Monday Morning Muse

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mondaymorningmuse.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mondaymorningmuse.substack.com/subscribe

Please DM me if you’d like to see a tidy transcript of this episode or if you’d like to receive the link for the Team44point4 Venmo. Patreon coming soon! The song I mention in this post is Nichole Nordeman ’s Legacy . The organizations I mention in this post include * Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center - annual Walk on October 5th ! * YWCA Northeastern Massachusetts * Youth With A Mission - my childhood...

This is a long one that includes a rambling personal update. More succinct offerings are on the horizon! Monday Morning Muse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mondaymorningmuse.substack.com/subs...

in this shout-out to Windhover Performing Arts Center , Lane’s Coven , and all-that-is-worth-savoring on our planet, images are courtesy of me & the legendary Ashley Elisabeth Smith of Wide Eyed Studios in Philadelphia. Ashley showed up in a big way for team 44.4’ s staged reading of my almost-fully-scripted original play 44.4 the musical. check the back catalog in my substack, YouTube, and/or ins...

True Covers: For me, a “true cover” is a song that I love enough to revise: I alter the lyrics so that it feels more true to me. When I sing something repeatedly, I want to make sure I’m sending out vibrations that are in full alignment with who I am becoming. (“True Covers” also sounds like “ True Colors ;” shout out to the luminous Cyndi Lauper .) The original: This comes from the majestic Sara...

In this video I get back into the “weeds” of the paper I’m using to: * share & better understand my own journey with bipolar (here’s the original post ) * ignite conversation about how we can help each other rather than relying on systems to “fix” the challenges of our time * prove I can still be a nerdy academic whene’er I wanna (just gotta make Faye Ogilvie, my middle school language arts/math/L...

Singing a favorite song from the musical A Little Princess (Andrew Lippa/Brian Crawley) to celebrate a beloved friend and soul sister, Maria Gabriela Raskind, on her birthday. Thanks for making “growing up” look so wildly beautiful on the regular, rock star! And my humble apologies to anyone who is checking my version against the actual lyrics, it’s imprecise. Monday Morning Muse is a reader-suppo...

This post goes out to Dot Pineiro, to Laura Rodriguez, to Jess Plante, to Jay Mejia, to Jay Caplan, to Amy Sittnick: some of the administrative professionals I’ve known and adored at Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center … as I’m writing this, I realize that Lindsay Smagula probably also needs credit for being on the admin team at JGCC, but she’s been in the work so long that I think of her as leadership! B...

I’m uplifting beauty-full friends who are change makers this week, and today I want to uplift two brilliant yogis and one important cause: * My friend Willa Worsfold (aka my big sister) … I taught her daughter music at Miles River Middle School in Hamilton, Massachusetts; she taught me yoga not long after and has consistently been one of the most important sounding boards of my “grown up” life. We...

My intention for the week: uplift friends who make the work of social change beautiful and enticing! In this case, my dear friend Michael Bastien. His Lawrence, Massachusetts-based organization Brothers In Arms is a safe place for all male-identified bodies. Listen, donate, share the good word. Check out my Instagram reel from today for the poem I reference - John Fox’s When Someone Deeply Listens...

This was recorded yesterday, April 14, 2025. The pics below are from The Friendly Toast … chilling with Bob after our fun visit to BMC in Danvers. :) If you want my take on whether or not to subscribe with your hard earned cash (i.e., give Substack a cut of my creative profits), fast forward to the end of this vid. If you’d rather pay me via Venmo (i.e., make sure I see all the money), I’m easy to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mondaymorningmuse.substack.com Hello Happy Tuesday Happy two things can be true day And if two things can be true, infinite things: kaleidoscopic possibilities. I'm here with Thomas the three-legged cat relaxing for a few minutes before my work day begins & I think I'm going to try to post on Tuesday mornings for the next two months ent...

Good morning muses This is going to be a quick one because it has to be, because I'm starting it fairly late today. I exhort you to do the thing that is true to your heart without delay. Sometimes there's not a right time or a wrong time; sometimes it's just time. If you have been paying attention at all to Monday Morning Muse, you've heard me talk before about how chronological time is in some wa...

