Happy Saturday! 💙
I'm currently writing this email from the front seat of our van, which is pretty uncomfortable and definitely not optimal writing conditions, but hey, you work with what you have.
(Props to Bridge for chauffeuring.)
So I had a cool realization this week, which is that some of you fine readers are ACTUALLY STARTING TO PLAY ALONG with this Radical Living Experiment I made up.
Which made me feel a little like this:
I know you all are reading, because I get many nice emails from you (THANK YOU), and because I know how to check Mail Chimp open rates and the like.
But!
To have other people participating, well that's just the best. Because I've gotten so much good stuff from this challenge (new friends, personal growth, and even new consulting clients), and I'd like everyone to experience that.
So read on -- and thank you!
Each month I focus on a different principle. June = Communal Effort. Full list here.
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1.An Act of Radical Self-Expression
Meet Meg. Meg is awesome. She is generous, and vulnerageous, and has a tiny dog named Forrest. She is living life authentically.
She usually looks a lot like this:
Meg (@heymegsy), how I'm used to seeing her. Also pictured: @tinyforrest
Then, the other day, I received a singular photo from Meg
Unprompted complete hair changes are pretty rare, so I was jazzed (warning! in our collectively excited state some f bombs were dropped... ):
If you've been following along, you may recall that "Radical Self-Reliance" was the theme for April.
If you've really been following along, you may even recall this visual representation of all of the Radical Self-Reliance ideas I received:
And way over on the left, at the scary part of the spectrum?
"Cut Your Own Hair (ahhh!) 💇"
I really wanted to feature this in the newsletter, because it was so truly brave and badass, so I asked. Which is when I got Meg's kind response:
"of course! I would never have thought of it in this way without your newsletter."
👏👏👏 to you, Meg. This seriously made my week, even before I thought my newsletter may have had anything to do with it. Thank you for the beautiful act of Radical Self-Reliance (April) and Radical Self-Expression (May).
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2. My first "PR"?
Another fun thing that occurred this week was that the Burning Man newsletter picked up my newsletter and had a little blurb in it.
This was doubly exciting because 1) their newsletter reaches a lot more folks than this one (hi new subs!), and 2) their audience already loves Burning Man so presumably will be more likely to get involved on their own? I hope so.
Either way, it was cool to be recognized by Burning Man since it's been the source of my inspiration.
Gracias!
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3. Communal Effort, Communally Sourced
June's principle is "Communal Effort", and a few of you have been kind enough to share your own thoughts on community. It's been fascinating to collect so many different nuances to the idea, and they're shaping into some interesting insights...but for now, here's one more reader story:
"For me, community means a place that can be both safe and safely challenges me, usually a true community is made of people that have maybe one or two things in common but not everything in common- it's different from a group of friends. I think of it as a cross section of people that I wouldn't normally interact with but for some sole purpose we come together....
...For example, I recently joined toastmasters....it's a great community, very similar to church in some ways, supportive, challenging and all types of people there (but without the praying!)- old, young and everyone in between. I have found that they have become supportive to me not just in speaking but in life and they are becoming friends, but they are my "toastmasters friends" which makes them a community, we gather for the sake of public speaking but we also share ourselves in the process, I guess that is community."
- Kim B, out in LA ☀
YES. Yes it is. Go do something nice for someone today.
If you live in the NYC area, mark your calendar for Wednesday, 7/12!
Caleb and I are cohosting our 2nd "Vulnerageous Salon," a gathering of cool folks working on showing up more fully as their authentic selves and interested in meeting other people trying to do the same. 👯
If you're the trailblazing type, or aspire to be, well then, click the button -- and hurry up!! we only have a few slots left :)
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Thanks!
Enjoy the day! Hope it's stellar!
Thanks for reading!
xxx maria 🙋
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