Nora Bateson

Deep in the final shaping of Belly as managing editor and layout designer with author @norabateson …Fire in my own belly…information that is alive…running thru my bloodstream. Coming out this summer @triarchypress

For my birthday today I am announcing the summertime arrival of Belly, my new book. Published by TRIARCHY PRESS. Belly holds the world, in a stew of brewing histories and generations learning together. It is an offering of stories, poetry, imagery and a theory of agency that labyrinths into infinitude. Belly is a recipe for not having a recipe. (Edited by Leslie Thulin Eubanks and Andrew Carey, Cover art by Noah Qwarfordt, Art by Vivien Leung, Rachel Hentsch Spadafora, Leslie Thulin, Noah Qwarfordt and me)

Today my mom would be 97. What a life she lived… and how dearly she is missed. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Thirty seven years ago I met this guy. ❤️ We lost each other in the folds of destiny and life for 25 years. Then…10 years ago we got married. A week ago we celebrated our anniversary. Love is beautiful.

The opposite of cynicism isn’t necessarily optimism— but wonder. Wonder shared between people at the ancient and ever miraculous skies! The new Banksy mural of two children stargazing or cloud gazing— is such a gift. Look at the sky! And enjoy being alive in a miraculous world. This image is so needed now, when the rot and revulsion of so many systems is revealing the ghosts of predatory exploitation in every institution… while tech is gobbling up analog communing, and the beauty of life is eclipsed by the brutality of greed… This image is a salve. Thank you Banksy! Happy Holidays.

Before the holiday buzz, I am enjoying the warm glow of hours and days with my beloved in front of the fire; Analog communing with ancient times, exhale. This has been a moment of repair to a respiratory system that got worked over this year. Things have been hectic, what a gift to find time to slow down. ❤️

May all witches and bitches find each other in the moonlight and dance!

As above… (The magic light today at Longbeach WA) Photo: bateson

It has been an absolutely beautiful (and dare I say, exquisitely "labyrinthic") adventure, an honour, and an immense joy to make this film with @norabateson and @_vivienleung_ with the beautiful music created by Arvid Qvarfordt, with the energy, support and nourishment of our whole team in ways I can hardly begin to describe, but that will stay embedded in my heart. Watch it on: /1094408831 (Link will be added to bio when Linktree is back up and running!) #labyrinth #learning #findingaway #warmdata

It’s a fine line —isn’t it? Between really perceiving the complexity and enormity of systemic entangling of the situations of this era… and not getting demoralized by that enormity. To my thinking the most dangerous position is one of shallow optimism, inadequate comprehension of the intertwining of the crises of this time. A too-small assessment generates a too-small response. I am not one to seek a version of hope to place on the stage like the itty bitty Stonehenge replica in Spinal Tap… ( generational reference there😊)—While it may bolster my gumption in the moment to feel I can DO something, the efforts of non-systemic response perpetuate and inevitably worsen the consequences and the consequences of consequences… I have seen again and again that in the face of the impossible, living organisms like you and me become creative, find a way… against all odds. In that sense, a shrunken version of agency or positivity obscures our potential to reach beyond our grasp. There is possibility waiting in the complexity, but it might look nothing like what I think I am looking for. Fear can swallow me whole, but false hope is … not hope. ❤️

The coming of the light. Dusk on the winter solstice, rhythming out of 2024 in angles and light, water and time, focus and grain.

Underground is where the work gets done. For decades this has been true and the moment to get to work has been here for a long time…. A long time. I think it’s time to go underground. Stealth care… Create women’s health clinics that are safe and secret. Create assistance and care for climate disaster victims. Create portable homes for people in motion. Create safe havens for whistle blowers and dissidents. Create help for immigrants. Create care centers for substance and tech addiction. Tend the communities of people who are making new paths. Make music. Create restoration of waters and soil that are not state bound. Time to go beyond borders and tend beyond nationalistic boundaries. Tend your and others’ mental health. It’s time to get off the stage and on the ground. Time to get to work in ways that are not ensnared in polarized politics. Unseen and unnoticed acts of generosity and triage are needed, regardless of who has the microphone. No meme or model or glamor will do it. Be a dandelion; persistent and filled with healing gifts. Expand into the minutia.