MW Rx. If You Want To Be A Bird...

This week we were between seasons, between sobs and utter silliness. We're rescuing books from the backs of dark cupboards, crystals from the hearts of desiccated old bath bombs, we're making ritual offerings of our own blood for the sake of our own well-being.

We're honing and balancing the blades of our sharp, cunning selves.

We're glowing with Pride, and Big P*ssy Energy.

Amy's prescription starts with Pride by Aretha Franklin.

Pride and love (Pride is) oh, respect for yourself

Pride invites us to get up and put the work into our self-respect. Please take this with all our love and respect for whatever that looks like for you, in your body.

Because let's be honest, there's a verse in this song that's weird about welfare — pretty characteristic of the times — but we want to be clear that we are PROUD of systems that uplift. We're over here celebrating the passing of Bill C-22 which though imperfect will create a federal income supplement (basic income) for low-income Canadians with disabilities - who make up 40% of Canada's low-income population (including Risa's dad, part of the reason she's been a long time advocate for Basic Income.) SO! Please shake it to vintage Aretha while taking pride in a rising wave of care and justice. Join us in sending out thanks and adoration to all the disabled activists and queer activists who have been taking hits on the front lines of revolutionary care.  

I wanna thank you for helping me see
There's a power that lives deep inside of me
Give me the strength (give me the strength)
To carry on (to carry on), always be strong
Whoa oh oh oh whoa

(PRIDE) A deeper love!

Here's to a deeper love, always.

Amy's prescription continues with the radical suggestion that if you want to be a bird, you'll have to try flying.  

If you want to be a bird
Why don't you try a little flying
There's no denying
It gets you high
Why be shackled to your feet
When you've got wings
You haven't used yet
Don't wait for heaven
Get out and fly

If you want to be a bird
It won't take much
To get you up there
But when you come down
Land on your feet

Don't wait! Run down the road flapping your arms! Take a leap toward a glorious dream! And then practice the other part too: love the ground again. Land on both feet.

Risa cleaned and cleared a space this week for another ancestor altar, and did an ancestor meditation from Wild Soul Runes (thanks to beloved covenmate Sarah for that one) all while listening to old Céline Dion. Our Quebecois grandmêres love Céline, and it's the Fête Nationale du Quebec this week, and fuck nationalism, but also let's find what we can keep, and cherish. And in this case, it's a young Céline with a gospel choir. Singing in French about how, "when we have learned to love our failures and regrets, when we are opening our old albums, I will be singing, I will sing, I will sing." (And as I type this, the loon calls.)

Quand nous apprendrons à aimer nos échecs
Et nos regrets
Quand nous en serons à ouvrir
Nos livres de souvenirs
Je chanterai, je chanterai, je chanterai
Je chanterai toujours

Let us sing always, and please add to the playlist a "behind the scenes" from this recording where the engineer suggests she record with a click track to get the timing right because even iconic voices sometimes need to be reminded about time. And let's add the gleefully over-the-top Vegas version of Celine's consent anthem I Drove All Night because consent is sexy, and the flowers are bursting here, and the world is not just heartbreaking but ridiculous and delicious also.

And in that spirit, Risa's final prescription this week is B.P.E. from the hilarious Girls5Eva. Whatever your gender or genitals, please rock through these strange solstice days blessed with your best Big P*ssy Energy, enjoy the weird, swagger, harmonize, make your own f*cking magic.