This is so great to wake up to! Amanda is a wonderful writer and editor and an amazing, insightful person. I love that you do these interviews, Jane. You’re pretty amazing yourself.
Thank you Amanda and Jane for this great interview.
Your comment about the Mama and baby deer brought to mind a very similar story Lisa Miller, PhD shared in her book The Awakened Brain. It's interesting the link animals have with new souls awaiting arrival with their families.
Hearing your story about your experience with grace, or lack thereof, during your upbringing made me very thankful that I was raised in a liberal-thinking church. It seems like I am one of the rare folks who doesn't associate their religious background with trauma and general horribleness. You have had to overcome a great deal to come out on the side of the core belief that people are kind and good so that's a job well done!
Thank you, Jane for this great interview! It invites us to connect with the world of Amanda so intimately. Thank you both to reveal and share your worlds! 💓
Oh I love this interview! As an aside, I sometimes get weird promptings to look things up. As I turned on my browser I had the inner guidance to look up "Doe." I then read: "One night a few years ago when I was getting up the nerve to undergo IUI treatments to try to get pregnant, our motion-activated lights turned on outside. I walked into the living room and saw a white-tailed doe and her fawn standing close to one another, just a foot or two from my back deck and staring at me at eye level. Perhaps I was delirious or half-asleep, but I stood there and watched the mother drag her tongue across the neck and head of her fawn over and over again. And I burst into a bucket of real ugly crying tears. I know they heard me from inside the house because they paused to look up, their ears at full attention, but then they softened back again."
Beautiful interview. Honest, raw, humble... Number 6! The fawn was absolutely a message. The big H and little h are always opportunities to learn, aren’t they?
I also loved Anne of Green Gables and Little Women and am a book hopper! Also, you may be interested in checking bookdoulas.com - one of my favorite spiritual people, Lee Harris worked with their doulas on his book and loves them - they have a retreat type vibe but I don't know if they do retreats and haven't worked with them myself. Compassion/Buddhism seems to be trending...I had a great chat with a barista about Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance the other day and am reading a book currently about a dakini from early on in Tibetan Buddhist history. I love the story about the Jewish family. I think I would have gotten a spectrum diagnoses if my parents had thought to test me but in retrospect I'm glad they didn't. I had a cool talk with my daughters about labels a little while ago and how they can be helpful to give language to our experience and communicate it to others but we prefer not have them become core identities that create limitation rather than an explanation of "What is going on now." There is an awesome post by a neurodivergent Rabbi on Your Life is a Sacred Text dot substack.
All Things Can Transform
This is so great to wake up to! Amanda is a wonderful writer and editor and an amazing, insightful person. I love that you do these interviews, Jane. You’re pretty amazing yourself.
Starting the day energized now...
Amanda was my first window into the generous, nurturing writing communities on Substack. What a beautiful interview
Thank you Amanda and Jane for this great interview.
Your comment about the Mama and baby deer brought to mind a very similar story Lisa Miller, PhD shared in her book The Awakened Brain. It's interesting the link animals have with new souls awaiting arrival with their families.
Hearing your story about your experience with grace, or lack thereof, during your upbringing made me very thankful that I was raised in a liberal-thinking church. It seems like I am one of the rare folks who doesn't associate their religious background with trauma and general horribleness. You have had to overcome a great deal to come out on the side of the core belief that people are kind and good so that's a job well done!
Thank you, Jane for this great interview! It invites us to connect with the world of Amanda so intimately. Thank you both to reveal and share your worlds! 💓
Oh I love this interview! As an aside, I sometimes get weird promptings to look things up. As I turned on my browser I had the inner guidance to look up "Doe." I then read: "One night a few years ago when I was getting up the nerve to undergo IUI treatments to try to get pregnant, our motion-activated lights turned on outside. I walked into the living room and saw a white-tailed doe and her fawn standing close to one another, just a foot or two from my back deck and staring at me at eye level. Perhaps I was delirious or half-asleep, but I stood there and watched the mother drag her tongue across the neck and head of her fawn over and over again. And I burst into a bucket of real ugly crying tears. I know they heard me from inside the house because they paused to look up, their ears at full attention, but then they softened back again."
Such a great interview! Appreciate the insights
Beautiful interview. Honest, raw, humble... Number 6! The fawn was absolutely a message. The big H and little h are always opportunities to learn, aren’t they?
I also loved Anne of Green Gables and Little Women and am a book hopper! Also, you may be interested in checking bookdoulas.com - one of my favorite spiritual people, Lee Harris worked with their doulas on his book and loves them - they have a retreat type vibe but I don't know if they do retreats and haven't worked with them myself. Compassion/Buddhism seems to be trending...I had a great chat with a barista about Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance the other day and am reading a book currently about a dakini from early on in Tibetan Buddhist history. I love the story about the Jewish family. I think I would have gotten a spectrum diagnoses if my parents had thought to test me but in retrospect I'm glad they didn't. I had a cool talk with my daughters about labels a little while ago and how they can be helpful to give language to our experience and communicate it to others but we prefer not have them become core identities that create limitation rather than an explanation of "What is going on now." There is an awesome post by a neurodivergent Rabbi on Your Life is a Sacred Text dot substack.