Add Breath - May 20

I hope this message finds you well…that this isn’t one more piece of electronic mail taking up space, marking time to deletion in your inbox.

Aiming for inbox zero, which seems like a distant dream at this point, I’m sorting through my various email inboxes. It’s ads, announcements, sales pitches, and payment reminders and confirmations.

What does your email feed look like?

Much like news, mail feels like it has mostly become clutter. It takes up space on some server (in a location I'll never know), digital drift vying for my headspace, attention and time.

Buried amongst the digital debris are old emails from a time when Hotmail addresses weren't cringe and emails resembled the letters I’d been taught to hand-write at school.

Back then, emails were a way to connect, a way to catch up on life's happenings.

Before the age of Facebook and Instagram, emails offered a one-to-one connection. A From and a To. Shared only with the intended recipient. Now, what we "post" is a curated broadcast.

I (still) write with a fountain pen. (How else to manage stationery stores, pharmacies and grocery stops without buying pens?) But beyond budget practicality, there's mindfulness in the act of caring for my pens – not tossing them carelessly into a bag, filling them when the line thins and stops – small acts of intention.

Writing letters has mindfulness and intentionality I miss.

I miss the kinds of emails that told stories - about friends' lives, the sacred, everyday moments that flit by in a blur, the very moments we remember with yearning when they're gone. A new puppy’s arrival, the playful chaos of a child, Sharing celebrations and events and times of loss and mourning. Inking what was heavy to carry, burdens shared in the weight of the lines.

I hope that there are moments of mindfulness and intentionality and pure, plain delight in your day, today and often. I hope that there are shared joys and souls with to share what is too heavy to carry.

I hope this message finds you well.

_A

Join us for this month’s online breathwork on Monday, May 27, at 7 PM AST. We’ll practice attending to the breath.

Click here to register.

Attending Breath. Mindset Breath Online. Monday, May 27, at 7 PM AST via Zoom.