Cody Cook-Parrott's Blog

Photo by Anna Friss

Dear Reader,

Everything feels upside down right now. Last week I wrote about My Favorite Mistake in business. I taught Divinity and The Written Word to the most amazing group this weekend and am now in a total research rabbit hole of Shaker women and Medieval Feminist Mystics. Saturday Katy and I celebrated one year of love and I couldn’t love her more. And yet the world continues to shatter me as I try to understand its intricacies.

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a talk by Minneapolis artist Riley Kleve on mutual aid efforts happening in Minneapolis.

Riley is visiting our similarly freezing neck of the woods to teach at Green Door Folk School, just up the road from my house, a place that I also teach and have found to be a radical hub for community in an otherwise confusing landscape.

Riley began their talk framing that it was being led by an artist, not an activist. This felt so permission giving, that in order to lead, to teach, to share, to stay curious with the group - you don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need to identify as an activist to be a good neighbor, organize mutual aid, share your knowledge around organizing, and put boots on the ground.

Riley has lived in Minneapolis for the last eight years, through the uprisings after George Floyd’s murder and through the current ICE occupation — that to be clear is not over.

They walked us through so many tactics, from ICE Watch and the use of blowing whistles, setting up Signal chats for your block or neighborhood, having affinity groups, bringing vulnerable neighbors staples and ingredients rather than pre made food, GoFund me language requirements, jail support, and so much more.

The group spanned elders who had no idea where to start, organizer and activists already organizing and preparing for the worst to come here (we’re already seeing the beginning stages), and neighbors ready to jump into new and uncomfortable action.

We discussed the importance of using SALUTE when reporting about ICE activity. Riley referred to this zine a lot in sharing tactics with us.

Many great Northern Michigan resources and organizations already committed to abolishing ICE and helping those who may be most affected are happening. The Unitarian Universalist Church in Traverse City has a Justice Information and Events page (check your local UU church!)

I’ll be attending the NoMi Mutual Aid Training a week from today at the library hosted by the NoMi Neighbor Network. One thing Riley said that really stuck out to me was - we can go to our song circles for peace but that might not be the bravest thing we can do.

After the talk some of us circled up to start to vision what a Signal chat here in Cedar might look like — and if you are someone who lives rurally I’d love to know what you consider a “block” or a “neighborhood” when organizing (or maybe you have resources to point us to).

Questions I’m sitting with :

→ How can I know which neighbors on my road to add to a Signal chat? I wish I could just pop a survey in everyone’s mailbox, but outing ourselves where we live doesn’t necessarily feel safe.

→ What am I doing or not doing to risk my safety and where is that appropriate?

→ When is it time to self start organizing and when is it time to gather more information to see who else is already doing something?

→ What resources do I have to lend to mutual aid efforts that need funds? Raffles, time, space come to mind.

→ What can I do to dismantle the ICE presence that is already here at the Baldwin facility where 70 days ago Nenko Stanev Gantchev died while in the detention center?

→ How can I use this newsletter to set aside time and space to ask these questions publicly? To work to translate what works in an urban area to a rural one.

→ How can my teaching, my art, and my efforts always include the most vulnerable without tokenizing or minimizing?

→ How can I continue to get to know my neighbors? Riley’s wish they shared was that a year ago they would have started the work of knowing who was in the neighborhood, so that when crisis hit they weren’t having to catch up.

→ When is the right time to start, especially if it feels clunky?

Now is the time dear readers. Now has always been the time.

→ The next class I am teaching is about self publishing across forms. It’s called Ritual Technologies : How Writers Make Contact. It’s 2 hrs, $55, and happens on Saturday March 7 from 12-2pm EST. Live on zoom and recorded if you can’t make it live.

→ I’m reading Buy Nothing, Get Everything and really enjoying it. (Thank you Nic!)

→ I taught my twelve year old friend Margo to quilt and now want to teach kids. (Thank you Casey!)

→ We also learned about an amazing org that started in Detroit that now has a Traverse City group called We The People Action Fund (Thank you Sailor!)

→ Creative Advising is now available in three packs : save money and gain momentum!

→ My Are.na channel for Divinity and The Word

→ On my watch list : The Testament of Ann Lee (Thank you Anna!)

