December Newsletter 2019
Hello beautiful beings,
The last few weeks have been an amazing whirlwind, such a wonderful way to start my next decade on this planet. Thanksgiving was my 40th birthday, born in Lowell, Massachusetts when both my parents were based at the Fort Devens army base. My mother used to joke that when she was in two days of labor they had a 10 pound turkey, and two days later she had one of her own. Thus, to be writing from the Boston area today having just returned stateside, it feels fitting for this newsletter.
It has been an amazing birthday trip. A year ago my friends Kinje and I were discussing Krampusnacht, and said “wouldn’t it be fun to go some time.” Instead of dreaming it, I went ahead and asked if she wanted to go in 2019. Really? Absolutely. Finding cheap, and very circuitous flights, we arranged for the two of us and her partner Alec to have this grand adventure that just unfolded. A day is Lisbon, an evening in London visiting friends of mine from university, and 7 amazing days in Salzburg before heading back stateside by way of a daytime in London having dim sum, and a night in the Copenhagen airport.
We had the chance to attend a few different Krampuslauf (Krampus Runs) where they went through the streets beating folks with bundles of twigs and scaring people, bore witness to an amazing pagan Krampus ritual at the Hellbrun Advent Market, and I got to follow Krampusse as the wandered the street with a hipster St. Nick on his way to the children’s gathering. So much good coffee, great food, great conversations, beautiful views… wow. You can see a selection of images from the Salzburg part of the trip over on Patreon.
There is something powerful about seeing through new eyes. I’ve been out of the country many times before, and sometimes I forget how much I have normalized in my life. Watching Kinje though, I got to see her light up riding her first ferry on the Thames, both of them go wide-eyed as the loud trains rumbled past each other, and blink at the sheer size of some of these cities. I forget sometimes how much I have normalized these things in my life.
This applies to kink and sexuality. Having been in these communities for over 20 years publicly, and more privately, there is so much that I bear witness and take with a shrug as being simply what it is. Then… I have someone whose eyes go wide. They are having their first exhibitionist experience being topless at a public sexuality event. They get to watch a suspension bondage performance for the first time. I have to stop and see the world through their eyes.
Seeing the world through new eyes can be truly invigorating. To realize how much beauty and power is in what it is that I have already done or currently do. The beauty in my life experiences that I take for granted.
What things do you take for granted in your life that someone else might see with new eyes? Things that you might have as part of your day to day that others might never have experienced? Your life is a unique one, and that has power in it.
Forty. I’m looking forward to the next decade, and who knows, maybe the next forty years from here forward as well.
Yours in Passion and Soul,
Lee Harrington
http://www.PassionAndSoul.com