I recently finished Felicia Day's audiobook You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) and enjoyed the heck out of it. She's a wonderful narrator and has a story that inspires me to just keep doing my thing even if I have big dreams that most people think are a little unrealistic and am a little neurotic at times. She is an actor, writer, and producer, majored in the violin and math, and attended college at 16 because she was home-schooled prior and had support from her music tutor to get into college early. That's just a summary of the facts of her early life. Her humor and authenticity in the audiobook make it worth listening to.
The moral of Felicia Day's book coincided beautifully with a massage I recently received. This was the first professional massage of my life. While the massage was great, meeting a kindred spirit was actually an equally competing highlight of my day. My massage therapist was a wonderful woman who practices art readings in addition to massage. We had a conversation about intuition, storytelling, fairy tales, and myths. She's actually embarking on the first of a series of adventures with the Westcountry School of Myth (http://schoolofmyth.com/), which sounds like an interesting sort of spiritual retreat I'm interested to learn more about. I'll follow up with her in the future, but if anyone else has experienced this course I'd love to know your thoughts on it. There's actually another program that I'm interested to learn more about in the immediate future on curanderismo at the University of New Mexico (link here). If this blog post falls beneath the eyes of anyone who has experienced that two-week, summer workshop I'd love to know your thoughts on it as well.
It was rewarding to meet someone else who is interested in fairy tales, myths, and healing. Most people who know me would likely consider me a pretty practical, goal-oriented sort of person without a lot of fluff (I think). For the people who've known me for longer or gotten to know me better, they might also understand that I have these odd forays into religion and spirituality that come and go at unexpected times. There is a deep part of me that yearns for magic and a higher power and it isn't satisfied by any organized religion I've participated in. People may laugh, but if you look around at our world I think we could all agree that something needs to change and we might benefit from learning to and prioritizing caring for one another in active ways a little bit more often. It might be worth it to feel like we have within us the power to heal ourselves in certain instances rather than seeking outside validation and scholarly expertise.
Beyond what might be perceived as a bit too woo-woo healing for some, it was also actually fun to chat about fairy tales and myths with someone who appreciates them. I work in a field that doesn't always align with the things I find interesting and exciting to think about and work toward. For instance, once I was describing what I appreciated about my alma mater to one of my students to help her navigate choosing universities. I explained that I was really blown away by the University of Arizona's library, the UA Press, and their Poetry Center. I explained that that is one reason working at the University of Washington would appeal to me - because of their glorious library. She told me that was the nerdiest thing she'd ever heard. She and I are pretty close and have been working together for almost two years now so I knew she was just teasing and being honest, but it reminded me that I don't actually work in the field that I find most inspiring. I enjoy the work I do advocating for, mentoring, and guiding students, don't get me wrong. It's okay that I don't work in or near a beautiful building with cathedral windows surrounded by books or working on book projects (mine and/or others people's), but it's also okay to admit to myself and to others that I would enjoy it if I did and that maybe someday that is still where I hope I'm headed.
Home, artfully edited to look like a blurry cartoon by yours truly. Gotta love technology.
Unless the whole writer thing pans out. Then, you know...I'd work from home (and would be surrounded by some lovely books next to a good window).