→ My next book The Practice of Attention comes out THREE WEEKS from tomorrow! PRE ORDER NOW it’s fun and you get free things. May it land on your doorstep on March 17.

Explore Michigan's Upper Peninsula with locals as your guides. U.P. Dream Days—a collaborative guidebook for a wild and beautiful place—is out now.8 weeks to more secure attachment. Join us on an 8-wk, meditation-based workshop to build self confidence, relational security, & deeper purpose. "The Work of Art" is a newsletter for artists navigating capitalism. 🎨 For creatives who want to make art, not content. 💡What if Darcy was one of England’s first women gentlemen? Discover a bold, queer reimagining of a classic. Grab your copy of When Darcy Met Lizzy!

Want to book a classified ad for next week? Read all about it here

Subscribe now

→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ www.codycookparrott.com
→ Follow Along on Are.na

Consider becoming a paid subscriber of this newsletter if you love it and want access to Cody’s World, Behind the Scenes of Business, and deeper personal essays.

A portion of this month’s paid subscriptions goes to supporting frontline organizers in Minnesota .

Work Notes Divinity and The Written Word is this weekend. A writing class about god, the cosmos, and contemplative journaling. Change the way you think about writing and leave with more flow and clarity.Save a little money and commit to momentum : Creative Advising Three month packages now available :) PROMPTS is getting ready to ship out for March. $11/mo gets you writing prompts and a letter to your doorstep. Feel into the blessing of no screens while you work. Photo by Anna Friss

Dear Reader,

I laugh in the face of my mistakes, otherwise I find myself crumbling under the weight of shame and despair. In my Behind The Scenes of Business column in this here newsletter I often share my launch strategies and numbers, which are not always wins, but I wouldn’t call losses.

What I haven’t shared much of are my biggest mistakes in business, and in the last year I made multiple. Like, really big ones. Huge ones. I cannot over emphasize how big my mistakes have been. After many years of making small mistakes something broke in me and apparently I needed a series of big mistakes.

I know that one way to release shame and embarrassment is to share my story with others in hopes that it may be of service. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did.

My finger was hot on the delete button in 2025, and in 2026 I have made a commitment to stay with the staying. To let the boat float for a bit.

Here are the three biggest business mistakes I made in 2025. Buckle up cowboys! I promise to leave you with some hope.

The rest of this essay is for paid subscribers of this newsletter. When you become a paid subscriber you help me, a working writer, stay working. This month a portion of paid subscriptions are being redistributed to supporting frontline organizers in Minnesota.

Dear Reader,

I often write Behind The Scenes of Business for paid subscribers that focuses on the strategy, systems, and real life numbers I encounter during the launch of a class or offering. I will do that next week with my class Divinity and The Written Word, but I thought I would come to you today with the how. How did I invent this incredibly niche and specific class, how do I think it will go, and what are my hopes for teaching it?

In classes on creative business I am often asked how I decide what format / what container something will go into. When I have a big idea - is it a book, a zine, an online course, a podcast episode? I don’t know that there is an exact science to knowing, but there are a few ways I arrange my desires to see it clearly.

First of all - I am an avid morning pages devotee. This means that most mornings or afternoons I write three full pages in a notebook. This is where ideas come to me, how I see clearly if something is to be monetized or stay free, and in what order these ideas want to come through.

I’ve been obsessed with the idea of god since I was a child, trying to figure out what the right fit for me was from conservative Christianity to paganism and witchcraft. I always knew I wanted a Higher Power, but it wasn’t until I entered the world of the twelve steps fifteen years ago that I started to craft something so spacious and so beyond this world that I could comprehend it.

For years I knew I had an assignment to write my own daily reflection book. There is such a strong and beautiful lineage of day books across genres from codependency recovery, money, relationships, debt, and more. It felt like I needed to make my own that felt a little more queer and radical than the other ones I had encountered. So I set out to make my own.

That assignment felt clear it was a book, the container itself came first, the words came second. I’d say this order is often how I see things. I start to get obsessed with something - a theme like attention started as an online class in 2019 called Cultivating Creative Attention which became many newsletters, which then became the idea for a book, which became a proposal, which became my upcoming book The Practice of Attention.

