Look, Pay Attention, Something is Shifting
Pay Attention
Image from Free Will Astrology, October 2025
Y’all may or may not know it, but I’ve been following Free Will Astrology for over thirty years. I first found the horoscopes in the Shepard Express, the local, community paper in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If you’re reading this from Tampa, think Creative Loafing. I think the Free Will Astrology might be in there, too! It’s syndicated after all. Anyway, a few weeks ago (In October actually), the theme of the Free Will Astrology newsletter was attention. I took a screenshot of so many passages that I’m now not even sure what I want to do with them all. I have been revisiting them, jotting down a few lines in my journal for daily prompts.
Fact is, I’m exhausted. And I know, I know, I’m a new mom. I get it. I really do. It’s what everyone said about being a new mom, about being a parent: Say good bye to sleep. Get ready for #TeamTiredMom. So on and so on. But also, I’m exhausted from other things, too, like “doing too much” as my loving, always right wife says. I have been doing A LOT and have been for a long time. My attention has always been split, has always been stretched crepe-thin.
How long can a person operate that way? A long time, I’m sure. And so much of that being busy and doing all the things can feel like a sort of success, a type of ambition and drive. I’m not so sure of that feeling anymore because I’m not feeling successful or ambitious or driven, I’m just feeling tired as hell. And a little frustrated.
All of this is a conversation about attention—who and what gets our attention, who and what doesn’t, and how do those decisions and distinctions manifest in our day-to-day lives and our desires to live happy, healthy, thriving lives. I’ll be sharing more about this on my Patreon, so now is a good time to sign up if you haven’t already. Soon, my Patreon community will be one of the few places to connect with me online, so just putting that out there, too.
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” - Simone Weil
I’m taking a deep contemplation on attention into my winter break, and I invite you all to do the same. When you reflect on 2025, what and who got your attention? What amplified under that attention? What withered from not getting enough (or any) attention? For 2026, how might you use your attention more intentionally and more in service to the life you want?
Heard ‘Em Say…
I’m featuring at the most thoughtful, encouraging, and inspired open mic in the city! I’m excited to close out the year with the Heard ‘Em Say Teen Arts Collective!
New Work: “Still” in the Mass Review
This essay is a tender one. I wrote about a certain kind of restlessness, a certain kind of love, and how my father’s incarceration(s) both fractured and focused my understanding of forgiveness, family, and freedom. Get your copy here.
Brilliantly guest edited by Nicole Shawan Junior
Our Voices, Our Community
The Kitchen Table Literary Arts anthology is finally ready! So thankful for the patience and beautiful work of the contributing artists! Sign up for the newsletter at www.kitchen-table.org to get more information about securing your copy!
We called for poems and stories of protest, survival, challenge, and triumph, poems and stories to amplify the voices of BIPOC poets and writers currently living in Florida.
The artists in this volume answered the call with poems, essays, and stories about life, love, resilience, survival, art, Florida, identity, renewal, redemption, family, friendship, home, nature, community, and joy.
Been a While, but We Stay Thankful Over Here
Join me for what is more than likely my very last Instagram Live for the foreseeable future. I haven’t done a solstice gratitude shout out in a long while, but I couldn’t think of a better way to close out my time on IG and get deep into my attention bag than to celebrate the winter solstice with gratitude for all the year has given me and taught me. Tune in if you’ve got the interest and the time.
