Greetings My Beloved Friends and Family!
Happy holidays...er... New Year's... er... Valentine's Day! Yeah, Happy Valentine's Day! And like all good Valentine's Day cards, I will share with you what happened with me last year. Haha!
Thanks to all of you who sent me holiday cards, ecards, texts, emails, and loving-kindness. I love hearing from you all and appreciate your good wishes.
2021 in Pictures
Rather than bore you with words, here are some very curated pictures from 2021 that shares the highlights of what I was up to!
The prolonged isolation from the pandemic and the complications with my electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) left me down in the dumps early in 2021. My friend Brian (pictured) who lives at the Bhavana Society Buddhist Monastery in West Virginia invited me to stay at the Monastery, which I did from March 22-May 14. The friendships, fresh air, nature, and meditation did me good.
Also, if you would like to know more about EHS, what it is, how it impacts me, how to be an ally, etc., I have created an info sheet about it here: https://www.boundlessloveproject.org/ehs-info-page
My good friends Kaila and Asher who were also at Bhavana.
Out of love for the environment, climate, and all current and future generations of beings, I took a vow in 2009 to not fly airplanes. My electromagnetic hypersensitivity makes bus and train travel problematic. Thankfully, my dad was willing to drive me to Bhavana and my parents both came to pick me up. Here we are in front of one of the buildings at Bhavana.
In April and May, people got vaccinated, socializing started up again, and the future looked rosy! In June, my married friends Scott (far right) and Matt (far left) visited from Columbus, Ohio and we went for a hike at Lebanon Hills Regional Park.
BASEMENT BEFORE PICTURE. When I developed electromagnetic hypersensitivity in June of 2019, my parents and I were in a mad rush to create a safe room for me in the basement, and this led to the basement becoming horribly cluttered and disorganized. Cleaning the basement became a dreadful, excruciating, terrible boogeyman-of-a-project that we were just too terrified to face. Solution? Throw a birthday party that gave us a firm deadline to clean it up by.
BASEMENT AFTER: Marie Condo would be so proud! The birthday party so was EPIC we forget to take pictures at it. Also, later in the year, I subscribed to Steezy Studio and started dancing 5 days a week and this room became my dance studio. Dancing has been a necessary ingredient in keeping me functional. If any of you are Steezy Studio members or want to start up a dance crew with me, let me know. :)
What is a suburban Pride celebration like? In 2021 I found out when I went to the Burnsville Pride celebration. Thankfully, I met these delightful new friends and we danced in the rain to the DJ’s pop music.
In October, I went on retreat with friends at a house in rural Wisconsin next to a cold-water creek which my friend Jordan and I are seen enjoying here.
In December, we all celebrated Angie’s graduation by going on a weekend retreat in northern Minnesota. Pictured are my friends (Top row, from left) Unny, Angie, Connor, Melissa, Jinath, (Bottom row, from left) Peter, and me.
Also in December, my friends Julie and Doug (not pictured) hosted some forest bathing, sauna, polar plunges in the icy creek, and kirtan at their land in the woods in Wisconsin. Here we are warming up in their cabin and enjoying a song by Drew. From left: Anna, Drew, me, Ashwatara, and possibly Julie’s foot?
On December 20, my friend Diane had a birthday party for her son at a trampoline park and my friend Ashwatara helped me conquer my fear and do my first trampoline back flip of my life. Cirque du Soleil, here I come! Haha!
Other highlights of the year that I don’t have pictures for include:
• jogging and walking with my parents in our neighborhood parks or with ParkRun.
• my birthday party.
• camping trips that I took with my friend Matt and another one with friends Phoenix and Julien.
• all the times I got together with friends and family.
2022
For 2022, I continue to serve as a Mindfulness Teacher at the Boundless Love Project, where I have volunteered since its founding in 2017. The work I do with the Boundless Love Project is my response to the polarization, division, corruption, hatred, violence, and greed in our country; and it is my hope for a more kind, compassionate, inclusive, just, and sustainable world.
Because of the pandemic, the Boundless Love Project’s School of Love now meets online every Tuesday at 6:15 PM (Central Time). Here we learn about and practice a nonattached, inclusive, platonic, and active love so we can better embody love in our daily lives. I invite you to join us sometime, if you would like to. If interested, you can find all the details, including the Zoom link to join us, on our website’s events page: https://www.boundlessloveproject.org/events
My Good Wishes
Thanks for reading this far! You are a rock star! Haha.
For my closing thoughts, I share my wish that all humans live from our inner wisdom, peace, love, compassion, and joy; that we may embody the values of dignity, respect, nonviolence, cooperation, and inclusion — unconditionally, for every being and life form.
Although I wish for the wellbeing of all life, because of the deep alienation, indifference, and contempt that we as a culture have towards our animal nations, my heart goes out to all of the animals suffering in factory farms, slaughterhouses, fur farms, research labs, circuses, rodeos, and zoos. Please keep them in your loving-kindness meditations and/or prayers. Thank you!
Thank you for your friendship and love. I hope you all are well. Wishing you and your loved ones a happy, healthy, safe, and productive 2022… and Valentine's Day! Haha! I hope our paths cross again soon.
Love and hugs,
Freeman Wicklund