The earth is waking up again. Roots growing underneath the soil probably look like the weavings of my soul and my dear friends, the ground is breaking. I can feel it in resonating, vibrating through my bones. The blooms will grow, the rain will speckle the sidewalks. The earthworms will emerge after nestling away. 

It's Holy Week. We know that darkness is going to creep across the horizon soon, but do not fear because the sun will rise in just a few days. The grave will be empty and each lingering heart flicker will be resurrected. Hope will no longer be scattered because it'll be growing towards the sun. 

I made a little playlist for you if your heart is in need of the sun, the hope, the resurrection right now. Stay steadfast. Be rooted and let the earth hold you tight. Easter is coming, loves. 

A playlist featuring Rend Collective, NEEDTOBREATHE, John Mark McMillan, and others

Gift a bouquet of roses to your love, give fresh blooms to your sisters, forage in the bushes for flowers for yourself. Happy Valentine's Day, loves. You are worthy, brave, deeply beloved and cosmically lionhearted. Give yourself flowers today and put them on your wall so your sweet soul might enjoy their beauty. 

I made this playlist just for you and for me and for all of us this Valentine's night. I think there's a little something we could all hear within these words, no matter our plans for the evening. And while you listen, my soul and bones would be so very happy if you built yourself a flower wall. 

* pick up or forage a bouquet.
* take each individual stem, thank it for being unique and lovely.
* tear off a piece of strong tape in whichever color you choose.
* turn the stem upside down and tape it to the wall.
* do those steps until you have a flower wall in your space.
* remember you're loved each time you glance at the blooms as they dry.
* you will see just how beauty can be preserved.

Love you, Lionheart. Today and every day.

Kate

A playlist featuring Branches, Matt Pond PA, Colony House, and others

My hands are itching to write letters to strangers — words laced in love, in hope, in encouragement — and write I will. It's now the last day of the Twelve Days of Love Letter Writing and that means we're on the tail-end of the opportunity to write words to twelve different strangers. 

This is More Love Letters' sixth year of campaigning for twelve days of twelve letter requests. Let's nestle into a cozy space with stationary and our favorite pens to write letters to twelve strangers who could use extra encouragement this holiday season. Grab your stamps and a mug of something warm (or some wine) and please, let me tell you about Alicia.

Love, it fills my soul to be a part of the team to share with you what Alicia's sister shared about her. Alicia is a light spreader, a love writer, a human who needs to know she's not alone. She's been walking through a difficult season of life and could use encouragement. Sisters tend to look out for one another, and Alicia's nominated her to receive a bundle of love letters.

Here's her story ::

“My sister recently moved to Chicago with her boyfriend of three years. Things had been progressing in their relationship and she imagined herself marrying him. However, the relationship came to a totally unexpected and heartbreaking end.

Although my family is all within driving distance, he was all she had in her day-to-day life. She is heartbroken and can’t fathom living her life without him there–her best friend. She feels immense loneliness and doesn’t have a community around her to support and help carry her through.

Alicia is the most loving person I know and spends time writing letters to strangers and hanging love notes in the trees of her town on Valentines Day. She loves through her words and actions on a daily basis and I know that receiving words of encouragement from others could really lift her spirit and help her to know she isn’t alone.”

Let's show up for Alicia this cold Friday night. I'm familiar to the loneliness she feels, and I'm certain that having hundreds of strangers rallying with her to help her realize that she isn't walking this road by herself. Write her a love letter, place a stamp on the envelope and send it her way. Your letter will be bundled with other letters from around the world and delivered in January. Let's rally for and with dear sweet souls who flood the world with joy. 

PLEASE SEND LOVE LETTERS TO ::
Alicia’s Bundle
℅ Genna F.
1331 Keenland Drive
Bartlett, IL 60103
USA

Want to keep writing? There are eleven other requests on the More Love Letters blog. Pour yourself another cup, head over to that corner and see if any or all of the stories speak to your soul. You're welcome and invited to write just one letter, or send mail to each of the twelve strangers' bundles! 

