A week after we recorded, I realize that I didn’t actually publish this…whoops! I wanted to call this episode “Questing in Kindness” but Von’Erik and Bryar had better thoughts.

What do you wish you’d learned in school but had to learn elsewhere? This summer we’ll ask this question alongside brilliant, compassionate humans who bring diverse perspectives to the table. Highlights from this particular conversation include the importance of healthy relationships and brass tacks financial education.

Find here the link to an evolving google doc that offers my 2026 schedule for Monday Morning Muse. Request access or DM me if you’d like to be featured in an upcoming episode.

Also, here’s an evolving Patreon page for the 44.4 Collective. We’re @team44point4 on Instagram and can be contacted by emailing [email protected].

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Whoops! I forgot to schedule today’s SoulCollage® Live … and it feels like a delightful relief. Please subscribe if you’d like to see what I’ve now scheduled for summer. Worth noting that SoulCollage® Lives are one of the only spaces where I ask for payment. Trained facilitators of this process understand that it can bring up vast emotion and it’s a great idea to start with an in-person experience if you’re able. I have in-person facilitation events coming on on Friday evening July 17th at Alchemy + Art in Amesbury, Massachusetts and Sunday afternoon August 23rd at Long Live Brewery in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

When plans fall through, may you lean into the unexpected like a vast tree: deep roots and spiraling branches.

Monday Morning Muse thrives when you deep dive! Thanks for being here.

Someday I’ll write a song for the country that I love.

Today I practiced the 4th verse of Francis Scott Key’s “The Spar-Spangled Banner” after a morning walk ‘round Prospect Park Hill in Somerville. The Grand Union flag is a beauty surrounded by pollinator gardens and birdsong.

Muse on this: what song do you most associate with a place you love? Many of my favorites are protest songs that capture the yearning for freedom. I will be praying for peace while singing out lesser-known verses and songs of comfort this week.

Teachers from many walks of life will be featured on this summer’s Monday Morning Muse. Next week’s live (9:00 AM ET) will offer art journaling teacher & visual artist Tom Forsythe. If you’re interested in art journaling, SoulCollage®, or the business of creativity, it’s a great opportunity to hear from two midlife makers who won’t stop/can’t stop offering beauty in a bustling world.

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Von’Erik Barren-Tucker has a mind like no other. From roller blading as movement meditation to commending hyper awareness as a form of artistry, this conversation has had me marveling all day long.

I prefer in-person connection to screen time, so it was fun to sit down in my apartment living room for this conversation. Talking with someone who thinks in code kaleidoscopically helps me see more clearly how tech can enhance human thriving.

You might notice me moving more than usual in this episode: my back is sore from cleaning out my U-Haul storage space last week: a rainy-night saga that Von’Erik actually helped with. If I’m having a rough day, Von’Erik’s deadpan wit and compassion re-center me without fail.

I imagine Von’Erik will be back to talk about my new website when it’s completed. In the meantime, the authorship of the poem Von’Erik attributes to Langston Hughes is actually unknown. Here’s a YouTube video with the poem; thanks to Guilherme Carvalho, who posted that video.

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for Fieldsy

top row

far left

Soprano 1

steady gaze,

lyrics memorized,

worlds of adolescent wanting

waiting on the other side of this concert

for students you are haven,

for colleagues you are ballast,

to your family you are the door

that won’t ever be deadbolted

in February you let me take this yarn

June 6th I’m knitting leg warmers

back pew Portsmouth while

you read Wendell Berry to introduce

Deep Peace

I put down my needles

& curl up inside the sound

I want to glance up at you

while making slow progress

on imperfect holiday gifts

as long as we both shall live

Today’s poem I wrote after watching my friend Ali Fields perform with Voices From the Heart in Portsmouth, NH. Ali is “Fieldsy” to me: a wide open field and a born adventurer.

New moon as of yesterday; I’m still wading through the murky middle of life transition, but I feel less fear and more constancy in my creative work.

My friend Kim Woods reminds us that we’re all invited to shine in her recent post Jupiter in Leo: Your Year to be Boldly Seen.

Whatever work you’re up to - loud or lilting - I wish for you friends & chosen family who help you polish yourself back to shining.

Thanks for being here. Like all creative endeavors, Monday Morning Muse thrives when you keep showing up!

Hannah Trav, Esq. is a stand-up comedian, writer, and lawyer based in Philadelphia. We helped grow each other up by sharing church life in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

Hannah is witty, winsome, and dynamic on stage. As a kid she made up sketch comedy with friends. We both remember her hilarious turn as Abednego in the kazoo-wielding Biblical musical It’s Cool in the Furnace. In this conversation Hannah celebrates her dynamic family, shouts out her undergrad philosophy professor Cheryl Foster, and is candid about the anxiety she’s experienced since youth.

From the importance of changing the toilet paper roll to our shared preference for listening to full albums, this conversation gets musical, social, and just plain silly. Hannah chose two songs in the lightning round, Liability by Lorde and Cool Girl by Tove Lo.

Keep up with Hannah Trav on Instagram or on her website. I’m looking forward to catching her live the next time I’m in Philadelphia.

Thanks for being here. Like all creative endeavors, Monday Morning Muse thrives when you keep showing up!

Bob and I go way back: I posted about his kidney transplant 14 months ago, but we met c. 2008 at Stoneridge Children’s Montessori School, where I taught two of his four children and we shared the effervescence of early childhood magic.

I had the good fortune of coaching Bob as a singer 2018-2020; in this video we reference musicals like Big River and Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Bob shares about his trip to ancestral grounds in Italy while we discuss creativity, empathy, and what is fueling our engines of delight at a time of global anxiety.

Bob talks about the consumerist societal mandate: “fill your role and feed the monster.” I want to hold onto this snippet as an invitation to deep soul-diving. Perhaps a future guest will want to reflect on their own ways of evading the monster.

Two final notes:

* The novel I talk about in this episode is Percival Everett’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James.

* Here’s the Wikipedia entry on the interstitium, the anatomical space that currently fascinates me.

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