melanie gin
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Melanie Gin

Melanie Gin

207 posts •

To my anxiety, with love

Sometimes, I know it's hard to find a way out trying to escape fear or anger or discomfort, you doom scroll the news or swipe on the apps

27 January 2022 1 min read

when the monopoly takes me off the map

I fear the day when the monopolies which govern my utilities – the massive electricity distributor, the internet service provider – decide to take me off the map How quickly the internet

24 January 2022 1 min read
on thay's passing

on thay's passing

My teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, has died. In the Plum Village tradition we say “continued in new form” or “transitioned” to avoid the delusion of “life and death”.

23 January 2022 4 min read
Returning to wholeness in 2022

Returning to wholeness in 2022

Sink into the spring of healing. Slowly bathe this human body in attention, soft fingertips caressing scalp so tenderly we weep.

1 January 2022 6 min read

A wedding blessing (for Ellen and Earl)

Ellen is the sister in my chosen family The one I turn to when I forget who I am In her face I see the fullness of our collective journey,

29 December 2021 2 min read

Let’s be human together.

As the holidays approach, I'm celebrating all of the little things that have gone well for me this week. Doing my best to offer grace when it’s

20 November 2021 2 min read

sand towers

I stand on the beach watching a child kneel down building with their hands mounds of sand like towers overlooking the ocean. They build, she builds three, four piles of

29 August 2021 1 min read
spoken word at 31

spoken word at 31

I want to speak in poetry, where the silence means as much as the sound — where silence is sound. Let this silence be stillness, the listening of this body to the creek passing through worn rocks on a journey downstream.

16 May 2021 3 min read
celebrating the harvest

celebrating the harvest

I want to learn to take up space that arises out of confidence and faith in my own song, a space that is expansive and immediate, grounded in the present moment, alive.

1 May 2021 3 min read

daring

That moment of clarity - I am not afraid of you You standing towering over me, daring me to be afraid Yes - my legs are shaking, adrenaline is flowing

11 April 2021 1 min read

Stilling the ocean

Meeting sorrow and disappointment in the midst of ongoing acts of violence against Asian people, particularly Asian women I touch into my anguish and fear of inhabiting this Asian body

4 April 2021 4 min read

Grandpa

My grandfather built the San Francisco Library With his bare hands, climbed ladders soaring into the sky To balance on steel beams, hooking and unhooking Metal from machine. He’d

3 April 2021 2 min read

Nihao

A white man sent me an email the other day With the first words, Nihao. What is the first thing you see of me, white man? Is it my Sunflower

3 April 2021 1 min read

Sunflowers

> I recited this poem at Sit Walk Listen's #StopAsianHate event in front of San Francisco's City Hall on March 21. May the six Asian women

22 March 2021 1 min read

Bringing my values to the workplace as an Engineering Manager

My mission is to build empathy and wellbeing into engineering teams. How can I create the conditions to foster belonging, wonder, integrity, and contribution in the workplace?

15 February 2021 2 min read

The world I'm building

One day I want to build a company without borders, one where an Arab and an American and a Chinese can gather in a virtual space and build a better,

7 February 2021 1 min read

old woman on the hill

Old woman on the hill Just a five minute drive away now but Continents and conflicts separating our ancestors Pogroms in eastern europe chasing your parents to hollywood Poverty and

15 January 2021 1 min read
Welcoming this body to 2021

Welcoming this body to 2021

An annual love letter to myself Dear one, It is time to lay your body down to rest. Offer your torso and legs a bed of wildflowers, your head a

3 January 2021 4 min read

letting go

November 28, 2020 Abbas, Thank you for showing up, if only to reflect and say goodbye. And thank you for your honesty and openness this past Tuesday. I have taken

28 November 2020 5 min read

I come for myself

21 November 2020 1 min read

Your camper van house

all the things I'll never need to know again You invited me into your tiny house and taught me its secrets: The water pump needs to be on

20 November 2020 2 min read

groceries

(what you've left behind) Just last week you walked through my door with Arms full of groceries, filled the fridge with my favorite zucchini, Kombucha, leeks, huge portobello

20 November 2020 1 min read

Crafting a Memory of Wellbeing from the Car Crash

I was in the forest with a notebook and pen, listening to a message from the trees. The energy was easeful, spacious, curious. I wrote and listened and breathed in

27 October 2020 11 min read
The message from the trees

The message from the trees

Not long after requesting a message from the trees, I slammed into one going 15-20 mph in my car. The tree stood strong. My head slammed into the steering wheel

27 September 2020 3 min read

Crumbling the Walls of Separation

In Israel and Palestine, where I lived from December 2018 - March 2020, there is a vast concrete wall separating Jerusalem from the West Bank. The wall is unsurpassable for

9 September 2020 5 min read
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