We writers often hear the adage “Write what you know.” But I also think it’s important--now that I am officially a Wise Woman--to share what you know. This is not to say that I consider myself to be an expert on anything--at one level I’m just another confused human, stumbling along the path. But in this lifetime I’ve had a lot of strange experiences--some of them painful, some of them extraordinary, some of them beautiful, some of them ugly, all of them necessary. I’ve met a lot of extraordinary teachers--most of them human, some of them realized, some of them animals, some of them strange dream-beings. I lived a good chunk of my life in New York City, where I rescued a crazy dog, got married, and eventually got divorced, and after 9/11 I left NYC entirely--as well as my apartment, my job, and life as I knew it--and went to live for a year in a tent at a Buddhist retreat center in the Rocky Mountains, to try to figure out why my mind always defaulted to sheer unhappiness. (The answer turned out to be: Avoidant Attachment Style, but more on that later). I’ve meditated in caves in India, I’ve sung mantras at Madison Square Garden, I published a memoir about my dog with Random House and was/am a fiction editor at Francis Ford Coppola’s literary magazine. I’ve met Viggo Mortensen and Pete Townshend (okay, for like one minute each, but still. My dog kissed Viggo, so there.) I even healed myself of a skeletal condition the Western doctors said was “incurable” (They actually told me, seven years ago, that I had “six months left” to walk.) But all these things--to me--are simply moments in time, so please don’t think I am saying any of this in a braggy way. These are moments in a life, all of which (hopefully) form some sort of trajectory towards some eventual (hopefully) liberation. These were all inner necessities. What matters most to me these days--and what, I think, kept me going--is that I have (or at least I think I have) an intelligent and open and curious mind and a heart that is wired toward compassion. Which means I’m not afraid to ask questions, and challenge preconceptions, and puzzle things out. To me, asking questions (basic curiosity) is the first step in any creative process. The simple act of being willing to admit that you don’t know something has the potential to open up great vortexes of true knowing. It’s like the famous Rilke passage from “Letters to a Young Poet” --
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
So: living the questions. That’s what we’ll be doing here. My intention in launching this newsletter in January 2023 is to build a community of like-minded people, those of us who want to open our hearts and minds and be vulnerable and live the questions, and who also want to share what they know. My writing style is honest, open, raw, direct and vulnerable with many moments of--I can’t help it--irreverence and humor. (Hey, ours is a laugh-or-else-you’ll-cry sort of world)
So again, I thank you all for joining--and I applaud each one of you, for being compassionate enough about your own well-being to seek out communities like this. As Ram Dass used to say: We’re all just walking each other home.
Sometimes it feels as if our world is on the verge of collapse. So let us, together, do what we can to form an energetic grid of creators, of thinkers, of questioners, of Lovers of Dog, and just, just...hold-our-shit-together, together.
BELOW ARE SOME SHORT DESCRIPTIONS OF EACH NEWSLETTER:
I’ve been a teacher for many years--I taught creative writing at Columbia University and NYU--and more recently I’ve been a meditation instructor and a teacher of various Tibetan healing modalities within the system of Sowa Ripga. I’m at the faculty at Tibet House and Menla and the Omega Institute. Students and friends have been asking me for years to consolidate some of my teachings into one place, so this is another reason I’m launching this substack.
PUBLIC (FREE) SUBSCRIBERS:
THIS BEING HUMAN
Every Sunday I’ll be offering an essay on a topic related to life as a human being. [Yes, this is a broad topic, but I swear it will be applicable to daily life]. THIS BEING HUMAN is my primary, public newsletter, accessible to all paid and non-paying subscribers. This will include “samplers” of the paid series below as well as a weekly inspirational quote and (hopefully) consciousness-shifting artwork supplied by my many talented friends. My aspiration is to inspire; to spark joy.
I love the Substack model, with free subscriptions, because I feel it’s important to give back to the world and offer some of my work as, well, an offering. (And believe me, there have been many points in my life--especially at the beginning of the “you’ll never walk again” days--when I could not have afforded a paid subscription). But I’m also a writer by profession, and writing is my livelihood, so if you find that you benefit from reading my words, please consider becoming a paid subscriber (and recommending this community newsletter to your friends--and your enemies :)
FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS
Paid subscribers have access to additional content such as Q&As, Healing Modality of the Week, sneak previews of forthcoming projects, discussion groups, the Mindful Writer, healing circles, virtual events, and of course, lots of gushing conversations about dogs. Founding Members get that and more!
