workshops
Play With
Your Words
Writing Workshop
Magic Money
in issue seven
Scintillations
Alice Springs
Putting Off Trust
She
What Do I Know
About Trust?
Growing Into My Own
Bits of Trust
Slowing Down
Death of a Season
Trust Me, I Was Told
Servicemen’s
Camaraderie
Moody Girl
On Faith
Letters To My
Younger Self
photography
Leaves
Anna Giabanidis
Lemon Chillin
Brian Mayden
Steering Wheel
Julie Russell
Cover Outtakes
Scott Carlisle
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Issue
Eight: Power
Issue Nine: Humor
Julie Russell
Is it
just me, or has the entire universe been unmotivated and
uninspired lately? It's
a minor miracle that this issue came together - after all of
our procrastination, crises, and finding pieces of the past
messing up the present. Maybe
it was this Mercury Retrograde planetary thing that was
messing us up. Maybe
it was because I was rifling and sorting through the major
baggage I’ve carried around a few dozen years, and so was
everyone else. Maybe
it was a miracle, plain and simple, and I can leave it at
that.
The
irony is not lost on me that this issue is about TRUST. I literally suck at trusting.
Trusting that everything is happening just as it
should. Trusting that I am being taken care of in every
moment. I give lip service to trust, but I really don’t
trust.
We
started off this issue with a ton of content, but slowly and
precariously, many of our contributors said it was too much to
go deeper into their stories, deeper into their pain and fear,
and many of them wandered away.
I understand. I wanted to wander away too. Perhaps wander away to a land where I could quit
everything in my life and have some gorgeous Adonis serve me
grapes as I lay back on comfy pillows.
But I didn’t. I
didn’t, partly because I couldn’t find such an Adonis, but
also because of my commitment.
I stepped into my commitment to Be Real Magazine, a
commitment I have to my business partner Becky, and a
commitment I made to you, our readers and our contributors,
when we launched the first issue a year and a half ago. But when I just don’t feel like it, it’s easy to want to
run far away from all such commitments.
I’ve learned these last few months that what I’m
committed to is a lot more powerful than how I feel about it
from moment to moment.
It
took a lot of bravery for our writers to show up in this
issue. Some of
them started with pieces of stories (myself included), knowing
they needed something, but not quite knowing what that something
was. That's where
our brave, talented, gentle editors came in with their
highlighters and acknowledgements, to slowly bring out the
full potential of each piece.
I’m proud of this issue. Proud that it made it to the Internet “presses” and it’s out there – enriched by all of the crises. There is joy in climbing past obstacles and getting to the top of the mountain; more joy than if it just happened to fall into my lap with no effort on my part. But I have to admit, I’m really looking forward to the next issue being nice and easy and coming together with pleasure and grace.
Thanks
for reading. Thanks
for showing up.
Much
love,
Be Real Magazine | P.O. Box 26606 | San Francisco, CA 94126
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