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Birds are a deep part of my re-indigenizing. I listening closely to birdsong, calls and even lack of birdsong. The Secret Garden was my favorite book as a child. Talking to birds, paying attention to what they want to tell us, has always been part of me. I named my first child after the bird that was watching over me while I was an at-risk, alone, pregnant teen.
But it was the ominous warning of Silent Spring as a teen that left me restless this morning at first light. It was the near silence.
A recent article from Emergence Magazine about Birds, history, and the Great Migration had lingered, even encouraged more active bird-watching for my clients as they connect more to place.
I wanted to spend some time inquiring as to why there was so much less birdsong today. Maybe it was seasonal? We haven’t had much rain recently. I’m not sure.
But then I got my former brother-in-law’s recent Substack and the title pulled me in. Greil Marcus, renowned Rolling Stone rock critic and author of Mystery Train and Lipstick Traces, has been an unknowing writing mentor of mine. At 30 minutes in to this video — a deeply private person— he shares his story of being an orphan with breathtaking brilliance and self-discovery of what he’s really been writing about all along.
Greil Marcus / Letter in the EtherWhy I WriteThis is a keynote talk for the Windham-Campbell Writers Prizes Festival I gave at Yale, September 20, with an introduction by Daphne Brooks. The whole context, with the presentation of prizes to eight writers, is at the start. Daphne’s talk and mine begin at 29 minutes. With thanks to Michael Kelleher of the Windham-Campbell Prizes and John Donatich of …Read more3 years ago · 22 likes · 4 comments · Greil Marcus
There’s now a term for the feeling of loss from light pollution (the lack of dark skies). Noctalgia. “In general, it means “sky grief,” and it captures the collective pain we are experiencing as we continue to lose access to the night sky.”
Light pollution was something I tried to tackle in public policy. I find porch lights and street lights (and even inside lights that are too bright) a synesthetic experience of actual sound blaring at me.
In college I was an astronomy lab assistant, training students to use telescopes to take astral photos. It requires very dark skies and highly-technical protective equipment for seeing in the dark (red gel paper over your flashlight beam).
But there’s a deeper loss that comes with light pollution. It’s a loss of connection. Of story. Of meaning.
The article suggest ways you can help reduce light pollution. SpaceX and Starlink is mentioned as a significant contributor. In transparency, I want to acknowledge I use Starlink which enables me work online in places that have significant access to solid internet. A conflict with which I struggle for sure.
Someone recently shared this article on 5 Things You can Do to Decolonize.
Twenty years ago my grandfather came to me in a dream the night my abuelita died to thank me for everything I had done for her since he had passed 30 years ago.
I had thought we were at the airport in Mexico City in the dream. I discovered when I arrived at Tuxtla Airport to visit San Cristobal Las Casas (SCLC) that it was the Tuxtla airport, which wasn’t even built until three years after the dream.
Also in the dream was a statue. But there was no statue at the airport. But what I learned when doing some research on the Zapatista movement in SCLC was that the statue “of Spanish conquistador Diego de Mazariegos, who founded the colonial cities of San Cristóbal de las Casas and Chiapa de Corzo, in Chiapas (Mexico), was hammered down on 12 October 1992, before a crowd of 15 thousand people who had gathered to protest against the quincentenary celebrations that had been proposed to the American countries by Spain.”
This statue removal event had taken place while my grandfather was still alive. Chiapas was something of a subject discussed in our house back then.
While I was taking the shuttle from Tuxtla to SCLC (to visit and stay in our next home), I noticed many milpas (tracks of maize growing) alongside the road. What fascinated me was that the corn was growing in rock-filled soil. I had noticed the white rock outcropping from the plane as we descended. To see how rocky it really was, and still able to grow corn was astonishing.
Here corn is life. And, thankfully, the origin of corn will continue to be defended from glyphosate-laced GMO corn grown in the U.S. being forced into the MesoAmerican diet.
I saw a recent TikTok (link below with others) explaining a framework on Real Self-care that really landed. Something I was willing to share because it wasn’t lip service or enabling the ruthless systems of brutal productivity.
I listened to the podcast. It had me head-nodding to so much that has steered me from really talking about self-care in my work. And I grabbed the book: Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included) (Bookshop affiliate link).
As a side note what I found interesting as an archetypal astrologer is that her framework (Boundary setting, Self-Compassion, Aligning values, and Exercising Power) are archetypes of the four outer planets (Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto).