Ideas that begin as one container can quickly find form in other containers, morphing along the way to be the right fit for the moment. I am often thinking about where something fits in my need for monetary exchange, so if I am thinking about how I want to make my money at any given time, which is generally through teaching, then I put my ideas in the container of an online course.

Divinity and The Written Word came out of a few desires :

Wanting to teach a writing class
Wanting to explore god in a room with other people
Wanting to expand on the themes in Look About You
A need to have a class not be about making money and creative business
Exploring a return to the journal as a place for contemplative exploration
A place to listen to music together while we write

Us in class this weekend

All of these desires led me to design this strange little class, inspired by the many writers who have come before me to present their own strange versions of writing classes.

There are certain ideas I have where I feel confident a handful of people will sign up. My bills will get paid, my debt will clear for the month, the mortgage will be settled. This class isn’t one of them, but that didn’t stop me from inventing it. Sometimes what needs to come out of me isn’t the smartest or most business savvy, it’s the one that won’t leave me alone.

If you want to get weird and think about god in a zoom room of other freaks, consider signing up. Class is this weekend Feb 21 + 22 from 12-2pm EST

I hope class will bring me closer to god, which brings me closer to money, community, and myself. I hope students who take class feel a deeper connection to their writing practice, having it be less about the output and more about the process.

If two people show up, we’ll have a perfect time. And if a flurry of you arrive, we will flock together!

Thank you to Carter Umhau for interviewing me for her new podcast How to Be Alive

Quiet and evocative, Joyce is an embodied dark crip magical realism novella examining life in a haunted body.Join Wardrobe Rituals: a 6-week small-group journey where style becomes ritual, reflection, and a practice of becoming. Begins Feb 23. Sliding Scale.Your home is an ecosystem (Feb 27). The first in a free design psychology webinar series on creating a habitat that supports offline life amid chaos.(C)Osmosis x MONEY FIELD is a way of meeting the actual living MYTHIC intelligence of Money in its state of Health. Three sessions, online on Zoom.

Want to book a classified ad for March? Read all about it here

Subscribe now

→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ www.codycookparrott.com
→ Follow Along on Are.na

Consider becoming a paid subscriber of this newsletter if you love it.

The last two weeks I wrote about my multiple chest surgeries in Third Times The Charm and my Top Surgery Meltdown

A portion of this month’s paid subscriptions goes to supporting frontline organizers in Minnesota .

Happy day of love to those who celebrate. Popping in to say my online shop has been restocked with all of my books, zines, and a few quilts that are on sale.

I found ten more copies of my quilt show catalogue and listed the remaining three quilts and put them on sale. I’d love to see them find beautiful homes. I am also open to trades for business coaching/guidance for quilts, other book and zine trades for my books, and just very open to doing business outside of capitalism if that sparks interest. Respond to this email and let me know!

ONLINE SHOP

Don’t forget tomorrow is free Flexible Office 9-11am EST!

Subscribe now

→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ Pre-Order The Practice of Attention and get The Attention Audit Workbook and No Signal email course January 1-7 as pre-order bonuses!
→ www.codycookparrott.com
→ Follow Along on Are.na

Work Notes A new season of Flexible Office begins February 16. We meet Mondays and Thursdays 9-11am EST. Sliding scale, a Discord group for connecting, co-working and community in difficult times. Registration is open for Divinity and The Written Word February 21 + 22. A writing class about god, the cosmos, and contemplative journaling. And my Creative Advising books are open for February. The cared for holds the caretaker, Photo by Ellen Rutt

Dear Reader,

I wanted to beam in today to talk about top surgery. How it went, what I learned, what I survived. What me and Katy learned about caretaking and being cared for.

In some ways it all played out like an episode of The Pitt, except Noah Wyle being hot and in charge wasn’t there. Nothing went as expected and yet the gender euphoria manages to sneak through.

It ends with cutting all my hair off to look like Ilya from Heated Rivalry. Here we go!

The journey to top surgery begins with not being able to drink or eat anything the morning of, my surgery being at 11am. This was the hardest around coffee because I do enjoy my morning cup. Otherwise I felt ok, nervous, and more than ready to go. Little did I know, not being able to have a cup of coffee would be the least of my worries.

My phone was flooded with friends lighting candles, sending well wishes, and checking in. I arrived at the surgery center feeling loved and ready.

