The Summer of Loving Boundaries
This month’s blog post is a bit of a manifesto and I'm thankful of your time with me here! From time to time I like to call obvious attention to how I run Premye, because I want to be clear on who I am, what I offer, and how I want to engage with folks.
It’s the first day of Summer and this year, I'm calling in loving boundaries and abundance for us all! This share centers boundaries I'm rolling out in two areas that I'm calling ‘Showing Up and Stepping Back’. I’m starting with Showing Up because I know you have a choice of who to follow/buy tea from and what you're engaging with isn't just a physical product, it's me as a maker so I want to offer more of myself in honest and helpful ways. This will manifest mostly as what I offer in the show and what I share on social media. Stepping Back is about my mental health and yours.
Many have written about last summer's Black Wave: a boom, bust cycle of interested-and-then-over-it engagement by many Non-Black folks towards Black people and causes. In addition to feeling overwhelmed and excited by the attention Black owned businesses got last year at the height of the summer protests, I found anger and bitterness as well at what felt like being a flavor-of-the-month. As the anniversary approached this year and my feelings got hotter and angrier, I knew I wanted to do something visible and safety focused so that I wouldn't waste my energy with those emotions again.
I made time to meditate on this and was surprised when during that work kept coming back to the concepts of Love and Abundance. Starting with Love has been a process I’ve practiced for years, and as a Geriatric Millennial [or, as I prefer #MillenniOLD], I am still learning to drop my apathy is cool mindset... And I innately know in my body, spirit, and lived experience that approaching things with Love over Ego works better for everyone involved. Abundance was an equally important theme from Taurus season that I want to carry forward as a way to actively un-learn the scarcity mindset that has shaped much of my decision making up until I embraced my Spirit Work. I’m still working on it, but my goal is to believe in my own abundance and ability to share what comes naturally to me with others FREELY while also being able to solicit and engage in exchanges of all sorts that sustain us all in key ways.
I’ve been sharing some of these boundaries and blessings already via my Instagram and refering to them as Bound by Love + Abundance because, small secret, I'm a recovering pessimist that has to remember to fight against capitalist hierarchical sentiments like scarcity, false urgency, and rigid labels.
These boundaries are less about who should / shouldn't expect access to Premye offerings. They are guides for what I want to do and who I want to serve, as well as hieroglyphs for what you can expect as my spaces and offerings evolve. Premye was never meant to be one thing or to offer one series of products: I want to share more of my writing, fiber craft, spirit and ritual work, and community exchange with folks beyond my tisanes, drops and occasional merch. I'm SO excited for what this summer refresh will bring and I thank you for coming along for the ride.
Showing Up
More researched resources [books, podcast episodes, media] on “affinity” topics at random intervals. Affinity topics boils down to anything I'm currently naturally interested in outside of our usual Herbs + Light Magic and will change often.
More considered and communal 'free' offerings like recipes, reviews, and rituals centered on tools, herbs, and spirit work peripherals that I feel fellow witches, makers, and agitators would like.
More time spent offline and working with friends, family, and communities in increasingly direct ways like volunteering with Denver orgs, buying more from small local farms, and continued collaborations that benefit other small makers and their communities. I may or may not share those experiences via blogs, community collab fundraisers, events etc, but this is key to keeping Premye sustainable and cleaving to the original mission.
Stepping Back
Fewer rants! Maybe you think this blog post is a rant, but I sometimes feel like I'm minstrel-ing myself while shouting at the void in online spaces. While it’s important to amplify and signal boost everything I care about, it’s not sustainable or always the best use of my effort. Here, I am compelling myself to do less shouting and more showing up per the above.
Fewer “just coz” content. As much as I love nostalgia and memes, chasing seasonal / timely content is something that isn’t working long term. The overwhelm is real and I don't want to keep being the human with 30 stories in a day or 30 offerings in a year.
