Synonyms for Connection
a guest collaboration + an announcement!
Friends,
I’m honored today to share wisdom from my dear friend
of Our Medicine. Here’s a little more about Madison:Madison Murphy Barney is a Two Spirit sister, author, doula, and public health storyteller. Her work explores connection to self, each other, the planet, and awe -- primary themes in her forthcoming book Our Ancestors Want Us to Be Mushrooms and her weekly newsletter Our Medicine. She is on a rematriation journey in the woods of Vermont alongside her beloved partner & community.
I can’t wait for you to read this piece. Read it slowly, taking it in. We are in a time of transactional relationships, and in this moment, with connections like this, we are taking our time to remember that we are human—together.
That’s what The Liminality Journal is all about.
Synonyms for connection
By Madison Murphy Barney
The quality of our life depends on the quality of our connections.
We’ll need synonyms, then. We always need synonyms for the things that matter most.
Noticing. Especially when they notice the thing you thought no one noticed.
Eye rolls in long lines. Synching our breathing as we fall asleep in the same room.
Returning to the same rock everyday. Finding a new rock everyday.
Being winked at across a crowded room. Cold calling college friends to body double on a Tuesday afternoon.
“Jinx, you owe me a soda.”
“Of course I can watch your kids.”
“I am coming with you.”
“Let’s have a solstice party.”
“How is your mom?”
“I know, I can’t believe it.”
Silence, delicious, side-by-side silence.
Being made fun of by the Ancestors. Making fun of the generations to come.
Seeing a bobcat cross the road. Trying to sing back to a bird.
Walking as far as you can without shoes. Ogling at museums. Being touched by sticky toddler hands. Wishes on a stray eyelash.
“No way, you know about this too?”
“I didn’t do the assignment, either.”
“I don’t know.”
“This reminded me of you.”
“I am sorry.”
Being invited into a child’s imaginary world and respecting the laws of that land.
Uninviting yourself. The things the stars remind us of. That thing we do when we pass strangers on hikes. Going to a house party and making a best friend you will never see again.
Talking about the Joe Rogan podcast with my redneck brother because we love to disagree over spiked Arnold Palmers and a mint vape pen. Talking about On Being with my sister because we love to agree over a New York Times one pan dinner recipe.
Playing games we haven’t played in years – decades.
Pretending not to be a tourist. Stories from terrible first dates. Joining the class, the collective, the movement.
Saying yes and saying no. Knowing and not knowing. Unfiltered honesty. Unfettered rage. Turning it off. Turning things around.
Imagining, building together. Foraging, honing, crafting, shaping, molding.
The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our connections.
BIG news! Glennon & Abby & Amanda have re-released my interview on We Can Do Hard Things, which originally aired in 2023 right when Living Resistance came out.
We cover so many things, but what I loved about it is that we talked and laughed and cried over things like embodiment, climbing, listening to our child selves, grief, and how to stay connected to one another.
Please listen, even if you’ve listened before.
If you’ve enjoyed Spring’s Miracles, could you do me a big, very quick favor? Could you head over to Amazon or Goodreads and leave a (hopefully five-star) review to help spread the word that the book is worth a purchase? This is a huge step in the authoring journey, and we need our community to get there.
And if you’re still reading this, you get to know the big reveal: May is coming, friends, and if you’ve been here a while, you know what that means!
a poem a day in the month of may is coming!
And we have a theme!
Quiet in the Chaos. Don’t we need that right now? So mark your calendars for May, figure out the time of day when you’ll take ten minutes to write poetry, and I can’t wait to join you!
 | A guest post by
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