This makes sense because these planets are generational and social in their transits and the systems that work to harm us require collective response to change.
Anyway, great interview by guest-host Tressie McMillan Cottom!
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TikTok’s I’ve enjoyed
(This is a curation, best to watch them in order. If these don’t get you on the decolonial side of TikTok, I don’t know what will!)
Brazil Indigenous Landback Victory
MoMA shutdown in protest over oil oligarch money.
Communication tips for alternative words when speaking about Indigenous people
If you’re familiar with the Mayan Calendar and see someone getting it wrong, this bit of Mayan Calendar Humor might be helpful to share.
I absolutely adore textiles. The painstaking care, knowledge, and passion people have for their traditions and using their hands is undervalued. I would spend endless hours in Flow learning to sew with my abuelita. She taught me the hidden meanings in the woven textiles of huipils from MesoAmerica. So this video about connecting with ancestors through cloth was pure delight.
And this video about visiting Joanne’s Fabrics, sewing habits and gossip was pretty silly, and also reminded me of slobbering old lady discount days (as named by my abuelita). She would wait for days when her fabric store had double coupons, plus the senior discount and some sale and she’d go to town buying up bolts of fabric, especially the fancy fabrics with special patterns to make these picturesque dresses for my kids (photo below).
Nonbinary Liontheys (awe and wonder-full). This earth is full of amazing adaptations.
Trans History in Mexico (use translation to read the English subtitles)
The Infinite Gender Cube – Give me your coordinates! Mine are x=-5, y=???, z=-∞.
In a recent discussion about language in my Oddkin group (part of Bayo Akamolafe’s We Will Dance with Mountains) we discussed language and how flat the English language is in the United States. Spanish, Creole and other Western Hemisphere hybrid languages seem to have so much more depth and choice of words. This was something I encountered last week a t a restaurant in San Cristobal las Casas. The waiter wanted to practice English, and I wanted to practice Spanish, so we did. While exploring the menu, and asking about a dish he responded by saying “Do you doubt it?” It was such an odd question for ordering. He also came to the table with a concerned look on his face and said “Excuse me, is everything alright?” I had to stop and consider, was my hair on fire? It was suggested when I shared this story that the actual empathy that is shared in Latin countries is so much more authentic than what is faux empathy from servers in the U.S. that is was quite noticeable. This video on the insufficiency of English language was very helpful in this contemplation.
An excellent summary of the framework discussed in the Ezra Klein Self-care podcast with Dr. Pooja Lakshmin mentioned above.
Betelgeuse (armpit star of Orion) is transforming and will be gone soon. When I taught the night sky to astronomy lab students (the actual constellations out on field trips), Betelgeuse was one of the stars in my shpeel used to guide students through the major stars. I’m curious how it will be taught next year…. (a carousel swipe through)
How covid (and germ) transmission is known, thanks to pregnant people.
Share Dragon 🐉 Letters from Ixchel Lunar
Stay wild, love fiercely. Your presence is golden.
With stardust and celestial love ✨🪐💫
xo Ixchel
P.S. Citing is a feminist and decolonial power move (/ht to Kelly Diels for making that an anthem). If you’ve gained insights and shifts from my work, please remember to cite me and share Dragon 🐉 Letters with a friend. Not citing is a form of epistemicide.
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I was raised and bore children on the traditional, unceded, and stolen lands of the Coast and Central Valley Miwok (colonized as Petaluma, CA) and Nisenan (colonized as Sacramento and Fair Oaks, CA), past, present, and future. I also write, work, and live in the highland forest of the traditional, unceded and stolen lands of the Totonac, Nahua, and Mexicah, past, present, and future, in what is known as Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico.
P.P.S. I do not live or consent to the colonial impositions regarding the construct of Time. I also practice honoring rhythms of work, play, and rest so that I can serve you with embodied presence and with loving care. This means I may take several days to respond to your requests and questions. (h/t Eva Glamaris)
P.P.S. A mention is not necessarily an endorsement of someone. It’s an acknowledgment, a citation, of the origin of information in my process of understanding. (h/t Kelly Diels)
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Copyright © 2026, Cheyenne, WY, and Veracruz, Mexico, All rights reserved. Sharing your lineage of knowledge is decolonial. When iterating, please cite me. Not citing is epistemicide.
