Juniper Disco | No. 39

What is keeping you buoyant?

Those colossal apocalyptic fireballs. People behind lecterns gesticulating wildly, yelling things so animatedly that spit is flying — a tactic to convince us, and themselves, that what they say is true. The nonsensical blabber from the seated one. My middle finger has developed a Pavlovian response to his face. My brain hurts. My heart hurts. My face is in a perpetual WTF scrunch, single eyebrow raised so high it’s about to pop off my head.

“The times,” as we are calling it, have turned me into Linus. I’ve started carrying a very soft, very soothing blanket with me around the house. My need for comfort is just below my need for oxygen and cheese. So for this edition, we are going to share as many Whispers of Yes as we can.

What is keeping you buoyant? We’d all love to hear, so please share yours with us in the comments (or send them to me and I’ll add a compilation.) Here are 20 of mine.

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“Kiss the joy as it flies.”
—William Blake

Whispers of Yes:

• The 100 Day Project.
  Since mid-February I’ve been working on my own little bit of art almost every day. I’m collaging my little heart out, turning my bits of collected paper nerd ephemera into new curations.
  
  Things I’ve learned:
  I love arranging the bits into tableaus that are pleasing to me. I like flat color, grids, squared edges, and geometric shapes. And I hate gluing them down.
  
  It is amazing to see what other people are working on in this project and I encourage you to flip through shared posts at #the100dayproject on Instagram.

  

  one of my first collages for The 100 Day Project

• Moon Lists.
  I have bought every single item they’ve ever sold (except the tshirts and some of the collaborations with limited access.) I cannot tell you how much I love everything they do. Their prompts help you to notice and consider — my favorite kind of thinking. The latest version is “Prompts for the Morning” and I highly recommend getting your hands on it before it inevitably sells out.

  
  Here’s an example of the kind of prompts you’ll find in Moon Lists:
  ”NARRATIVE HICCUP
  A pink plastic shower caddy. A vanilla cupcake-flavored lip balm. A case of Diet Fresca in the back of the fridge. What’s something you’ve purposefully obtained that’s decidedly…off-brand for you?”
  
  SO GOOD.

• That “Personal Curriculum” trend.
  This is for all my fellow Ravenclaw/Erudite/Scribe Quadrant friends! The youngsters have branded and romanticized following your curiosity and I am all for it.
  
  I have a large notebook where I keep notes on the things I’m interested in — the writing it down part is the key. In a cute notebook. With stickers and doodles. And a favorite pen.
  
  Some of my research topics: Risographs + what does a music supervisor do and how can I be one + how to make a zine + writing systems (alphabet vs logograms vs syllabaries) + women’s diaries + the concept of “uncanny valley” + lofi music.
  
  Related: There is a FREE HarvardX course, Tangible Things: Discovering History Through Artworks, Artifacts, Scientific Specimens, and the Stuff Around You, which I will be adding to my personal curriculum later this year.

• NASA Citizen Science.
  Inspired by the Artemis II adventure, Project Hail Mary (which I saw on a 70mm IMAX screen at the BFI in London!), and/or the latest season of For All Mankind? We may never be astronauts, but we can DO SPACE SCIENCE. There are 42 projects that anyone can participate in. I’m doing the Space Umbrella project and the Planet Hunters TESS project.

• The “Whimsy” trend.
  My original tagline for Juniper Disco in 2010 was: “I’ve never been a black umbrella kind of girl,” which is pretty much the same thing. Ordinary life experiences and objects can be amped up, romanticized, made special by adding a bit of color, a twinkle light, a special mug. My favorite example is Loretta Rothschild’s red socks. She ONLY wears those red socks.
  
  Caveat: buying things you don’t need just to be whimsical feeds the capitalist beast. So make something, alter what you have, thrift, trade, or just use what you have.

• The Analog Bag trend.
  My analog stuff wouldn’t fit in one bag — it’s more of a lifestyle, especially for us analog OG’s in GenX. But I fully endorse collecting things you can do without connecting to anything over the interwebs. I especially love a good puzzle book (Threads and Sudoku are my current faves.)

• The Numinous Network.
  I found this community when I was struggling with my father’s death and standard grief counseling was not working. They offer a Moral Injury course, which helped me process the deep well of anger I had towards the perpetuators of the lies around COVID that lead to his death. The monthly offerings are based in somatic experiences — very collapse-aware, very trauma-sensitive, very witchy, and very intuitive. I have not found anything even remotely close elsewhere.

• My Morning Hour.
  I never skip a day. I can do it in 20 minutes or I can take the full hour. Sometimes I don’t start it until 4:30PM. The practice consists of little rituals like lighting a candle, putting out my crystals, pulling an oracle card, filling out my daily tracker, doing meditation, doing Moon List prompts, working on a brain puzzle, and journaling. No matter what is going on out there, it grounds me.

