she said:
start from the inside
and work your way out
you gotta love you like you’re
I said:
I get what you’re saying
and this week’s been crazy
but Friday
I should have some time.
like it’s your job
Feliz dia de Frida 🎂 / kitchen table 🧩 #frida
Thank you @Longreads for featuring my essay, “The Brazilian Healer and the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes.” You can also read it @digg and on Twitter @LeighHereNow and @MediaREDEF. #memoir #brazil #johnofgod #joaodedeus @saribotton
Cool fact: scholars have theorized that poet Elizabeth Bishop's work changed after moving to Brazil, falling in love, and learning Portuguese. My life changed when I did the same, and an excerpt from that story is featured this week @longreads. My farm was about 30 minutes from where Bishop and her partner lived. I Googled photos of Bishop in Brazil, and look what I found! Top left: Elizabeth Bishop, dipping / top right: @leigh.here.now dipping / bottom right: Samambaia, house of Bishop’s partner Lota de Macedos Soares / Bottom right: my farm, about 30 minutes away. #mindblown💥 #memoir #brazil #poetry #poetsofinstagram
As I’m gearing up for a patriotic movie night with neighbors (Jaws, Lincoln, Independence Day, Hidden Figures), I thought it might help to share some ways to celebrate the best of who we are. Sending love and solidarity to all of you – with all of us pitching in, clearer skies are ahead. #fourthofjuly #nonviolentaction #198methods
Abadiânia, Brazil, 2012. I’m honored that my essay “The Brazilian Healer and the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes” is featured on Longreads today. Great gratitude to Longreads editor Sari Botton for being such a dream to work with, to Kelly Thompson and Abbey Ryan for being my early readers, and to the endlessly loving Lidia Yuknavitch for reminding all of us that our stories belong in the room. “The roosters started at 4:30 in the pasture behind the inn. On the second crow, I rolled onto my back and blinked at the jalousie window’s slatted light, considering my first day at The Casa. We were allowed to ask three questions, no more. A visit with the world’s most famous “spiritual surgeon” was like going to see the wizard.
Mariana was silent in the twin bed next to me, the sleep falling in loose spirals across her face. I pulled back the sheets and slipped inside. “Bom dia.” “Bom dia, meu amor.” A soft sound from a distant place.
Seven and a half years later, I receive a text from a friend in Rio: “Did you see the news?” She links to a New York Times article: “Celebrity Healer in Brazil Is Accused of Sexually Abusing Followers.” When I visited John of God for the first time in 2011, I was an American expat living on an organic farm in the Serra dos Órgãos Mountains above Rio de Janeiro with my Brazilian wife. We had been together for eight years, so it only seemed fair that for a time, we should live in her country. I left a hectic career in social policy after the Obama administration picked up my nonprofit’s cause, figuring the hardest work was behind us.
Mariana saw the world in signs. A found penny meant money was coming. A white feather was a sign that the angels were watching. A black cat was a good sign as long it was facing you, but if it turned around, the good luck went with it. A bird in the house meant death was on the way. Whenever Mariana needed to make an important decision, she asked for a message, but the catch was that she rarely listened to the answer, especially if it wasn’t the one she wanted to hear. She just kept asking until she got the sign she needed” #memoir @longreads @saribotton @lidiamiles @kellyblog @abbeyryan8 #writing
I’m honored that my essay “The Brazilian Healer and the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes” is featured on Longreads today. (link in profile) Great gratitude to Longreads editor Sari Botton for being such a dream to work with, to Kelly Thompson and Abbey Ryan for being my early readers, and to the endlessly loving Lidia Yuknavitch for reminding all of us that our stories belong in the room. “The roosters started at 4:30 in the pasture behind the inn. On the second crow, I rolled onto my back and blinked at the jalousie window’s slatted light, considering my first day at The Casa. We were allowed to ask three questions, no more. A visit with the world’s most famous “spiritual surgeon” was like going to see the wizard.
Mariana was silent in the twin bed next to me, the sleep falling in loose spirals across her face. I pulled back the sheets and slipped inside. “Bom dia.” “Bom dia, meu amor.” A soft sound from a distant place.
Seven and a half years later, I receive a text from a friend in Rio: “Did you see the news?” She links to a New York Times article: “Celebrity Healer in Brazil Is Accused of Sexually Abusing Followers.” #memoir @longreads @saribotton @lidiamiles @kellyblog @abbeyryan8 #writing
Brilliant! So few words that say so much.
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I see you, too. 😉
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LOVE this piece!
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I love that you loved it. Totally hot, grannynee!
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“you gotta love you” (and don’t wait until Friday) ❤
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