Beamspun 12: 5th July 2020

Local sunrise / publish time: 0353 UTC (+4m)

Hello. Before we go any further, let's all just take a break. Pause this for a minute, five minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, whatever suits. It's ok. Take some breaths, look around to the corners of your vision, listen to the wind or the night or whatever else surrounds you. Just, you know, it's fine to stop. You don't have to feel guilty or excited or even curious about stopping. It's just a Thing that you can Do. Trust me, it'll be the best thing you do all day.

Now you're back, I'll be stopping too. Just for a week, mind. I've written more at the bottom, but we have work to do, and gathering yourself first is the only way to know if you're doing that work sensibly.

P.S. The ether went weird and this post was originally blank. Apologies if you get this twice, or never, or anything other than once...

Links

  • cities: Anne Hildago has been re-elected mayor of Paris, and will be continuing the push towards a city for people, rather than cars: 'As part of her manifesto Hidalgo plans to turn the French capital into a myriad of neighborhoods where “you can find everything you need within 15 minutes from home.”'

An overview illustration of what paris might look like, focusing on walking and cycling, with trees, street art, and a climbing wall.

An imagined kitchen tower for communal cooking, built in a marketplace.

  • ritual: Some thoughts to really ponder in this read on Ritual "technologies" of smell, singing, and light. We get so used to the idea that we can 'design' houses, computer games, and so forth. What about little steps to 'design' our own mindset ona daily basis?

  • music: Enjoying the ANNO 2070 soundtrack as I write this. Good mix of ambience and flying-sailing-fish image.

Solnotes

Solstice has changed something. I'm not sure what, just something nearby. The hard work of spring has given way to growth, given the world its own momentum. The berries are growing as they will, now.

I think I'm going to take a break from the newsletter next week. A fallow week, if you will. It's been agood few months and a lot of ideas and thoughts are spiralling out of them, I need some time to let them sink in and find some deep, dark earth to take root in.

If all goes well, the newsletter will shift after that. It will take what it's learned, and spin a thread out in new, subtley different direction. Perhaps. Or it may just stay the same while I carry on figuring out where to go. We'll see.

So catch you in two weeks. I hope whatever you're growing bears fruit.

Get in touch

If you enjoyed this, then please spread the word and tell someone else that you think might be interested - https://beamspun.exmosis.net/ is the address to spread!

For any feedback, suggestions, broken links, comments, or general 'hi there' type stuff, leave a comment, or you can find me hanging out in any of these places:

I'm also documenting my own 'everyday solarpunk adventures' over at the 6suns blog.

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