We had about an hour wait in the waiting room. I tried to distract myself with a little Animal Crossing and reading The Trauma of Money but all I could really think about was the strange reality of going under anesthesia.

Finally it was our turn. Me and Katy got called back into Dr. Wolf’s office and sat in his flamboyant chairs and waited for him to come in.

We went over the surgery in which he assured me my old scars would be removed and my new scars would be at the bottom and I would have no nipples. This is what we had also agreed to over our email consultation.

The rest of this essay is for paid subscribers of this newsletter. When you become a paid subscriber you help me, a working writer, stay working. This month a portion of paid subscriptions are being redistributed to supporting frontline organizers in Minnesota.

Empire Records, 1995

Dear Reader,

A week ago today I had top surgery. It has been a harrowing week filled with medical trauma, doubt, pain, and sadness. There have also been moments of extreme care, closeness, and euphoria.

I decided today I wanted to write about something close to my heart, Empire Records. If you want to hear about my journey with top surgery, tune in later this week in my essay for paid subscribers.

Once we left the surgery center, Katy stopped at the grocery store to get some staples while I waited in the car. I barely remember this time other than thinking about what I wanted to do as soon as we got into bed — watch Empire Records.

I have seen this movie more times than I can count. I have it on VHS and DVD, the soundtrack on CD and Vinyl, it’s important for me to access it in all modes at all times. If someone asks what my favorite movie is I do not pause, it is Empire Records.

As a baby my parents lived in a small apartment and my crib shared a room with my dad’s record collection. My whole life my dad has had a few jobs and they have always involved records - working in radio, working at a record shop, having his own radio show, and running an eBay record store business. On top of this he is, at his core, a collector, the best gift giver, and a sort of musical history genius.

This is all to say, my love for Empire Records is blood deep. And in times of deep sadness, grief, or pain it is what I reach for to bring me comfort.

I can recite almost every line of the movie, but my favorite moment, which was my senior quote in the yearbook, is when AJ asks Lucas what’s with him today. Lucas responds - What’s with today, today?

It’s a nonsensical moment, but I’ll never forget the first time I heard that line. It was like everything made sense to me. What is with this day, in this present moment? What’s with THIS day? What’s with today, today?

It felt so fitting to hear it, on a day of getting sliced open. Not totally sure of my surroundings and not quite getting my bearings yet. Not knowing the difficulty that lay ahead for me, it grounded me in a knowing of myself and the little jokes I love. Like when Warren yells “My name isn’t FUCKING Warren”

I also love a movie where the entire plot happens over one day. A day in the life. What’s with today, today? What’s with Rex Manning Day?

In an effort of deep permission giving — I moved Flexible Office to start a week later due to the difficulty of my healing. I’m really so excited to host another round, co-working is my favorite place to be. We start a week from today.

Want to try it out first because you aren’t so sure you’ll like it?

Come for FREE on Sunday February 15 9-11am EST. We’ll have a lot of fun and while I will invite you to join the next season of co-working there is no pressure or requirement to. Just come and get some shit done on a Sunday.

I am also preparing for my next class, Divinity and The Written Word February 21 + 22 12-2pm EST. This is a writing class, a class about god, a class about writing about god, and a class to generate contemplative writing in our journals. Morning pages, gratitude lists, and all the cosmic entry points will be covered. Want to hear more in the coming weeks? Pop your email in here.

Much is a foot. Thank you to all the well wishes about my surgery. Let me know what your favorite comfort movie is and maybe I’ll watch it this week. Preparing to hit the ground running next week and then moving into big book promo time.

Letting my body guide the way as much as I can. More on this later in the week. For now, I am wishing you well in the madness.

Learn the art of trend spotting & make your services stand out! This book demystifies trend watching: no crystal balls, but a structured forecasting approach for your business.Imagine your style as a creative ritual. Wardrobe Rituals is a 6-week experience where clothing becomes a tool for self-expression and transformation.Solstice Circle: a quarterly art & poetry subscription. Original watercolor art, poems, love letters. $10 off Spring ed with code SOFTEN.Doing “all the right marketing” but sales feel random? Free Building Bridges workshop will help you map what’s missing and connect effort to results.

