Chris Williams

SEPTEMBER’S THEME IS DEPTH.

Depth is a measure of distance. Get a feel for it by traveling along a rock fissure that tunnels into the earth, stepping across the expanse between our galaxy and the next, or diving into the mysteries hidden within ourselves. 

Depth is a space that denies easy ways of seeing or comprehending — when we shine a light into the deep blue of the ocean, we cannot see much further than the surface. In our age of instant answers, we bristle at this resistance. It’s often easier to reduce people, places, and ideas into flattened renderings, rather than grapple with the nuanced and contradictory truths found in their depths. 

In what depths could you submerge yourself if you let curiosity guide you? Ask open-ended questions and listen for responses to arise. With patience, watch those questions transform and transmute as they travel further. Blink your eyes open in the abyss, lose your frame of reference, and discover something altogether new. 

Our Columbus chapter chose this month’s exploration of Depth and Bryan Christopher Moss illustrated the theme.

AUGUST’S THEME IS CRITICAL.

To be critical means to be like a sieve, dividing and separating. Our critical abilities allows us to discern the insubstantial from the made-to-last, the credible from the untrustworthy, the sincere from the ego-driven. We do so by gathering more information, seeking nuance, and locating something in its specific context.

Critical feedback is essential for our growth. Poet Adrienne Rich advises, “Responsibility to yourself means seeking out criticism, recognizing that the most affirming thing anyone can do for your is demand that you push yourself further.”

But being needlessly critical — especially of ourselves — can stifle the creative impulse. Few are as harsh as our own internal critic. How can we hone our perception, spotting what needs to evolve, without becoming ruthless? How can we remain astute while not losing sight of all that is inherently good and whole? It’s critical.

Our Calgary chapter chose this month’s exploration of Critical, Maedeh Mosaverzadeh illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.

JULY’s THEME IS SPIRITUALITY.

Spirituality is the search for our deepest values and meanings, something that touches us all. It is our yearning to peel back the curtain on the world we can see. The word comes from the Latin spiritualis, meaning “of breath, wind, and air.” It comes so naturally it might as well be breathing.

Spirituality can be found in meditation, in science, in holy spaces, in music, in community. We locate the sacred in the stars that guide us home, our capacity to love both kin and stranger, the divine that gathers in the kitchen dustpans and the forest groves lit by fireflies.

Through spiritual practice — be it by prayer mat or paint brush, microscope or movement — we seek answers to the eternal questions: How should a person be? How might we find meaning in the mundane, and purpose through great pain? How can we repair the world?

Our Jeddah chapter chose this month’s exploration of Spirituality, and Bayan Yasien illustrated the theme.

MAY’S THEME IS NOW.

These days, the “nows” hurry past us, shoved aside by the “next” — the urgent to-do’s, the latest breaking news. Constantly anticipating and staging for our future decimates our experience of the present. Our “now” vanishes, like water flowing through our fingertips. 

We cannot keep time from spilling out of our hands and into the soft earth below. It is not our task to master the present, but to savor it. To pause. Go still. Feel the air on the back of our necks, sit in both discomfort and pleasure, and marvel in the radiance of the present moment. So that we may, in the poet William Blake’s words, “Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour.” For all we ever have is now. 

Our Buffalo chapter chose this month’s exploration of Now, Mizin Shin illustrated the theme, and our global partner Mailchimp is presenting the theme. 

APRIL’S THEME IS KISMET.

When the stars align and good fortune visits, it must be kismet. An unexpected windfall, a chance encounter with another that blossoms, a doorway opening to impossible dreams. Kismet is a little pocket of time just for you. We marvel at the sheer, unlikely wonder of these moments.

Kısmet is a Turkish word that evolved from the Arabic qisma, meaning one’s portion or lot in life. When kismet was borrowed into English in the early 1800s, its meaning shifted into fate and fortune. But be wary of awaiting your destiny with passivity, philosopher Barrett Holmes Pitner warns, lest you resign yourself to a fate where nothing grows. Attend to the synchronicities in your life. When kismet alights upon you, the cosmos is letting you in on something, and you can choose to meet it.

