it was only last year that i learned of mycelium—incredibly tiny “threads” of the greater fungal organism that wrap around or bore into tree roots, that make sure their wider community have all the resources they need. if you listen—if you contemplate the brittle nature of these almost translucent threads and the strength they hold in their sheer number—you can hear mother nature’s gentle songs of tenderness, her stories of life, of other beings mothering on this earth.
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from the last week in june, i will be facilitating MYCELIAL MOTHERS, a sharing and writing circle that uses this idea to nurture the creative practice of writing through regular, co-writing sessions and sharing. it brings to the surface an underground network of mothers, carers and all those who nurture on this earth, in any sense or form, to provide space for the sharing of knowledge, stories, insight and nourishment, mirroring the mycelial network: an underground, almost invisible, shared and interconnected economy.
due to the amount of interest i garnered on instagram, slots are now full for free subscribers. if you'd like to join, consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive the zoom link. if you’re a paid subscriber & would like to receive the link via email just send me your email address, but i will also share it in a substack post.
details // STARTING WEDNESDAY JUNE 26TH, 2–3PM ON ZOOM, UK/BST. note, i had to switch from thursday to wednesday due to childcare.
general structure // the initial plan is half an hour silent writing, half an hour sharing, with an openness for things to evolve in time. this is an experiment and will adapt to our needs. if you only want to come for the writing, feel free to mute your speakers/sound to avoid being interrupted when sharing begins.
triggers // please be gentle with yourself and be aware that the ongoing genocide and other important but triggering topics may come up during discussions.
content // this is not a led space or course, it is a collaborative space that will grow and evolve without the need for a leader. i will, when possible, add a prompt to the chat to encourage your writing practice for the session.
extra notes // no need to attend every week and feel free to turn up late, leave early, attend with babies/children, etc.
i would love to write with you there.
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what does it mean to write, quietly, alongside other (m)others and caregivers, in community? what power does this hold? how do threads—so thin and, sometimes, stretching so far off into the distance that they become invisible—nourish us and provide an interconnected channel between us all?
“My matrescence was the most ecological experience of my life. I understood for the first time really how I was a being in relationship with other people and I needed people and of course my baby needed me and I just saw these threads of connections in a different way.”
The Happy Mama Movement, The Science of Matrescence with Lucy Jones
(m)other circles, online and in-person, have held me and lifted me out of postnatal depression, and i know how nourishing they can be within a day of prioritising others’ needs; they form distinct, otherly spaces—heterotopias—that transform, flow into, become absorbed by our daily spaces and provide structure within the temporal forms that mothering often takes: “waiting, staying, delaying, enduring, returning” (lisa baraitser).
writing in the presence of others offers a quietly pulsing, collective energy, reminding us that we’re not the only ones seeking threads of connection, flickers of one another—that we’re not really doing this alone. by nurturing these channels, meeting regularly, we can nurture the creative threads within ourselves and those that link one with another.
MYCELIAL MOTHERS exists within a mothering network of which we are all a part. in contributing to this community i too am being held by (m)others, trusted with their stories, and inspired by the very fact they value their words and hold them up to the light.
as we livestream a genocide that shows us a darkness that’s difficult to escape, we also need to nourish ourselves in circles of light and, charged like sunstone by the light of others, we can widen ideas of mothering and caregiving, we can know in our bodies that we are doing important work: we are tending to seedlings, little glimmers in the darkness, and these seedlings will only grow brighter, stronger, fuller—teeming.
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book recommendation:
matrescence – lucy jones
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