  

• Sharon Astyck’s Doom Zoom.
  Sometimes you just need to gather with people as freaked out by things as you are and go visit the darkness with them.

• Steven Soderberghing my cultural consumption (or some people call it a media diet).
  Last year’s attempt was a failure. I got overwhelmed and stopped. This year I only record when I finish something I watched, read, or listened to.
  
  A few observations from the first few months: I watch a lot of reality TV. I binge shows in the background of what I’m actually doing. I don’t watch many movies. These are all things I’d like to change.

• The Sunday Letter Project.
  A simple commitment to write an actual letter to someone or to yourself every Sunday. And you don’t have to mail it, but it’s much more fun if you do.

• Public art.
  One of my great loves! There is nothing like the jaunty kick to the senses one gets from finding a human-made thing intentionally placed in the environment. Luckily, I live in a very arty town that has a Public Art Foundation, which sponsors new art every season. Go on a hunt to find what’s in your local spaces.

• Making a Day of It.
  My intention right now is to organize and release unnecessary objects, things, processes, and baggage from my life. So I am making a big deal out of very mundane and very painful tasks. I’ve scheduled an Email Purge Day, a Book Collection Weeding Day, a Paper Sorting and Filing Day, a Saved and Queue Clearing Day, and a Closet Cleanout Day. There will be outfits and playlists and snacks. And a specially selected reward for completion. (WHIMSY!)

• Neurographic Art.
  It’s doodling in a prescribed way with purpose and with reflection. Soothes my firebrain. I use a Neuro Art Journal I found on Etsy.

• Springy Spring Possibility List.
  I live by my seasonal lists. I made the coziest Deep Winter Hibernation List. I didn’t do many of the things on the list, but having it there in my daily off season journal to review made me feel like there was so much possibility even in the quietest of months.
  
  On my spring list: A local library day at each of the Outer Cape libraries. Designated Eavesdropping Days (there are some good conversations to listen to in this town.) A cafe crawl down Commercial Street with my books and writing journals in tow. Truro and Wellfleet beaches with Stephen before we get kicked off for the summer. Breaking out my digital camera and my iPod mini for walks.

• Commissioning personalized gear to rep my favorite things.
  I have a Kit Connor hat. And a Smiths hat. A sweatshirt that says “Sgaeyl” in small print. And one that has a green pennant with “Dragons” emblazoned on it. My aesthetic is very specific and I can never find exactly what I want so I hop over to the Etsy artists to create it. Wearing something that only I have feels very good to the Teenage Missy in me who went to great lengths to have things no one in my little rural area had — the perfect combo of self-expression and pettiness.

• Animation.
  I watch my own version of Saturday Morning Cartoons every week instead of starting out my weekend with the news. I’ve loved these lately: Nocturna (Kanopy.) A young boy faces his fears and saves the stars. My heart. Green Snake (Netflix.) Beautiful animation. Hilda (Netflix.) I’ve been working my way through these. So imaginative and fun. Zootopia 2 (Disney+). The banter is fantastic and I laughed a ton!

• Trip and Excursion Planning.
  I just got back from visiting my niece in London — thoughts are currently incubating and will be shared. I highly recommend leaving the country for a reset. I feel excited about the world again! (I also feel very lucky that we planned and paid for the trip long before all the nonsense happened.)

  
  Short of that, just having a change of scenery can breathe new life into you. On my list currently — Chicago to visit my gay husband, a solo Boston trip, my next reading retreat, Cuttyhunk, a day trip to Sandwich, an expedition to find all the OG kitschy places on Cape Cod, a pottery trail to discover new-to-me local potters on the Cape, and a day in Yarmouth with afternoon tea + a walking tour of the sea captain houses + my annual visit to the Edward Gorey House.

• Things that make me cry.
  A guaranteed way to unfreeze the numb. Chapter 89 of Kingdom of Ash. The entire Boys of Tommen series. Chapter 25 of Exodus in the Ravenhood Trilogy. Episode 8 of Heartstopper, season 1 when Nick comes out to his mother. This scene:
  

• And a few random things I loved lately:
  staying in bed in the morning just to enjoy Stephen curled up against my legs + the return of birdsong in the neighborhood + Freakier Friday — as a personal rule, I never, EVER use “LOL,” but, girl, was I LOL-ing on the plane watching Jamie Lee Curtis! + The Laguna Beach Reunion + The END (sob!) of Heartstopper. I’m a member of Alice Oseman’s Patreon so I’ve been reading volume 6 as she’s published it page by page. She just posted the entire 38 page epilogue. And it is perfect. + Eliza Raine’s Flame Cursed Fae series about a Valkyrie training school + “Dracula” by Tame Impala + this Comet in Moominland digital story (I went to the Moomin Pop-up Shop in Covent Garden and bought all the Angry Moomintroll stuff I could find!)

So whatcha got? Please share in the comments. I’m also happy to post a list of anything you send directly to me.

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