#10 | Queering the Pandemic - Day Schildkret (Morning Altars)

We live in wild times. So much has changed since I published my previous episode of this podcast. A global pandemic is now sweeping the world, with country after country imposing severe lock downs and many people retreating into isolation. In Canada, we are just beginning to feel the impact, and the future is deeply uncertain. Which is why I am deeply honoured to share my conversation today with my friend and beauty maker Day Shildkret. Day calls himself an impermanent earth artist, who has developed quite a following with his practice of Morning Altars - gorgeous mandalas that he builds through foraging for natural materials in each place that he goes. In fact, I highly recommend pausing this podcast and visiting his Instagram to see this beauty for yourself. In this episode, we begin with the obvious -  speaking about the coronavirus that has now overtaken the public imagination. We explore his own roots as a young Jewish boy that was almost killed in a bombing in Israel, before coming out as gay in New York City and claiming his sexuality for the first time.  And finally, we make a plea for the willingness to craft beauty in a time of fear, as a way to court life back into the center of the spiral.