Lucia

I have *loved* offering The Lucia Collective subscription this year. We are beginning a new season September 19, and I’d like to invite you to come along!
It feels like we are creating something good. One of my favorite messages came from a member in August: "I feel like part of a really good secret, a whisper network. Thank you for making it!"
The Lucia Collective is a loosely-held community of creatives who value and celebrate beauty, interiority and holding space for the heart. Sensitive souls, empaths, introverts, HSPs, quiet seekers and beauty hunters of all kinds are welcome. You will find kindred spirits here.
More than 30 creative hearts from four countries (U.S., Denmark, Finland, Switzerland) and several states joined this year.
I'd like to spend the next six months holding a bit more space for creative connection and conversation. So, I'm excited to share two NEW things:
1. The Conversation (NEW!) I will be hosting three live audio conversations for members to connect, explore a juicy question, peek into each other's creative lives, encourage and inspire.
2. The Journal (NEW!) We will publish an interactive (online) journal in March 2002 with writing, poetry, photography, artwork and voices of The Lucia Collective members.
These new offerings are optional, and in addition to the quieter, internal work The Lucia Collective invites and celebrates. You’ll still receive monthly themed notebooks, recorded meditations & audio voice notes, and access to our private slow social media network - a quiet space that is not on a traditional social media channel, just for us.
Our creative focus for the next six months will be attention, beauty, and *mischief*
You can read more juicy details and join by visiting Lucia’s website (link in profile) and clicking “Join The Lucia Collective.”
We start September 19! Hope to see you inside.
Love,
Laura (.light)
#2021

One of the things I love about The Lucia Collective is the quiet way our members share little glimpses of what they are reading, absorbing, experiencing and creating. Our "slow social space" is quite opposite the eight-lane freeway of information that is the wonder of Instagram. Our space is more like a single-lane country road with bumps that slow drivers down. It’s dotted with an occasional surprise, like a serve-yourself flowerstand or a hand-painted sign along the way.
Last month, one of our members shared a book she is reading by Minna Salami (), "Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone."
Intrigued by the description, I ordered a copy from my local bookseller, Madison Books (). I am only halfway through but have felt myself resonate with the concept of reimagining the narrative of knowledge. She writes about decentralizing what she calls "Europatriarchal Knowledge" and recentering what she calls "Sensuous Knowledge," that which affects the interior as well as the exterior, has a poetic and kaleidoscopic approach, combines emotional intelligence with intellectual skill--and, ultimately, is centered in beauty.
Minna's book is filled with gems and historical tidbits. She blends her personal stories with modern Black feminist voices like Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison and others. She invites us to unlearn what we think we know about power and expand our knowledge: "The more we understand knowledge as an ecosystem that reflects interbeing, and that flourishes when our relationships flourish, whether they are relationships with facts, with nature, or with the people, the more our world expands."

“You should become a dahlia farmer,” she said to me.
Something else Sarah gave me on our walk was a piece of advice for how to approach my desire to create and write during this time, when I cannot plan or focus well, and when creativity hides away from the pressure of performance.
“We have to approach it a little bit side-eyed.” she said.
What she meant (or at least, what I interpreted) is that we have to take the focus off of creativity in order to find it. Make the space, but be okay with whatever arises, even if it's just laundry, dishes, raking leaves, making soup or watching the rain. Then, out of the corner of your eye, totally unexpected, be surprised and delighted when creativity comes. It feels like, "Oh! What's this? This is fun, I am going to do this now."
"Remember," she texted me, "side-eyed."
-Excerpted from: "Notes from the Heart: Planning Flowers" October 11, 2020. Visit luciajournal.com to read the full story and sign up to receive Notes from the Heart by email.
Love,
Laura

Thank you for everything you did for women, and for all people in this country, with your one brilliant life. We are forever in gratitude. Thank you, from our hearts. Thank you. Rest in peace, Justice Ginsburg.