And the rains kept falling

living through a thousand year storm

I live in one of the most beautiful regions in the United States, and it’s ancient.

I’ve said it before but maybe you’re new here - if so, I’m so glad you’re here;
Our Appalachian mountains are older than bones, older than any recorded bones.

When a hurricane hit land 700 miles away a week ago, you wouldn’t have thought it would wreck our mountain-town communities. Hurricanes grow weaker as they move inland, that’s what we know.

But, Asheville -our largest Appalachian city, and its surrounding areas received more than 10 inches of rain just a day and a half before.
We were already waterlogged, and because I’ve lived here for 24 years, I knew what that meant, and it wasn’t good.
A huge river runs through our artsy town, and it carries on downstream an immense amount of water through beautiful unique towns, counties, and communities.

I was in college 20 years ago the last time we had a hurricane storm that came remotely close to this one, and we were without water for a week. Electricity came back the next day.

Not this time.
This time most of our region has been without power for over a week.
We don’t know when the water will come back online, or even when it does when it will be safe to drink -we’re hearing possibly a year.
We sat back and watched entire small towns float away. “Sat back” if we were lucky, some folks were fleeing for their lives.

This isn’t a situation where we are talking about someone’s cousin that we don’t know - no, this is a situation where we all personally know many folks who have lost their homes, never-mind their livelihoods. We are sitting in a state of wreckage in one of the poorest regions of our country that eeks it out from varied artistic humans and a lot of tourism.

So it may be odd to tell you that I’m still going to start teaching online about the body & how to clad it in our finest raiments tomorrow.

It may seem frivolous or completely disconnected from the happenings surrounding me.

But I’m going to tell you what I know we realize when our hearts are busted and our dreams are in tatters:

Why did we wait to let our photo be taken with our loved ones?
Why did we shy away from that time we were happy, laughing with our kindred folks and telling tall delicious tales?
Why did we think One day when one day almost never comes-
What on earth are we waiting for when we’ve got the time and the beings to just go on out there and fucking thrive?
There is almost always a bend in the road and when we’ve rounded it we wonder why we didn’t live our lives out loud.

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One of my best friends lost her mama when she was so young. She treats every single photo of her mama like a relic on an altar of her yearning heart.

I am here to tell you it’s not next year, or next month, or next week when you should start, start taking up your whole space and breadth now.

Do it now my beloveds. Throw out your net, call your dreams on in.

We are never good enough, young enough, brave enough, thin thighed enough, or feeling it enough, we just aren’t.
What we have is now.

Come with me if you want to learn about unleashing your creativity, sustainable fashion, apparel sewing, or how to love the hell out of this incredible body you have.

I’m giving away one scholarship by tomorrow morning. If the time is now for you, but you just don’t have the funds, email me - let’s go. Now’s the right time.¹

Tomorrow the Queen Robe Project starts, but my students call it the Queen Road Project. All you have to do is step on the path.

If we’re brave enough our hearts are always yearning and busted. Let’s cackle, call, and caw each other forward.

There’s a lot to heal and mend, and god don’t I know, we have to start with our own incredible worth first.

Love y’all, always.
Thank you for helping us keep carrying on, in all the ways we’re showing up to carry on.

1. Happy to say this spot has been joyfully given away.