Care Collective with Kelsey Peterson

Care Collective with Kelsey Peterson

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Care Collective with Kelsey Peterson
Care Collective with Kelsey Peterson
V is for…

V is for…

Vulva? Vagina? Ok no, seriously, V is for Valentine’s Day Special! …And a lil somethin’ extra for my Paid Subscribers, xoxo

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Kelsey Peterson
Feb 13, 2025
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Care Collective with Kelsey Peterson
Care Collective with Kelsey Peterson
V is for…
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Embrace, by Nancy Willis, 1987 *image description: A naked female wheelchair-user is embraced by a standing figure.

Hello LOVERS,

and that means YOU, because we are all lovers, always.

I know Valentine’s Day can be tough for a lot of us, (I honestly give less of a fuck these days, thankfully, but still…you know) so I wanted to share a little extra looooove from me to you:

FIRSTLY *Sign up for an Annual Subscription in the next 3 days and get 33% OFF — WOOP WOOP

Special Offer Here!

Your annual subscription will give you deeper access (oooooh) to my essays, offerings, vlogs, and other ways I share my perspectives on living a sensuous, embodied, authentic, messy, ordinary and empowered life on the fringe.


As some of you may know, I quit Instagram and Facebook last week — my pages are still up, but I am no longer posting, or scrolling, there. Hallelujah!

It feels really good. I immediately felt relieved in my body. Like I was finally allowing a truth to be set free. Those spaces felt yucky.

I’m not gonna lie, I also have to resist the urge to JUST KEEP SCROLLING in this Substack realm as well. But it’s a different vibe, a different community, and it offers ways to set healthy boundaries.


What I share here is at times quite vulnerable, and honestly, it’s fuckin scary sometimes.

But I do it because I love storytelling. I believe in the power of storytelling.

Having paid subscriptions is a way for me to protect myself and my work. It creates a container/vessel/magical cauldron for healthy community — both for me and for you.

The other day I put out a vlog that shared a pretty funny yet honest and forthright perspective on sexuality, disability and accessibility. It was a bit scary. At first, I shared it to all of my subscribers, free for any eyes to witness. I even opted to allow Substack to auto-upload it to my YouTube channel — a great feature, but here’s the thing…

I immediately felt this tension and anxiety in my body. The yuck came back. That same doom and gloom feeling that I got from the Metaverse that something just isn’t aligning here.

I phoned a dear friend, or two, and sat with their wisdom:

How does this feel in your body? What are you saving for you?

Share

Daaaaaamn, right? I pondered possible solutions for a minute as I sat in the stillness, listening to what I was really feeling. I went quiet.

I came to the conclusion that what would feel better for me was to change the boundaries around this vulnerable share.

So I deleted it from YouTube and made it only available to paid subscribers here on Substack. I immediately felt a wave of relief come over me.

Agency plus appropriate action = peace.

This experience made me think of how important it is for us — everywhere in life, but especially in terms of this vast world web, exposed to the careless opinions and judgements of others — to be careful with both what we share, and how we share ourselves.

There are ways to share that might feel right in this modality, but not so right in this other one. For example, maybe sharing via vlog, with its innately personal quality, needs to have some safeguarding - like only viewable by paid subscribers, or only allowing comments from paid subscribers. These are the nuances I’m learning to groove with right now.

Or maybe podcasting, as another example, within the context of a larger topic, conversation etc., serves as a safety net. It gives the audience time to process, and space for all the noise to land and quiet itself within. It has boundaries that certain ways of sharing doesn’t.

Like a book — no one is interrupting you on the page or commenting in the margins.

There are creative choices we can make to support vulnerable offerings, so that our work, whatever it is, is serving and honoring ourselves while serving its purpose for the collective.

These choices are invaluable acts of self-love which honor our truth, the sacredness of our work, and our well-being.


I love sharing. I love connecting. And I hope that by sharing my truth, I can:

  • be a voice for people like me

  • help people feel seen

  • build bridges

  • educate

  • And share love and humor

I hope that this V-Day, we can all hold in our hearts the profound truth that we are lovable beyond measure — just as we are, in our unique humanness — and that there are SO MANY ways to celebrate love for ourselves and each other.

We are all capable and worthy of love. So. Much. Love.

Big EXTRA LOVE,

KP

And to my current Paid Subscribers, I wanted to share an excerpt from my first book I’m currently writing…eek! Here’s just a little something I’ve been working on…

“Now, keep in mind that I’m an artist, and I’m sensitive about my shit” -Erykah Badu

Special Offer Here!

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