What do you take as signs of good fortune? What moments of kismet have appeared before you? How did you answer?

Our Istanbul chapter chose this month’s exploration of Kismet, Selin Çınar illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is our Global presenting partner.

MARCH’S THEME IS FOLKLORE.

The universe is vast and full of mysteries. Humankind spin stories to answer these mysteries without answers. As these stories are passed down and among a people, they become folklore. Who placed the stars up there? When a pot breaks, who might have been the unseen culprit? How do we celebrate the successes we can’t take credit for? Folklore exercises our mythic imagination, our way of seeing beyond the tangible to make sense of the enigmatic and the unfathomable.

A song about the origin of the world, a pot of simmering stew that draws the community to the table, a knot of ribbon in your hand. All of these moments and rituals bind us to our ancestors, our past to our future. Our collective and ancient wisdom is contained in folklore, we must simply look there.

Our Guatemala City chapter chose this month’s exploration of Folklore and Sara Ortega illustrated the theme.

FEBRUARY’S THEME IS MONUMENTAL.

When we call something monumental, we mean it as a matter of scale. Societies erect statues and build squares and dedicate memorials to prevent the past from being buried. These structures loom large and cast long shadows. They are meant to endure, to keep our ancestors alive in our memories, but sometimes they dwarf the living and engulf life itself.

What does it mean to think on a monumental timescale? To honor the past in such a way that it paves a path for the unfolding of the present? We have no way of knowing if our memories will outlive us, if they will manage to travel the vastness of space and time. But there are people in the future who will need our stories, stories capacious enough to hold all of our humanity. So what will you bear witness to? What will you leave behind when you’re gone?

Our Richmond chapter chose this month’s exploration of Monumental and Mending Walls to illustrate the theme.

JANUARY’S THEME IS FREE.

What is free comes in many flavors. Free to come, free to go. Free to love, free to deliciously inhabit our own skin, free to try on all the possible version of ourselves. “Free,” as in not charging a single cent. Free to speak truth to power. Free to say no to what’s on offer.

However, to be free to — to dream, to create, to imagine — requires freedom from. To be free from want and fear, to be free from censoring forces, to be free from oppression. To strive for true freedom is to honor our obligations to each other, to fight for our mutual liberation.

When someone is free to achieve their fullest creative expression, they become a beacon for all of us. How will you make space for your own flourishing and that of others, so that the world around you might also bend towards freedom?

Our Charlotte chapter chose this month’s exploration of Free and Lo’Vonia Parks to illustrate the theme.

DECEMBER’S THEME IS INVISIBLE.

The invisible encompasses everything that does not fall within the hegemony of visibility. An entire world we cannot see exists but doesn’t show itself. From the electromagnetism coursing around us, to the flow of capital across borders, to the adaptive strategies of wildlife. The denizens of nature know that remaining invisible is power.

Many of us labor to avoid becoming invisible at all costs. We strive to create a constant performance in an age of surveillance. Being invisible is often synonymous for being marginalized, forgotten, and fallen out of view.

What if we take a cue from nature and reclaim invisibility as a strategy? What rich inner worlds can we cultivate when we remain out of view? How might we become aware of the things that have receded from sight, suddenly coming into focus with startling clarity?

Our Rome chapter chose this month’s exploration of Invisible and Cristina Spanó illustrated the theme.

NOVEMBER’S THEME IS LIMINAL.

When we find ourselves in an in-between place, we might call our location “liminal.” Liminal space is found at the threshold, between leaving an old life and starting a new one. When we have shed a tired identity but not yet donned a fresh one. Liminality is a state of becoming. It slips away, eluding easy categorization.

Invite yourself into the cocoon of transformation. Instead of asking what comes after the chrysalis, what if, in the words of anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, we look around rather than ahead? If we learn to trust the process, we can remain curious and open. We can surrender our certainty and leave ourselves vulnerable and open to the mysteries of being. What joy and sweetness can we find in all this, in the depths of liminal spaces and times?

Our Sofia chapter chose this month’s exploration of Liminal and Sevda Semer illustrated the theme.