In Praise of Hardware Stores -So Many Ways To Mend

Upcoming November Subscriber Sale & Special Events.

Next Week-My November Supporting Subscriber Sale Begins!

Every November I offer a supporting subscriber discount sale. So for some of you your annual membership will be renewing soon. I wanted to let you know I will again be offering 20% off memberships. I’ll send an email with the link with the discount on November 1, and all my Sunday Posts in November.

I am so grateful to share this hopeful experiment and incredibly rewarding journey with you. Together we have created this thoughtful space to connect and stay in conversation through music, poetry, essays and meaningful conversation around topics that matter to us. Together we’ve grown to nearly 20,000 subscribers from all over the world and with your support The Gathering of Spirits has consistently remained in the Top 10 music/spirituality newsletters on this increasingly prominent platform for writers, journalist, artists, musicians, poets and other meaningful content creators!

As you may already know, Substack works a bit on the NPR model. Please know that I will continue to offer lots of free content so that everyone can partake and participate in meaningful ways here. Please know your thoughtful presence (as a free or paid subscriber) is always deeply appreciated. Thank you for all the ways you share, comment and support the spirit happening here at The Gathering of Spirits!

But like NPR, some folks may decide to help support the conversations and works offered here with an annual subscription. It’s your contributions that keep the lights on and this Substack project viable. I send my heartfelt and most sincere gratitude. In appreciation for this support, It’s been fun to offer special content for Supporting Subscribers like my Wednesday posts, Song Labs and Serial Readings, Community Creative Projects, The Growing Edge Podcast, Ask Me Anything, Concerts, Special Events and more.

Two fun Supporting Subscriber events that will happen in November and December - I’ll be sending a special email with zoom links to all Supporting Subscribers the Wednesday before each event.

Sunday November 3, 2024 7pm-8pm ET Ask Me Anything Zoom Call

Zoom link will be sent on Wed. Oct 30th

Sunday Dec 1, 2024 7pm-8pm Informal Writing Room Concert

Zoom link will be sent on Wed. Nov. 30th

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Sunday Post…

“My life is lived with a different intensity, not the burning intensity of youth. It’s something else a kind of spiritual audacity…an audacity in the face of things…a kind of reckless refusal to submit to the condition of the world.”
― Nick Cave, Faith, Hope and Carnage

This week I needed to pick up an item at a local hardware store.  It was a busy day and my plan was to make a quick stop and be on my way. It was one of those rarified autumn days when bright leaves were drifting slowly down with every small breeze, when you could sense that somewhere the hard edge of winter was coming, but not yet, not now when the sun was warm and harvest dry. On my way to the store, I encounterd a young man was playing violin beneath a flame colored tree. I was taken by the way the October air vibrated with the bright colors of the surrounding trees mixing with the sound of the young man’s practiced fingers and bow. It caught my breath and so I stopped and listened to the young man and put a bit of money in the box at his feet. Eventually I went into the hardware store, but instead of zipping in and out, I found myself wandering around in the hardware store for much longer than I’d planned. Ok, one of my quirks is that I really like hardware stores, also office supply stores, art supply stores, garden stores and yarn shops— basically places that have lots of tools and materials that can be used in the process of creating or fixing something.  I’m fascinated by bins of screws, nails, fasteners and wing nuts, hand tools, good shovels and pruning clippers, locks and keys, pipe fittings and canning supplies. I love seeing all the different kinds of pens, pencils, brushes, ink, paper, xacto knives, watercolors, knitting needles, colored yarn and embroidery floss. I like how everything shines with a kind of ready-to-go-potential.  I like to consider all the ways we humans have devised useful tools to help us build or rebuild wisely, mend what has been broken with intention and care….or create something entirely new.

As a teenager I worked in an old fashioned five-and-dime store that carried everything from fabric and notions, penny candy to build-to-last woodworking tools to goldfish and hamsters. I remembered stocking the shelves and when it was my turn at the cash register I loved seeing all the wild combinations of items people were taking home. I also remember taking a sculpture class in college and one of our projects was to wander around a local hardware store and create an assemblage sculpture from inexpensive items that simply caught our attention.  I remember bringing a paper bag full of interestingly crafted washers, bolts and a sturdy pipe, a roll of jute twine and jangly keys.  I don’t remember the grade I got on the assignment, but I remember how much I appreciated how all these items were so cleverly made, sturdy and the exact size and shape for their purpose. Also I loved using them in an unexpected, unintended way in an effort to create something funky or beautiful or just interesting.

Last year during a time when I was really feeling the hardness of the world I started knitting soft little lamb poppets. I usually make useful things (gloves, hats, socks and small wraps) I ended up making several lambs in different colors, and then gave them all away to grown-ups who might appreciate having something soft and silly around. In this crazy election season so full of anxiety and concern, I started knitting poppets again. I’ve been pulling out soft yarn while on airplanes, in hotel rooms or whenever I’m a bit at loose ends (bad pun intended). I’ve found it a better way to navigate this season than doom scrolling for October surprises (which I’m prone to do as the election gets closer).

It has been helpful to make something soft in a world that feels on the edge of its seat. It was good to stop on a busy day and listen to a single violin, played by young but practiced hands in a parking lot, a gift to anyone willing to slow their feet and souls long enough to take notice.

We are confronted daily with the misuses of human design, and so it is felt good to just wander around a hardware store and admire all the positive, sturdy, solid, beautiful things humans are capable of creating with our extraordinary cleverness.

In this last week before the election, I hope everyone votes, and we all continue to do what we can in our own sphere of influence. I voted early and I will be contributing in all the ways available to me. I know you will too.

But today….my friends and community here at The Gathering of Spirits, lets remember what is still soft and kind in this world. Do something that reminds you of what you love. Do something that lifts up what is tender and true in this world. Lean into what is still fierce with love. Do something that supports and inspires you for the long haul - get out in nature, bake, garden, have a conversation with a trusted friend, dive into a good book in your favorite genre, listen to music, make music, dance, paint, draw, stop and breathe in the rarified autumn light, or wander around in a hardware store….because there is so much be to mended and so many ways to mend.

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Question

Do you ever get lost in places like a hardware store, have you ever marveled at the beauty of simple useful things that are purposefully and creatively made?

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Movement Voter Project

I was part of a zoom gathering and fundraiser for an awesome organization last week. If you want to learn more about it, here’s the video link to the event that you can share with your network or view yourself, if you weren’t able to attend.

It was so inspiring--with lots of stories, music and finishing with some new learnings from election data analyst, Tom Bonier.Last week’s gathering raised over $252,000 including the various matches! This is truly spectacular, much needed, and it will be on its way to MVP’s groups doing local organizing in battle ground states now. Donations are still coming in and we’re sending a big THANK YOU to those of you who have already donated.

If you’re wondering whether it’s too late in the election cycle to make a donation, it’s not!  With threats of voter suppression, political violence, and a growing and emboldened movement of election denialism, our partners’ plans quickly pivot from voter persuasion and mobilization to:

• Election protection, such as ballot curing (helping voters correct simple errors on their ballot that would have disqualified their vote); our groups contact voters to make sure their ballots are corrected!

• Election certification issues, including when any delay in election certification impacts necessary down-ballot measures

• Organizing mass public displays of support for election results

• Supporting strategies around any needed legal action

• Mobilizing efforts to push back on Project 2025 and its impacts regardless of who wins the Presidency.

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Upcoming Shows & Events

Gary Walters and I will be traveling to WI, IN, OH and IA in the upcoming weeks. I hope to see you there. For more information and how to get tickets visit www.carrienewcomer.com/tour