Want to book a classified ad for next week? Read all about it here

Subscribe now

→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ www.codycookparrott.com
→ Follow Along on Are.na

Consider becoming a paid subscriber of this newsletter if you love it. A portion of this month’s paid subscriptions goes to supporting frontline organizers in Minnesota .

Photo by Anna Friss

*previous email contained broken links

Dear Reader,

Today is the great undoing, the great stitch me up and spit me out. The spacious day I’ve wanted for so long but was too afraid to give myself, even as bravery has coursed through my body. Today is top surgery day.

I wrote about having previous surgeries for paid subscribers last week which you can read here.

There is so much about transness I see in improvisational quilting. Going against the pattern, ripping things apart until you get the right shape, stitching lines that are rarely straight but hold steady. Taking a long time to finish one part but getting to the next step and flying through it. To be trans is to be constantly quilting, rearranging, puzzle pieces of skin and bone.

Yesterday I shipped the quilt pictured above to Joan who participated in Quilt Camp last year, my favorite place to be. It was the superstar quilt in the show, the first thing you spotted when you walked in, and I almost wished no one would buy it. I can’t think of a better home for it than with Joan.

If you’ve taken my quilt class before, online or in person, you may enjoy coming to Flexible Office, the experimental co-working space I’ve run since 2022. A new season starts a week from today and we meet Mondays and Thursdays from 9-11am EST for two months.

I am also teaching Quilt in a Weekend in person at the beautiful Green Door Folk School right up the road in Cedar, MI May 16 + 17. The 17th is also my fifteen year sobriety birthday so we can celebrate the gift of life while we quilt. Beautiful housing right there on the farm, we’re sure to have a good time.

In the days ahead, my work is simple: rest, breathe, receive. Let myself be carried for a while. I’ve felt so held by this community in the lead-up to today—by your notes, your stories, your quiet witnessing. Thank you for walking with me into this threshold. All of this—surgery, quilts, classrooms, co-working—is the same practice for me: paying attention to what wants to change, and staying long enough to help it happen.

Come celebrate the release of The Practice of Attention with me in Boulder, CO on Wednesday March 18 at Boulder Bookstore. Tickets are $5.

When you pre-order the book you automatically get two free bonuses : The Attention Audit Workbook and a seven day digital detox email course called No Signal

Love seeing the book included in The Money Healing Book Club list

Stuck with Notion? Stop learning alone. 9 live workshops in 2026 building real systems together. Go from confused to proficient. $147 (or 3 × $49)Polar nights, northern lights, and lots of sttiching & community. Retreat on Svalbard, Norway. Early registration discount extended until February 5.Filmmaker who considers Jane Goodall an expander available to film portals: birth, death, wedding, art show, workshop. 4K digital, Super 8, mini DV.Are you film-curious? Holly, aka A Queer Photog, is offering 1:1 mentorship for photographers who want to make analog magic. All skill levels welcome!

Want to book a classified ad for next week? Read all about it here

Subscribe now

→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ www.codycookparrott.com
→ Follow Along on Are.na

Consider becoming a paid subscriber of this newsletter if you love it. A portion of this month’s paid subscriptions goes to supporting frontline organizers in Minnesota .

Photo by Anna Friss

Dear Reader,

Today is the great undoing, the great stitch me up and spit me out. The spacious day I’ve wanted for so long but was too afraid to give myself, even as bravery has coursed through my body. Today is top surgery day.

I wrote about having previous surgeries for paid subscribers last week which you can read here.

There is so much about transness I see in improvisational quilting. Going against the pattern, ripping things apart until you get the right shape, stitching lines that are rarely straight but hold steady. Taking a long time to finish one part but getting to the next step and flying through it. To be trans is to be constantly quilting, rearranging, puzzle pieces of skin and bone.

Yesterday I shipped the quilt pictured above to Joan who participated in Quilt Camp last year, my favorite place to be. It was the superstar quilt in the show, the first thing you spotted when you walked in, and I almost wished no one would buy it. I can’t think of a better home for it than with Joan.

If you’ve taken my quilt class before, online or in person, you may enjoy coming to Flexible Office, the experimental co-working space I’ve run since 2022. A new season starts a week from today and we meet Mondays and Thursdays from 9-11am EST for two months.

