Hello Friends!
An invitation to create collective light together and an update.
Hi Friends,
Welcome to my first Substack. I felt compelled to start this as a way to keep in touch while going through the transplant process again.
Dialysis side effects are so brutal for me. They are syphoning away important parts of my body that I need to function and thrive as I live my life in honour of my first donor and in gratitude for all I’ve been given. I really need a living kidney donor transplant to prevent further irreversible degeneration of my body. It makes me so uncomfortable to post about it but the reality is that once I have a kidney transplant - if I survive - my doctor says, most of these issues will go away. It’s weird to put myself out there like this but if I don’t, I will not be making room for the possibility of a miracle. That anything can happen, as the Seamus Heaney poem goes, has to be how I navigate this. We must talk about the difficult things to face them and then, perhpas, be free.
With all this life and death stuff every day, I want a place where I can come to create and decompress leaving the stresses of everyday life behind. I want this to be a place where I can update you on what’s going on and you can let me know what’s going on with you. What comforts me the most when I go through dark times is the act of creation. The very challenge of becoming while things are so out of whack seems enormous and yet it is the thing we must do. When we share our personal becomings with one another, something shifts. When we create collective light within the depth of darkness, something divine is afoot. And so I hope to meet you here, every week, and share our stories together so we can electrify the night sky burning bright beyond any human life time. Please sign up for updates and send me your thoughts and let me know…
What comforts you?
What do you like to read?
What would you like to see more of?
Where do you go for light?
You can reply in writing, with audio, images or whatever medium makes sense for you to the Substack.
For now, here is where some of the megawatt energy in my life comes from:
Xo Orla
Hi hi hi
Thanks for including me. Sending al the love and power. I can only imagine what its like.
in answer to the q's
What comforts you?
So many things. Thats only new that im older. I didnt really discover comfort until 3 years ago when i had a few big shocks to the system and was forced to make changes. Before, was just relnetless energy, never stopping working or playing. late nights. Weekends that became month long weekends. Reckless and careless. And no regrets.
Comfort was discovered.
What comforts me now... Talking to my cat and fussing over him. Meditation (this is how i discovered calm). Cooking a stew (chicken or beef). Listening to podcasts while cleaning my house or cycling.
What do you like to read?
Anything except auto-biographies. I cant stand them. Especially the ghost written nonsense.
Read a lot of spy novels, old and new. The classics, so like Treasure Island etc.
Non-fiction about economics, geography and nature. Robert Macfarlane is a great nature writer.
What would you like to see more of?
Art in galleries. I stopped going to galleries a few years ago and work/life means i dont get a lot of time to do that anymore.
Also... people hugging in the streets. Not strangers like, thats reserved for festivals. But just loved ones, hugging.
Where do you go for light?
Box Hill.
Near my house, i cycle there, sit on top and take in the view.