Morning muses, Today’s offering is a slight rewrite of a poem I wrote for a beloved friend when she stood on the edge of an important anniversary. Lately I find that each human I encounter - including my own precious self - is dancing on the edge of something … …may it be something we choose to make beauty-full. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...

good morning, dear friends! this conversation was recorded the evening of MLK day this year: 20 January 2025. Jeff & I have gone back and forth re. when to post, and I’m finally putting it into the world in all its glorious imperfection. when I watched it for the first time, I felt some real tenderness and sorrow … I spoke about that on last week’s muse . here are a few notes as well as the tags f...

Billy Collins ’ poem Shoveling Snow with Buddha has been evocative and essential to my life since Ashley Elisabeth Smith introduced me to Sailing Alone Around the Room in 2006 or 2007. my Billy Collins collection, this morning, 10 Feb 2025 Ashley & me, circa 2007 my favorite poetry-memorizing perch - end of Ocean Street in Salem, MA, 2007 (photo credit Ashley/ wideeyedstudios ) same Ocean Street p...

Early morning, pouring rain. Coffee, shower. Karaoke machine. Book of quotes; bag of cookies. I ask Hannah if there is anything she needs. “Organic half & half please.” During a slight lessening of the rain, I rush into the store and get the last carton. I arrive a bit late and give Hannah a soggy hug. People slowly filter in as I put the dairy on ice. Hannah gives me spoon duty, with unspecific r...

k, so this is the beginning of my multi-media series on the direction(s) in which we need to move as a species. I’m finding that re-examining an earlier period of my life (in this case, content&comments I posted to YouTube over a decade ago) allows me to better understand where I’m at now. I’ve been saying recently, “we need to move from attention to attunement .” This is because I realized that t...

True Covers: For me, a “true cover” is a song that I love enough to revise: I alter the lyrics so that it feels more true to me. When I sing something repeatedly, I want to make sure I’m sending out vibrations that are in full alignment with who I am becoming. (“True Covers” also sounds like “ True Colors ;” shout out to the luminous Cyndi Lauper .) Postscript on this one: I never did write more n...

True Covers: For me, a “true cover” is a song that I love enough to revise: I alter the lyrics so that it feels more true to me. When I sing something repeatedly, I want to make sure I’m sending out vibrations that are in full alignment with who I am becoming. (“True Covers” also sounds like “ True Colors ;” shout out to the luminous Cyndi Lauper .) The original: This song comes from the great Sar...

True Covers: For me, a “true cover” is a song that I love enough to revise: I alter the lyrics so that it feels more true to me. When I sing something repeatedly, I want to make sure I’m sending out vibrations that are in full alignment with who I am becoming. (“True Covers” also sounds like “ True Colors ;” shout out to the luminous Cyndi Lauper .) The original: This song is from the marvelous Da...

True Covers: For me, a “true cover” is a song that I love enough to revise: I alter the lyrics so that it feels more true to me. When I sing something repeatedly, I want to make sure I’m sending out vibrations that are in full alignment with who I am becoming. (“True Covers” also sounds like “ True Colors ;” shout out to the luminous Cyndi Lauper .) The original: This song is from the 2012 musical...

True Covers: For me, a “true cover” is a song that I love enough to revise: I alter the lyrics so that it feels more true to me. When I sing something repeatedly, I want to make sure I’m sending out vibrations that are in full alignment with who I am becoming. (“True Covers” also sounds like “ True Colors ;” shout out to the luminous Cyndi Lauper .) The original: The seed of this song came to Cold...

True Covers: This is the first “true cover” that I’m putting out into the world; these will come when the whim strikes. For me, a “true cover” is a song that I love enough to revise: I alter the lyrics so that it feels more true to me. When I sing something repeatedly, I want to make sure I’m sending out vibrations that are in full alignment with who I am becoming. (“True Covers” also sounds like...