Amy Palko

It’s hard not to panic, right? It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed and anxious and fearful. I feel that way too. The important thing to remember is, you are not alone. We are in this together. Our family, our community, our villages, our nations, our human collective – all in this together. Here are some ideas for how to find your way through these strange and challenging times – some ways back to self, back to centre, back to here, and here, and here…. Talk it out with someone. Speak your fears and be heard, seen, held, known. Feel yourself supported by the earth, the ground beneath your feet. Breathe.…

One of the first things I do in the morning is set myself up on my red sofa with a cup of strong black milky tea in hand, and watch the news headlines. But today I woke up early with a flurry of anxiety already stirring in my belly. And I just couldn’t bring myself to turn on the news channel. So I’ve brought my tea to my desk instead, to write to you, to calm my nerves… I want to introduce you to a goddess. Because goddess knows, we could use a little divine intervention around here, right? And this goddess is beyond perfect for us right now, as…

Just FYI. I won’t be writing the next Lear over the following few months. Or making a scientific discovery as significant as gravity. I will be doing my best by my family, my community, my business, my friends, my husband, myself. I will be managing my own anxiety, my finances, my loneliness, my house move, my sadness, my health. Productivity, the next great novel, whateverthefuck, is not my priority. Instead, it’s time to look after each other. It’s time to darn the bloody great holes that are opening up in the threadbare safety net of our society that is letting our most vulnerable slip through. Will great art be created…

We live very close to a primary school in Edinburgh, and so every morning, I wake up to the lovely sound of little children and their parents making their way through the playground in time for the first bell. As this Corona crisis continues to unfold, there’s been increasing talk of school closures here in the UK. Maybe they have already closed in your part of the world. And so now, when the sounds of laughter and song and play and excitement file past my bedroom window, a flurry of lunchbox and blazer, I lie in my bed and watch the light filter in through the gap between my curtains…

“The immanent goddess did not create the rose; she *is* the rose. She does not take care of you; she *is* you.” ~ Patricia Monaghan When you consider the above quotation in conjunction with your My Word goddess for the year, what does it stir in you? If you hold to the truth that the goddess (as an expression of the sacred feminine) is experiencing life as you, does this truth impact your connection to your goddess? What I’d like to invite each of you to explore in your journals is the following creative exercise. It should take you around an hour, and it’s in 2 parts, with the first…