I am also teaching Quilt in a Weekend in person at the beautiful Green Door Folk School right up the road in Cedar, MI May 16 + 17. The 17th is also my fifteen year sobriety birthday so we can celebrate the gift of life while we quilt. Beautiful housing right there on the farm, we’re sure to have a good time.

In the days ahead, my work is simple: rest, breathe, receive. Let myself be carried for a while. I’ve felt so held by this community in the lead-up to today—by your notes, your stories, your quiet witnessing. Thank you for walking with me into this threshold. All of this—surgery, quilts, classrooms, co-working—is the same practice for me: paying attention to what wants to change, and staying long enough to help it happen.

Come celebrate the release of The Practice of Attention with me in Boulder, CO on Wednesday March 18 at Boulder Bookstore. Tickets are $5.

When you pre-order the book you automatically get two free bonuses : The Attention Audit Workbook and a seven day digital detox email course called No Signal

Love seeing the book included in The Money Healing Book Club list

Stuck with Notion? Stop learning alone. 9 live workshops in 2026 building real systems together. Go from confused to proficient. $147 (or 3 × $49)Polar nights, northern lights, and lots of sttiching & community. Retreat on Svalbard, Norway. Early registration discount extended until February 5.Filmmaker who considers Jane Goodall an expander available to film portals: birth, death, wedding, art show, workshop. 4K digital, Super 8, mini DV.Are you film-curious? Holly, aka A Queer Photog, is offering 1:1 mentorship for photographers who want to make analog magic. All skill levels welcome!

Want to book a classified ad for next week? Read all about it here

Subscribe now

→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ www.codycookparrott.com
→ Follow Along on Are.na

Consider becoming a paid subscriber of this newsletter if you love it. A portion of this month’s paid subscriptions goes to supporting frontline organizers in Minnesota .

A note : A new season of Flexible Office begins February 9. We meet Mondays and Thursdays 9-11am EST. Sliding scale, a Discord group for connecting, co-working and community in difficult times. Photo by Anna Friss

Dear Reader,

In four days I’ll be receiving top surgery and I keep catching myself touching my chest without thinking, like my body is already rehearsing what’s coming. I’m thrilled that this time next week I will wake up with a flat chest. In making this decision, and ones prior to this surgery, what I couldn’t find wasn’t information about surgery — it was guidance about desire. About how to listen to yourself. About how to choose a body you could actually live inside.

Between Reddit and YouTube there are plenty of before and after pics, vlogs on the healing process, and the reason behind small details (nipples or no nipples) but in terms of all of the many options of what one could do with their chest, I was left a little high and dry.

I have met so many people over the years who have gotten a gender affirming surgery and wished they had done something more extreme. Rarely have I spoken to someone who made a surgical choice and wished they’d done less.

I want to talk today about how this top surgery is not my first, or my second, but my third attempt at finding the chest I want and how it all came to be.

I’ve had a few of you sweet readers ask if there is anything you can do to be in the care team for next week. There is! Just respond to this email and I can let you know.

Photo by Anna Friss

Dear Reader,

A few weeks ago, just hours after leaving my hometown, my dad called me with a lump in his throat. His companion of twelve years, Emmy, a beloved and yappy little dog our neighbor found running on the side of the highway, was making her way toward death in a sudden and unexpected way. I burst into tears, which as him and I are known to do, made him understand the reality of the situation and he too began to cry.

Later that evening Emmy would peacefully pass away on the living room floor, a place she loved to lay dearly. It shocked our family and yet also brought us together in sharing memories of her with Ethel, our precious dog whose life overlapped, her time with June who as a baby was smaller than her, and beautiful pictures of us all together. Emmy walked my dad through divorce, open heart surgery, Covid, and more.

June watched me unable to sleep that night tossing and turning and crying, and the entire next day she slept in bed. Didn’t get up except to get her dinner. To say a dog knows is an understatement.

When I opened the zoom room of Flexible Office the next day I opened my mouth to greet everyone normally and was flooded with tears. My students and co-horts are used to me crying at this point, but it never ceases to shake me a bit.

On the couch a few days ago I read some of Ilhan Omar’s writing and updates about what’s happening in Minneapolis. I tried reading it to Katy and just wept. Young Liam Ramos taken from kindergarten, hundreds of protestors kicked and pistol whipped and pepper sprayed, still reeling from our now beloved ancestor Renee Good’s murder.