Please be sure to postmark all love letters by December 20, 2017. Be love, be light, be joy to the brave and kind and strong humans who need to be reminded that they are lionhearted. 

Want to know more about More Love Letters? Head over here. 

Love you, lionheart.

Kate

Autumn whispers a desire for coziness and daydreaming, I think. We might drive down our streets, swooning over the overhanging fire-colored leafed branches — dreaming of what lays beyond the map of our own city. Autumn beckons for diverting our current path, to step in crunchy out-of-the-way leaf piles both down the road from our homes, maybe halfway across the country.

This playlist mix is inspired by my recent travels to the American Southwest and the arrival of our familiar friend Autumn. The songs remind me of my desire to pick up and go somewhere, anywhere. They also remind me of sweaters and a campfire, gathered with dear humans reminiscing of seasons past. 

You can find the whole playlist called "Autumn Travels" on my Spotify (linked below), but you can also find a sneak preview right here, right now via YouTube links. Pick the songs that make your heart light and make your feet crave to dance around the sunbeams near and far.

Turn on the sounds softly, softly in your living room, or as loud as possible in your traveling vehicle. Nestle in your blanket cocoon in a shadowed corner and close your eyes with slow, slow breathing. Open your eyes and engrain the beauty of the outdoors into your soul. Fall in love with the words, over and over and over again. 

// click here to head to the full spotify playlist //

// and here's a preview of what's to come if you click this ^ bit ^ above ^ //

// click here to head to the full spotify playlist //

The wily crew of campers' ears perked up as they swirled their first-night meal of spaghetti onto their forks. They overheard their counselors whispering about the reappearance of the skeletal beast in the forest - murmured words that he was resting just off the path in the nettles, halfway down the trail to the creek. The campers heard stories last year that a beast may have once lived in the forest. Curiosity crept into their bones at the prospect of being the ones to discover the fabled beast. 

As the campers nibbled the last bites of their brownies, the counselors announced that a hike was next. Bug spray was a necessity but the campers decided they'd better collect sticks on the way, too. They needed to arm themselves in case the beast decided to emerge from the forest during the hike. 

The counselors explained that this was to be a silent hike so that they could all enjoy the sounds of nature - but as they walked, the campers were more listening for sound signs that the beast was coming. Perhaps he snacked on small bunnies, maybe nettles and poison ivy, or worse yet — camper-sized humans. 

As they hiked, the wily crew sneakily scooped up sticks from the forest floor. Their fearless camp counselors led them down the trail towards the creak, towards the supposed location of the skeletal beast. The campers' eyes were peeled, scanning the forest for the beast with sticks at the ready for defense. 

A gust of wind came as they sensed something among the nettles. Without pause, they forged ahead with their sticks to proactively fend off what they knew was the beast. 

As the wind moved through the foliage and sticks barreled through the air, the beast came into line of sight — but he was still. Preserved in time.

He was truly just a skeleton, once living but now left behind to become a part of the forest as nettles creeped among him. The fabled tale was true — a beast once roamed Camp Fontanelle and he remains to stand in the trees as a guardian of the forest, for the sake of wily campers to discover him. 

---

The lovely Lydia Daigle and I teamed up for the @artstew52 Week 22 Diptych prompt collaboration! Oh what fun it was for both of us to take a photograph of foliage that seem to mirror each other (Lydia's is on the left, mine's the right) and write short stories of the seasons. Click her name above to read a winter tale about sledding and a grumpy old man! It's golden.

My story was inspired by a metal skeletal beast sculpture I welded together and hid in the forest at Camp Fontanelle. A little girl from my church was a camper several weeks ago and she came back to tell me how they found the beast in the forest and threw sticks at him. I told her he didn’t eat humans -- rather he was on a nettles diet ;)