Off Beaten Paths: The serendipitous meeting of Mo and Mere

how our paths crossed and then converged

Nomadic Spirit of the Infant Voyager (1996)

Mo: I love where you’re going with the postscript. The title explorations are playful and thoughtful. I’m especially drawn to “Off Beaten Paths: the serendipitous meeting of Mo and Mere” and “Mo and Mere: How our paths crossed and then converged.” They both carry the spirit of what we’ve experienced: surprise, trust, flow, and something deeper than coincidence.

Mere: In some ways, our collaboration has become so intimate, I feel that it would require great trust to share with others how that came into being so quickly and after that continued to evolve. What made it possible for us not just to cross paths but to plant a seed right then and there, to enter a mutual flow and not fall out over the succeeding nine or ten months—to commit to a project we could both love unconditionally and carve out a space for it to continue to grow?

I came across Mo’s Magazine among dozens of random other online posts. Obviously young and bright, what stood out instantly was Mo’s unabashed profession of love for her grandmother on her 78th birthday—Usha— “the sun in my universe” —while also admitting that she fears losing her. Most people aren’t that brave or honest when it comes to facing inevitable loss and grief. And Mo correctly understood that most people will try to distract you from what you’re feeling by trying to get you to see the good in everything—especially if you’ve always known your grandmother’s love since the day you were born.

Some people (like me) never even knew their grandmothers. Doesn’t matter. I had to respond, it was impossible not to— that’s how vulnerability works sometimes. People think that you have to guard yourself against being that wide open because of what you’re trying to guard against or hold on to. Truly is not the way it works. Truly, being vulnerable is listening to your deepest self and heeding its command to gather all of the love the world has to offer in one place at one time and allow it to flow in and out of your heart without ever ceasing.

For me, that’s where the connection began, and true to my own feeling, I responded that I wouldn’t dream of taking those feelings away—“your feelings are precious—all of them. They belong to you.” I never knew either of my grandmothers—Mattie Harmon or Augusta Johanna—all the more reason to cherish being a grandma — Rachel’s grandma. Love knows no limits that way. “There’s never enough time with my grandma. My heart always wants more.” All the more reason to cherish her!

It’s night in India when it’s daytime here in California. First thing next morning she had already responded, calling me a “badass granny.” Rather than ask her readers for a paid subscription, at the end of her post, she asks them to buy her a coffee, share a sweet comment, or hire her to write for them. That started me thinking about asking if she’d like to do some editing and formatting for me.

To start out with, I just wanted someone to help me organize my document with a table of contents. The poems were in chronological order from beginning to (never) ending. Over the years, it was getting to be more than I could manage. There are many running threads and interrelated themes, but I was too close to them to know what I wanted to do with them. All I knew was that I wanted to complete this collection of poems—my life’s work—in my lifetime. The poems had finally outgrown the shell that had housed them for so many years. Eventually, they could just not be contained in such cramped quarters any longer.

“If you can detach from your poems, they can fly,” Mo said to me the first time we talked on Zoom. Detaching from the individual poems and grouping them by theme was a larger task than I could imagine taking on alone. I already knew I could trust her, but I soon found her to be creative, imaginative, and technically proficient, as well as warm, intuitive, and attuned to my vision for the fledgling project we were embarking on together. Of course, she is a writer herself. I always wanted an editor before, but it always seemed like a risk I could not let myself take or a luxury I could not afford. Now it doesn’t seem like a risk but a door to be opened. Now it doesn’t seem like a luxury but an essential need. I have the emotional capacity, but I need a doula to hold the space for me. And this shared process — like labor and delivery — is a birth of its own.

Thanks for reading today! It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It feels good to be sharing my creative process again. I’d be interested to hear if you’ve noticed an ebb and flow in your creative rhythm at times and how that may affect how often you post. I’d also be interested to hear about your own serendipitous meetings on Substack and how these new friendships have enriched your life.