BY ALENA HALL
Dearest darklings,
We are currently experiencing one of the most tumultuous, trying and downright terrifying times in modern American history. The change in the air and energy around us is palpable. Our love no longer feels safe. Our freedoms no longer feel guaranteed. Our passions we advocate so strongly for feel threatened. It's as though at any moment the progress we have made could be snuffed out with a single breath. And it's crippling.
At some point in the near future, we must rise from our shadows and fears and sadness to be the agents of change this country so desperately needs. But right now in this moment, many of us simply need to sit and move through it. Experience the deepest depths of our shock and horror and anger and melancholy. Just feel it. Let it fester. Allow it to fuel our creativity and art and social activism. Watch it renew our sense of purpose in this battle.
Take an hour out of the day today to lie down and fall into this playlist as you reflect on the toughest of human emotions. Sometimes we need to feel them before we can find the energy to fight. And as you listen, enjoy the poem below made up of one line from each of the first seven or so songs in this mix.
I'm just a man but I know that I'm damned
My memory feels like it's playing with me
the Universe, she's wounded
With your eyes closed,
Older brother,restless soul, lie down
Sorrowing man, look how worn you've become
When it shakes your bones, it is alright?
And so the outside, it bashes us in
The pain we feel is indescribable, but at least we feel it together.
Alena Hall is a writer, manager and editor based in New York, NY. She earned her master’s degree in magazine journalism from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her bachelor’s degree from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She currently works at Odyssey as a managing editor and is a music columnist for Luna Luna. She is fascinated by the mind-body connection, obsessed with transcendent tunes, curious about any book that helps her perceive the world in a new way, and madly in love with her crazy Siberian cat Fitzgerald. She lives by the motto, "You are what you do, not what you say you'll do. So go do something."