Glitter Joyride Podcast

Someone asked me if there was a recording of the spiritual hygiene practice I offered in April at the book launch for Tending the Bones. There wasn’t, so I made one. I hope you find it helpful. It’s especially good after you’ve been energetically slimed (you know the feeling) but is also an essential daily practice for me. Love, Pavini Get full access to Glitter Joyride at pavinimoray.substack.com...

Mary Margaret and I have been sitting on the park bench in downtown Sofia, Bulgaria, for three hours. Long enough for the banitsa papers and sunflower seed husks to accumulate around our feet, blown by the Balkan breeze.  Even as the sun goes down, it's pleasant weather, a beautiful late spring evening. The children playing on the decrepit metal playground equipment have all gone home. The old men...

“Not enough balance in your account…” When I read the email that there is no money in my company bank account to cover payroll, I'm supposed to be on vacation while attending knife school. I'm supposed to be recharging while my team runs my company. Glitter Joyride is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I am suppose...

What do I mean by precious? That's the first order of business.  To be precious is to be too much. To have too many needs. Too many particularities.  To be precious means you are fussy. There is an exact right way, and unless things are that way, you are dissatisfied, often loudly.  To be precious is to want things to be so just, be comfortable, and have your needs addressed.  At 53, I am much mor...

Asking for what you want and need is hard for most of us.  Receiving requests from others about what they want and need from us can also be challenging.  I feel fluent in asking what I want and need, but I also struggle. Recently, I had to ask my partner for help with my upcoming trip to India. (YES! THAT'S HAPPENING!) I was terrified of how he would respond. The question was in my mouth, on my li...

You have lived so many lifetimes in this one, am I right?  And as many lives as you've had, you've had that many deaths, minus the final one.  The painful metamorphosis, mid-life crisis, self-reinvention.  Glitter Joyride is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You, like me, have likely been called at various points...

* Gold Bootie shorts: Check! * Cute Gay Baseball hat: Check! * Cropped Unicorn Tank: Check! My queer, non-binary friend and I have gotten up early to go to Portland Pride. We are prepared to share glitter blessings with the marchers. Unexpected rain dribbles down on our PRIDE outfits.  I feel well prepared. I've given plenty of glitter blessings and received quite a few myself. My friend is a non-...

When someone gets triggered, they often want to blame someone else for how they feel (points at self.) Yes, I’m coming out as a blamer. My first reaction is almost always to blame before investigating my feelings and how they belong to me.  Glitter Joyride is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. In fact, my partner a...

“I love all the divine feminine energy here. It’s so important. They are trying to tear us apart, but we won’t be divided,” she leans in, her wispy voice disrupting the conversation I had been having with my friend. We are sitting on the lawn at The Chicks concert. We are enjoying snacks, waiting for the band to take the stage, when this white waify purple-haired woman sat down on the grass betwee...

Remember a little while ago when I published How to Have Self-Discipline Like a Motherfucker? I received an email in response from a man who has followed my work for years. He wrote, Sorry, I had to unsubscribe. I believe in you and your work. You are better than the email you just sent. Life is harsh enough right now, without seeing 'motherfucker' pop up in my emails. I am trying to raise my vibr...

If ever you doubt you are loved, don't listen to the robin's breath singing outside your window. Instead, go to a concert. Two criteria: * It must be a beloved musician, so there will be a crowd. * Go with someone you’re fighting with. Upon entering the space (don't arrive too early, or your feet will hurt and you won't make it), take your place. For example, find a small space near the right wall...

No one is born with self-discipline. Not you, not me. Anyone who acts like they just magically have self-discipline is lying. That’s b******t. We all have to learn to have it. Self-discipline is a practice I learned as an adult. Self-discipline is showing up to write, not abandoning my dreams, making a plan, and creating a container. Especially the part about having a plan and structure. But how e...

Long after my divorce, I took a three-weekend-long full-force self-defense class and learned the term "parting shot." A parting shot is the thing the bully says as they walk away, having just lost the fight. It's designed to get you to reengage by insisting, contrary to all evidence, that they did not lose the battle. (Hello, a certain ex-president.) A sucker punch is a close cousin of the parting...

At 17, I contracted Mono and was in bed for a month. When my queer boyfriend came to visit, along with my history and math textbooks, he pressed a cheap plastic, glow-in-the-dark Rosary into my hands, a remnant of his Catholic schoolboy years. Years during which he learned the sinfulness of being queer. He knew I'd love it: a wonderful addition to my thrift store collection of rosaries harvested f...

I'm hoping for audio only when I click the link. Glitter Joyride is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Sure, I've put on a nice shirt and done my hair. But does anybody watch podcasts anyway? Plus people do their best thinking in private. Not onscreen. I think of a podcast as a private journal space with myself. Th...

I've heard them referred to as luxury bones, our teeth. Glitter Joyride is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. When I go to lunch with Char, my friend with falsies, she surreptitiously spits them out into her napkin to chew with her gums. "They're hot," she complains.  One day, I'm sitting at my writing desk, and I...

This is an essay about the power of changing your mind. To do so, all you have to do is follow these steps: 1. Believe (even if only slightly) that something better is possible 2. Give yourself permission When my daughter was five, we took a cross-country road trip together, from San Francisco all the way to Ohio and back. We traveled for six weeks. I spent many hours planning the trip, where we w...

Last summer, my 19-year-old daughter worked her ass off to buy my old car. She worked six days a week, picked up extra shifts, never called off. Fast forward three months, the car has catastrophic engine failure, no fault of hers. I intended to provide her a safe vehicle but I'd sold her a lemon.  Glitter Joyride is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider...

I'm the only one in a chair. People arrive, chatting and hugging. Although this is a dance event, and I am a dancer, and even though I have danced at this event in the past, tonight I am in a different role. Thanks for reading Glitter Joyride! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I've been asked to anchor this ritual by embodying rightly-held power. In this crowd, I'm the e...

When I see the hand-carved Victorian mantle piece for sale on Craigslist for $50, I know it will be perfect to hang above my bed like a headboard. After sharing a bedroom with my partner for years, we've decided to set up separate sleeping spaces. We are actively practicing non-monogamy, and we need autonomous space. I am decorating a room that will be just mine. I convince my partner to drive acr...

It's a bad human habit: give voice to an emotion a singular part of you is having, without taking the time to identify and name that part.  It lands for the listener as a truth when, in actuality, it's the truth of just one part, not the entire story.  For example, let's say you are deep in a house buying process with your partner. One night, you say, "If it were just me, I wouldn't be buying a ho...

Today is May Day, the traditional holiday of celebrating the return of Eros, the flowing of the sap, and the rising of spring. It feels apropos to launch Glitter Joyride today, in celebration of all the good stuff life has to offer. It’s an honor to have my words find their way into your life. I aim for what I write to delight, engage, and be in service to your pleasure and healing, and the healin...

If I said to you, "Hey, wanna hop in and go on a Glitter Joyride, would you? Thanks for reading Glitter Joyride! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Cuz that's what I'm doing. My new weekly newsletter is launching on Substack, and I'm super excited to take you with me! Here’s what I’m thinking: * Writing that will nourish and sustain your poetic life. * Musings on the mund...