Hello everyone,
I hope you had a wonderful holiday time, and that you feel rested and relaxed as 2023 kicks into gear. My husband Keith and I had quite an adventure (as we always do) in New York City. For me, it is a gorgeous cultural and human immersion to be in the Big Apple.
I’ve spent my time in megalopolises around the globe, and there is absolutely no place like NYC. As expensive and exhausting as it is, it’s 100% worth it to me to be there, gorging myself with glutenous bagels, late-night suppers, and cramped into a tiny Airbnb. One great thing about coming from the West Coast is that I never switch time zones, so nightlife and evening events are easy for me. Usually, I’m an early-early-early morning person. So, in NYC, I can stay up ‘til 1am or much later, and hit all the haps, the speakeasies, jazz shows, and concerts without needing to imbibe an entire carafe of espresso before going out (not that that is a bad thing).
My time in NYC was so eventful, as the magic of the City always offers, that it warrants its own post! So I’ll refrain for now. Meanwhile, though, here’s a fun throwback, juxtaposing my time living in New York in the early aughts with today, some twenty years on:
But I digress! The main point of my posting today is twofold:
First, I want to give a shoutout to my subscribers. Thank you for reading my work and encouraging me to keep going. Your comments and love are catnip to a writer. I am energized and thrilled that my third (third!) book is going to be published very soon, and Substack gives me a place and a space to keep sharing my writing via a no-nonsense medium.
And, an extra-extra big thank you to my Paid Subscribers. Every little bit helps. Most of the money I receive from Substack subscriptions goes to little things that keep me going as a writer: coffee, books, music, new journals, pens, chiropractic adjustments, yoga – things like that. One of the great mysteries in life is how to stay healthy and sane as a writer-artist. “Balance is a point I cross on my way to the other extreme,” said one of my first mentors. I do my best to stay healthy as an artist, but my alter-ego smokes Gauloises, sleeps late, never exercises, irregularly showers, and has a completely disheveled appearance. That’s me in another dimension. With a demitasse of espresso in one hand and a Bulleit on the rocks in the other. Dancing to Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier, or Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda while conjuring up my next pièce de résistance. C’est moi. In a parallel life.
Meanwhile, I do my best to stay healthy. On my way to the other extreme.
So, again, I thank you, my subscribers and paid subscribers. If you’d like to add something to the Tip Jar yourself, click the “Upgrade to Paid” button - easy peasy. Thank you!
Arise and Be Free - Audio Clip of Spiritual Talk (20 min.)
And now, the podcast portion of our post today is for those who desire true freedom. Wild Freedom, in fact.
Today’s audio is a 20-minute clip of a non-dual teaching I gave last New Year’s. It is a deep transmission on the teachings of Inanna, the Sumerian Queen of Heaven, who descended into the Underworld. This is a living myth that parallels the human experience of embodied awakening.
Freedom does not mean that we only embrace the lighter side of ourselves, of existence, no. It means, the Wholeness of who we are. The light and the shadow. Like me with my beret-wearing alter-ego, who hates yoga and loves punk and cigarettes, and whiskey. To be the Queen or King of the Universe, one must be willing to dance in the dark - surrendered, even impaled, and willing to be reborn.
I offer this talk here and on Spotify for those ready for a rebirth, or for those who resonate with the symbol of the phoenix rising up from the ashes. It is also for those who are ready for unconditional peace.
Inanna teaches us that Wild, True, Embodied Freedom is available to those who are willing to Face Everything. I hope you enjoy it.
Be free. Be free. Be free in 2023.
With love,
Erin
Erin Reese, M.S. is a writer, artist, and spiritual teacher. She is the author of the memoir Truth Seeker: A Spiritual Adventure of Love, Loss, and Liberation.Visit erinreese.com for more information.
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