Needs
At some point, likely already when we were very young, we began to internalize a cultural message that told us increasingly, “If you ask for what you need (or perhaps even reveal you have needs) you are burdensome.”
Where does this come from? If we reflect for a moment, it’s probably rare for us to believe people are burdensome when they share their needs with us. Why do so many people then fear being burdensome when expressing their own needs? Why does that fear come over us?
Even people with the most privileged identities fear this. For instance, how many men fear revealing their emotional needs and expressing them with others? And people with large financial needs or large health needs constantly have to navigate this landscape of internal fears.
So… if so many of us feel this way about ourselves… but not others… and those others don’t feel this way about us… Why are we living this way? Clearly, we do not have to live with these narratives. It is morally neutral to have needs. In fact, it is beautifully human.
So if no one has told you lately,
It’s okay to have the needs you have.
It’s okay to express them.
It’s okay to invite people around them.
It’s okay to make asks within them.
It’s okay to be a person with needs.
It’s okay to need.
I Mean, It Seems Like Magic
But it’s an unbelievable amount of skill. Behold, the GOAT, Simone Biles:
“There Is A Light Within You” by Chelan Harkin
There Is A Light Within You, by Chelan Harkin
There is a light that is always within you –
you cannot be truly rejected.
There is a light
that is always within you
that the Universe warms Herself on –
you can never be truly alone.
You are made from the Essence
of the breath of life-
what bad salesmen
has convinced you
that death could be real?
As we un-spin ourselves
from illusion
we find everything we’ve always sought
has always been
tinkling from within —
the richness
of the Universe
like a coy little secret
in our chests
and bit by bit we discover
there was never
any shortage
of God.
Reblog: Suddenly, I Heard My Own Prayer
Mental Health Monday: Green Flags in Relationships
This Week in Nature
Neato Curiosities: How Was the Grand Canyon Formed?
Farm Church: A Literal Ton of Food
Imagine with me… a church that chooses deliberately not to have a building but instead, be an embodied community together that cares for land and leverages all the resources of that land to address food insecurity by farming together…
That’s what we’re doing in Durham, North Carolina.
www.farmchurch.org
And I’m so glad that I get to participate from my home state in Michigan. 
When we meet on Sunday to harvest some more of the vegetables, we will have crossed the threshold of giving away 2,000 lbs. of food this year. That’s quite literally a ton of food!
Do you know what else weighs one ton?
An adult, female elephant.
A baby blue whale.
A hippo.
This is beautiful.
— Renee Roederer
A Voice through the Door by Rumi
“A Voice through the Door” by Rumi
Coleman Barks, Translator
Sometimes you hear a voice through the door
calling you, as fish out of water
hear the waves, or a hunting falcon
hears the drum’s Come back. Come back.
This turning toward what you deeply love
saves you. Read the book of your life,
which has been given you.
A voice comes to your soul saying,
Lift your foot. Cross over.
Move into emptiness
of question and answer and question.
