i hope you follow me
My last Substack post is a day late, because even when we really want to, it is HARD to leave these spaces we’ve carved out. Even in their imperfection and corruption, Substack was a cozy internet niche we were able to huddle into for a while.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read last week’s post - dealing with decay.
Mostly, today I just want to tell you that I hope you follow me to youaremagicla.com. It is not as big as a lot of the “mystical” places on the internet, but it is a better place. I guarantee you.
And… good news - I am going to be leading a lot more live events in the L.A. area. I’m also available for private/custom events. I have an updated Events page with details - check it out if you are in L.A. and reach out if you want to create an event with me.
These events are going to be my new “social media”. Friend of a friend recommendations and referrals from IRL events has, in reality, always been my most trustworthy “discovery engine”.
In that same analog way, postcards and self-printable commonplace books are coming soon. If you like that stuff, get on the NEW email list (real ones only) at youaremagicla.com. Likewise if you are interested in hearing about live events in and around Los Angeles.
It is very hard to feel like I might be “leaving” some of you in this space. I still haven’t deleted the 99 Visions audio project because it makes me cry (a little). Overall, as I disentangle myself from Substack, I feel an overall giddy sense of liberation (which may or may not be permanent, we will see…).
Remember, I am also enacting a great telepathic connection - if I pop into your mind, consider it a sign to visit my world at youaremagicla.com.
Love,
Jess
VERY GOOD SIGN UP & CANCELLATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR NEW AND OLD JESSICA SNOW SPACES
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And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way
Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way
Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way
I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried
I’ve had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside
I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way
Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows
I took the blows
And did it my way
Yes, it was my way
- Frank Sinatra; or Paul Anka (translated it into English?) or Jacques Reveux and Gilles Thibault (wrote the original in French?) or whoever wrote this song)
“Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced.”
- Terence McKenna
“Transience is the most general phenomenon of the cosmos. Change is the only changeless reality. Seasons, livelihoods, personal relationships - all of these will change. Our experiences in life are transient and relative. Only death is certain, completing the cycle of life that begins with birth. By meditating upon this truth, we recognize that we, too, are manifestations of transience.
When we understand this teaching deeply, we become humble and sincere. We treasure each moment and endeavor to do our best. We feel less stress and become more accepting of the diverse phenomena of life. If something good happens we can feel the joy and be thankful. But we know that the conditions for the situation will not last forever, and we do not become attached to the feeling.
We will simply consider every moment and every experience as a blessing.”
- Ilchi Lee
“What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.” - Alain de Botton
Don’t go off sightseeing.
The real journey is right here.
The great excursion starts
from exactly where you are.
You are the world.
You have everything you need.
You are the secret.
You are the wide opened.
Don’t look for the remedy for your troubles
outside yourself.
You are the medicine.
You are the cure for your own sorrow.
- Jalaluddin Rumi
Avoid small talk. Embrace conversation.
Buy a plant, water it. Make your bed. Make
someone else’s bed. Have a smart mouth,
and quick wit. Run. Make art. Create.
Swim in the ocean. Swim in the rain. Take
chances. Ask questions. Make mistakes.
Learn. Know your worth. Love fiercely.
Forgive quickly. Let go of what doesn’t
make you happy.
- Paulo Coelho de Souza
“Nobody can build the bridge for you to walk across the river of life, no one but you yourself alone. There are, to be sure, countless paths and bridges and demi-gods which would carry you across this river; but only at the cost of yourself; you would pawn yourself and lose. There is in the world only one way, on which nobody can go, except you: where does it lead? Do not ask, go along with it.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness - and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling - their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
- Arundhati Roy
“I don’t quite know what we’re doing on this insignificant cinder spinning away in a dark corner of the universe. That is a secret which the high gods have not confided in me. Yet one thing I believe and I believe it with every fiber of my being. A man must live by his lights and do what little he can and do it as best as he can.”
- Walker Percy
“I could not be a poet without the natural world. Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.”
—Mary Oliver
“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
- Henri Matisse
THE SUMMER DAY
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean -
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
- Mary Oliver