar eclipse in Pisces was on Sept. 16th, 2016.

They ask, what was happening in your life then? That will give you an indication of themes you’ll be navigating in this next eclipse cycle.

I don’t want to remember 2016. I shudder with the possibility that this moment is an echo of the moment before I was disillusioned and depressed by the outcome of the election.

But, this is not that. It is something new. Another book. Yes, the same genre, familiar characters, but not the same story.

And what is this new story? We have the first page: A sensitive moon that’s pregnant with feeling and distraction. How to honor the desire for reflection amid the growing pulls to be in action?

This is what September is, isn't it? The threshold toward the liminal quiet seasons; an ending that arrives with the whirlwind of a beginning.

As the weather cools, I readily slip into the nonverbal. I want to cook. I want to be outside. I want to drop all commitments and lounge about. Yet, the more I protect this time for puttering, the more my wandering turns an unexpected corner and becomes teaching, planning and doing.

It Feels Like Ebbing and Flowing  

Rather than letting this incongruence be an unraveling, I'm normalizing this tidal push and pull. I can fight the doing and not doing with my desire for homeostasis or I can accept the futility of my body pushing against forces that are larger than me — forces asserting their tidal pulls with our without my preferences.

I’m trying, in the moments when that uh oh feeling prevails, to ride with what is. Sometimes it feels like going under, reckoning with the pounding immensity above. Where are we going? What did they say? Sometimes it feels like being caught in the whirl of too much and not enough at the same time. But, maybe this is not a problem? Maybe we just keep breathing? Maybe, there's some trust in the power and play of it all?

This is the season of dancing in sun and shade, depth and TikTok, email and long friend chats, internal and external, sense and non-sense.

We are designed for this two-step — to reside in the in-between. The fall gives us moment after moment to get familiar with the choreography. 

With care,

k

Here’s what’s sustaining me these days:

⭐️ Guiding Lights In Link Form ⭐️

Heart ❤️

• Are you depressed, or is it capitalism?

• If Dogs Could Talk

Mind 🔥

• Historic Decision: Black Court Reverses Black Card Revocations by

  Marvin K. White
  . A worthy read on un-canceling the most cancelable among us.

• Current fall read: All Fours by Miranda July

Body 🌕

• Synchronization for Creative Inspiration on Insight Timer, by the lovely Miriam Hall.

• What I’m dancing to between Pomodoro sessions. If not now, then when?

• I’m enjoying these pumpkin muffins with a healthy spread of Trader Joe’s maple butter in the morning, and now breakfast feels like dessert.

Happenings

• [Sept. 25] Coming Home to Body And Soul with the Art of Ensoulment with

  Cynthia Winton-Henry

• [Sept. 28] The Revelation Circle with Yasmin Marrero for folx of Color

• [Sept. 30] Free Your Voice and Body Stories Training with Phoenix Song

• [Oct. 8] Decolonizing the Body for WoC+ with (me) Kelsey Blackwell

• [Oct. 9] Ancestors to Elements with

  Sebene Selassie

• [Oct. 23] Mind, Body, Spirit Medicine 8-Week Workshop for MDs with Priyanka Wali

What’s Coming Up

Registration is open!

Somatics, Ritual, and Earth-Honoring Practices for WoC+

WoC+ are invited to join me for this 8-week program focused on learning and unlearning internalization of “the program” through somatic practice, ancestor honoring and reconnection with the natural world. This journey is supported with weekly live Zoom sessions, recorded teachings, a portal for collective reflection sharing and witnessing, study resources and embodied practices.

Live sessions on Zoom every Tuesday, October 8 — December 3 from 4–5:30 p.m. PT. Yes! Classes are recorded.

The full price for the program is $950.

Shame-free, no-interest payment plans are readily available for everyone!

Payment Plan Options

I also offer solidarity pricing for those with financial need.

Solidarity Pricing