Something about Emmy’s death softened me, reminded me of the swiftness in which we can be here and then not.

Moments before logging on to teach on Saturday, news came flooding in about ICE executing Alex Pretti, in broad daylight, while he attempted to protect someone else against ICE’s incessant violence. As stories swim in about Alex it seems that is who he was, a protector, a witness, a friend. Something about both Alex and Renee being my same age, a young 37, makes it feel even more tender.

I began to weep again, feeling that weeping is one of my only modes the last few weeks. As I dried my tears I opened the zoom room and greeted everyone with my tender face. I do my best in teaching to name what is happening, and in that room and here — I send my love to everyone in Minneapolis, you are treasured as you navigate this horrific time.

By day two of class I felt like we got our flow a little bit, less in the shock and more in the curiosity. We dreamt of using our homes as public places of learning. We visioned community billboards and analog ways of connecting. We wove our values of freedom, redistribution, and liberation into the work we do — no more business as usual.

As death surrounds I try to remember my life, how precious it is to even have one. This addict is on borrowed time and to even breathe today is a miracle.

Last night I couldn’t sleep while I invented a new project that’s been on the tip of my tongue for weeks. I felt grateful for the insomnia, a sign of life.

This week I will be finishing writing, printing, folding, and packing the February edition of PROMPTS, my analog newsletter. You can subscribe by January 31 to get your copy monthly. Ships internationally.

Then next week directly after I finish writing my weekly newsletter I will go under the knife for top surgery. You may recall a few years ago I got a radical reduction and let’s just say it simply wasn’t radical enough. Boobs be gone. Send all well wishes on February 2 at 11am EST.

I’ll be writing more about this decision and embodied process for paid subscribers of this newsletter on Thursday.

I ask where do we go from here? Where do we go to stay in the grief, to move toward the hope, to stay with the hopelessness? Today I’m staying in gratitude, staying in my lane, staying with the people in the turmoil. May you be ultimately blessed today. I adore you.

→ This link has just about every fund to redistribute to in Minneapolis/Minnesota. In times of overwhelm I find it helpful to pick a theme or topic you’re particularly devoted to, pick that one, give what you can, and share it widely. Today I am giving to Underdog Rescue in honor of Emmy — they are providing free pet food to people who are afraid to leave their homes.

→ Alex Pretti’s family is a beneficiary of this GoFundme which has raised over $1mil.

I made a survey so that I know what you like. Consider filling this one out about upcoming classes and offerings

→ A Mutual Aid Fundraiser + Quilt Raffle for the Al-Nabih Family in Gaza open through 2/1

→ For some cute news, I was on TV ;) Watch me be cheesy and not know where to look on Your California Life

→ In an effort to learn more about my money habits I joined Rachel Duncan’s The Money Reset which starts next week. You may have heard her on Off The Grid or listened to her podcast, she’s an amazing Financial Therapist :)

→ My small business peer support circle FIELDWORK is now open for registration and we start Wednesday February 11. You can book a free call to see if it’s a good fit.

Artists, consultants, small biz owners ~ Want your website to function better or simply be more YOU? Start the year w/a website audit. $30 off w/ YES30May 2026 plans? A small, founder-led Spanish Language & Culture Retreat in Barcelona. Sobremesa.Institute is opening a few spots. Just saying ♡Need help with research? Have any boring tasks you need to get off your plate? I’m your person! Check out my Virtual Assistance services ♡February asks too much. Answer softly: a free 19-day anti-hustle creativity challenge with daily oracle cards in your inbox and optional quiet Zooms.Want analog art that you can hold in your hands? Join the Snail Mail Art Club and get original Chinese calligraphy in your mailbox delivered monthly.

Want to book a classified ad for next week? Read all about it here

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→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ Pre-Order The Practice of Attention and get The Attention Audit Workbook and seven day No Signal : Digital Detox email course
→ www.codycookparrott.com
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Consider becoming a paid subscriber of this newsletter if you love it. A portion of this month’s paid subscriptions goes to this go fund me for a family in LA where the dad was detained in an ICE raid.

♡ And lastly, RIP Emmy 2014-2026 ♡June and Emmy, Two Good Girls