Photo: @lensa.kecil21
INNER NECESSITIES
This newsletter is basically a journal of self-healing, with lively discussions on how I and others have handled our various “incurable” conditions. Back in 2017, I was told that if I did not have immediate spinal surgery, I would lose the inability to walk within six months. Then I was told that, given the degenerated state of my skeleton in general, I was not a candidate for spinal surgery. And thus, I was told, there was nothing the doctors could do. I remember the spinal surgeon pointing at one of my X-rays and saying, “See that? This [anatomical anomaly] means that your legs will get weaker.” And lo and behold, within two weeks, my legs got weaker.
I was already deep into meditation and the workings of the mind at this point in my life. I was teaching Tibetan Nejang yoga, practicing the Law of Attraction, engaging in purifying Vajrayana sadhanas, singing mantras, watching my thoughts, doing Dream Yoga, keeping gratitude journals...the whole bit; so I immediately saw a direct correlation between the doctor’s pronouncement (Your legs will get weaker) and my body/mind’s response (Weaker legs). In a way, the doctor’s words had acted like a curse. And I am not trying to imply here that he was deliberately and maliciously cursing me--but I am saying that my mind/body had the response of being cursed. So I decided then and there to reverse the words, reverse the curse, as it were, and start telling my mind/body a new story. This newsletter will be that story. I’ve been keeping detailed notes for the past seven years--with the intention of eventually writing a self-healing memoir--and will share the highlights here (I think I tried about 130 different modalities?).
I also want to be clear that I’m not claiming to be a master healer here--but I can say that, for the time being, I’ve been able to keep myself well, and walking, and I did this by intentionally stepping outside (forgive the pun) the system of Western medicine, and into the realm of self-exploration and self-renewal.
If you’re interested in learning about self-healing, and/or are living with the questions of chronic illness, and/or want to join a community of people who have gone beyond Western medicine in pursuit of authentic wellness, please do join us here.
LIVING THE QUESTIONS
In this sub-newsletter, I will also be sharing my insights in the creative process. I was born an artist--I came into this world screaming on pitch at a high C, and started writing, painting and singing at a very early age--but I was also born into a family system that did not--for reasons I’m still trying to understand--support the artistic lifestyle. Even thought many of my family members are/were actually unrealized artists, I was actively discouraged from pursuing a career in the arts. (I think it’s possible my mother may have supported my artiness, but she died when I was young and was never mentioned again...another long story). So I’ve had a lot of obstacles to my own ar-making--both internal and external and internalized-externals--and, despite (or perhaps because of?) those obstacles, I still managed to publish a book and produce an album and paint the occasional painted-thing. Basically I decided long ago that I could see myself as a “piece of work” (as my stepmother once described me) or a piece of art. Obviously, I chose art, and in the LIVING THE QUESTIONS series I will share what I know. And what I don’t. And together we will forge new pathways toward our own creative expressions.
Artists need community. And I suppose you could say that all art is a result of finding ways of overcoming obstacles. And the way out, as we all now know, is through.
MUST LOVE DOGS
For readers who know my work from my days as an editor and staff writer/columnist at Bark Magazine, and for readers of my memoir REX AND THE CITY (Random House: 2006 and Diversion Books: 2011), this series is our own private space to gush about dogs. Here I’ll be sharing unpublished chapters from the Rex and the City and Chloe Chronicles series, as well as new material from my In Between Dogs series (which is/was about volunteering as a energy healer at my local animal shelter). I’ll also share book recommendations, training tips, alternative-healing tips, etc, plus insights related to a very unique and common relationship here in the States: single women co-habitating with a single dog. We’re a demographic, I swear.
ABOUT ME:
I am, in no particular order, a writer, an editor, a yoga and meditation instructor, a weirdo (and proudly waving that flag), a Vajrayogini, a lover of French Roast, an orphan, a musician, a dreamer, a wanderer, etc. I don’t like writing bios. So I’ll stop. You can try Googling me, but you’ll end up getting information about another writer named Lee Harrington, with whom I have been algorithmed into one entity--an entity which usual consisting of my pictures and his books. I haven’t found a way to get my own identity back. Another long story, hopefully one that will eventually have a satisfying conclusion...
You can visit my music website to hear some of my songs, book a healing session, etc.
I’ll close with a poem from Rumi:
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE
The newsletter goes out once per week, on Sundays. In this world of sensory overload, with so many people and corporations grappling for your attention (and, of course, your dollars), my aspiration is that my newsletter will be received as an offering--something you look forward to and welcome into your inbox. But if you want to avoid filling up your inbox, you can always access everything directly via my Substack webpage. Or you can download the Substack app which lets you opt out of notifications without missing the latest posts. [Just please don’t ask me how to use the app because I am so not an app person].
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