february: intention
february: imagination Charlotte Friend february: imagination Charlotte Friend

february: intention

We’re at a critical point here. We have been for about 2 years. To be overworked and underpaid in such a time of collective grief keeps our heads down, able only to focus on what’s directly in front of us–bills, food, work, kids, etc. Now last month, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Survival at this point in time is radical. And if that’s true, then hope and imagination must be utterly transcendental at this point.

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january: intention
january: endurance Charlotte Friend january: endurance Charlotte Friend

january: intention

Endurance involves acceptance, commitment, and resolve from the very beginning until the absolute end. And in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has meant masking, distancing, and staying away from large gatherings from March 2020 till now (and at this rate, well into the future).

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december: intention
december: celebration Charlotte Friend december: celebration Charlotte Friend

december: intention

Getting through all the woes and grief of this pandemic is a cause for celebration in and of itself. But to really celebrate such a triumph, we cannot deny the less-than-festive reality of new variants and rising transmission rates. Is there a way to remain present in the universal truth while revelling in our personal joy? And what might that look like for you and yours? What intentions can you bring to the holidays this year and every celebration in between?

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november: intention
november: death Charlotte Friend november: death Charlotte Friend

november: intention

But the ultimate truth is that my relationship with death, like most any relationship, is rather complicated. It ebbs and flows the more I see of it and the greater contexts in which I can relate to it. Finding it in the snack aisle at the grocery store or feeling death as a kiss by a gust of wind. Sometimes it is sweet and other times haunting.

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october: intention
october: coping Charlotte Friend october: coping Charlotte Friend

october: intention

To cope is to do the best with what we have. Coping is never perfect and it certainly isn’t a science. After months of obsessive reading and writing, I still felt empty. And to this day there is still a void within me to which no amount of long walks, meditating, skateboarding, painting, or the like could fill.

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september: intention
september: community Charlotte Friend september: community Charlotte Friend

september: intention

Realizing all of me could never be completely known by all of someone else (and vice versa), I mourned this idealized sense of connection and community I once yearned for. And where else could I go from this grief other than further into my study of self, excavating parts of me that I misunderstood because I’d chosen to take someone else’s word for it and instead of speaking what I knew, my truth.

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july intention
july: process Charlotte Friend july: process Charlotte Friend

july intention

We can process our intentions and set intentions for our processes. It’s about tuning into what’s in front of us and gauging the effectiveness of our reactions.

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june intention
june: isolation Charlotte Friend june: isolation Charlotte Friend

june intention

Nothing happens out of context, on its own in a vacuum, it is all connected, but disconnecting from our routines and the physical presence of loved ones brought us to something bigger, even if it was simply grief.

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april intention
april: tension Charlotte Friend april: tension Charlotte Friend

april intention

Tension is created, it’s not just discovered. It is the interaction of this and that, the resentment between us and them. Tension is not a solid object, no matter how heavy it feels. A reaction, it is a state of being, begging you to be awestruck. Tension is an unstudied disease that attacks our lungs...no wait our hearts and all at once, without noticing, we succumb by clenching and attaching, restricting and contracting.

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