A Couple of Uplifting Texts in Troubled Times

As the apocalypse continues, and I begin to go stir crazy from not being able to set foot outside in the smoke (literally feeling sick walking to the mailbox), I wanted to share a couple of philosophically/spiritually uplifting reads:

Wind, a short-story manhwa by Yuyun, which is about Buddhist monk and a two-tailed fox in WWII-era Korea. It is about Buddhist principles in a very on-the-nose way, and I mean that as a compliment, very nicely put together (and award-winning).

Nan Dòmi: An Initiate’s Journey into Haitian Vodou by Mimerose Beaubrun. I can’t praise this book enough. It is beautifully written, authentic, and insightful. As I am currently studying Buddhism, I’ve been really interested in how many of the Ginen teachings described here have the same basic message as Buddhism: letting go of ego, letting go of attachment, illusion, etc., but with a very different, quintessentially African flavor, much more embodied, much more exuberant.

(Side note: I have decided to give myself the gift of skipping my author newsletter this crazy September. I will return with non-Eurocentric stories next month.)

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