maybe just be nice?? | babblings report #014 june 2026: unlikely friends, cool queer media, reading club, & the summer solstice
Hi babblers! Happy Pride and welcome back to another addition of the babblings report!
May was quite a roller coaster for me, turning 28, going solo camping and then getting bullied by raccoons. My sister graduating high school and all the extracurriculars that came with that, not to mention all the emotion that came with the last of my siblings graduating high school ten years after I did. It was so bizarre seeing everything say 2026 instead of 2016, didn’t that just happen? No it was 10 years ago! 😵💫
I would expand more on my camping woes but I’ll have the solo camp fail vlog out for you next week so you’ll get to experience the highs and lows with me. 😉
I don’t know if it’s new environments I’ve been in the last few months or weird encounters I’ve had during a high emotional time for me, but I just wish everyone would be kind. I wish everyone wouldn’t always default to judgement and misconception. Why doesn’t anyone just talk anymore? Why doesn’t anyone just say how they feel? Why doesn’t anyone listen anymore? Since when has one singular person ever been the gatekeeper of human experiences? Why don’t we believe people when they tell us things? Why does all this superficial shit define us? Why do we let it?
This next month will be another whirlwind, but I’m excited for more adventures and I’m so grateful you’re here with me. <3
*play me*
I recently remembered how much I love this song and played it nonstop 4 summers ago. It’s one that sneaks up on you, is ambiguous but so emotionally charged, it could relate to so many things in my life. All of May I was full of angst, pissed off quite honestly at everything and everyone. Angst I hadn’t felt in years, 10 to be exact.
🔮 June Energy Reading 🔮
I sat down to do this and just did not like the energy or feel like it was productive. It felt off and I’m not going to just put something out there if I really don’t feel like it’s aligned with us or is helpful.
I think this is a good point to look back at energy reads from the last few months, revisit and see if something resonates that didn’t before. Or remind yourself of something you were meant to release that you’re still holding onto.
🍄 cool queer magazines!!! 🍄
To celebrate Pride Month, I wanted to highlight queer independent media and magazines. Physical media fascination and interest is starting to be mainstream and “trending”, but as usual the queer community has always been at the for front of zine culture, creating community, and representation outside of the mainstream. These publications focus on fashion, art, culture, politics, and centering the queer experience.
1. autostraddle
“Founded in March 2009 by Riese Bernard and Alexandra Vega and still run by a team of progressively feminist queer and trans folks, Autostraddle is a digital publication and real life community for multiple generations of LGBTQIA+ humans (and their friends). The driving fire behind Autostraddle is building a space for lesbians and queer people to be our entire selves, to be known for the multi-dimensional ways we move in the world.” -autostraddle website
2. Trans+ Glamifesto
“This zine is a collaboration between Turning Lewks Podcast and G(end)er Swap, edited and curated by it’s Founders, Santi S. (G(end)er Swap) and Darren Mew (Turning Lewks Podcast). Expect creative makeup inspo, tutorials, queer makeup history + chats with our community — all about celebrating creative self-expression across the entire gender spectrum.” – G(END)ER SWAP website
3. PHANTASMAG
“Reanimating the corpses of 80s horror zines, Phantasmag is an indie magazine that centres queer and female perspectives. A blend of horror fandom old and new, we pair the loving artistry of those early indie publications with fashion editorials and in-depth interviews with creatives from the biggest scary movies and TV shows today—while exploring the genre through books, music, fashion, art, and more.” –PHANTASMAG
4. hankycode
“hankycode magazine was created in 2025 after the Trump administration took over. After publishing a GLAAAD nominated project prior, we knew it was more important to document queer history now than ever. Made by queer people for queer people, we refuse to hide in a time where the world so desperately wants us to. We refuse to let our history die.” –hankycode
5. queer dear mag
“Queer Dear is a magazine for the scrappy gyrl, an ode to personal style. Caught between the tackiness of Tiger Beat and the glossiness of Paper, Queer Dear finds style in every corner. Yeah it’s both that serious and unserious.” -Queer Dear tiktok
🌛 Movie(s) of the Month 🌛
{unlikely friends}
The Iron Giant (1999) & The Shape of Water (2017)
Well my lovelies we’ve made it all the way to June, which means we’ve been doing movie club for half the year!!! Truly makes me so happy and honestly proud of myself for being consistent and getting back to something I’ve always loved: watching movies! As a REMINDER, I base pairings on the themes of the overlapping zodiac signs for each month, not based on specific transits. It’s a fun way to come up with movie ideas, but I also hope it gives you a broader idea of the zodiac, the archetypes they represent, and how they correlate to the wheel of the year specifically in the northern hemisphere.
For June we are looking at Gemini and Cancer. Two signs that at first glance may seem very different, but in reality are more similar than you’d think. Both of these signs have the capacity to be highly emotionally intelligent and curious. Gemini the sign of duality knows it’s the teacher but also the student, and Cancer embodies the intuitive nurturer. The unfamiliar sparks genuine curiosity and they offer a willingness to look beyond the surface. Because of these qualities both signs are often making friends in the most unlikely of places.
I decided to pick two movies that represent themes of unlikely friends, connection, emotional intelligence, and curiosity. The Iron Giant centers around a young boy who becomes friends with an alien robot proving that just because we don’t understand something doesn’t mean it’s dangerous. Then we have Guillermo del Toro’s 2017, The Shape of Water, where a mute janitor forms a relationship with a top secret research project, showing love and understanding transcend words and form.
Let me know you’re thoughts on the picks and the movies as you watch in the comments! Also, if you have a theme suggestion for July (Cancer & Leo) submit it here:
🌸 reading club! 🌸
nature nonfiction spring
Favorite excerpt:
“I was humbled. Their singing said evrything that my well intentioned lectures did not. On and on they went, adding harmonies as they walked. They understood harmony in a way I did not. I heard in their raised voices the same outpouring of love and gratitude for the Creation that Skywoman first sang on the back of Turtle Island. In their caress of that old hymn I came to know that it wasn’t naming the source of wonder that mattered, it was the wonder itself…. As an enthusiastic young PhD, colonized by the arrogance of science, I had been fooling myself that I was the only teacher. The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness. Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.
pg. 222
June’s Book: Finding The Mother Tree
This month we’re deepening our knowledge of nature and specifically focusing on trees. One of the first few chapters of Braiding Sweetgrass starts discussing the connection between trees and their mirror to humanity. It got me even more excited to sit down and read a whole book just about trees and wisdom we can glean from them.
“In her first book, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths – that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complex, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own.”
May Wrap Up: Braiding Sweetgrass
I have to be 100% honest and say that I’m only 70% of the way through with Braiding Sweetgrass. But I feel confident in giving it the official babblings 5 star rating and a complete YES to buying and adding to your library.
Through this book I have learned so much about all kinds of plants and indigenous wisdom. Kimmerer is able to thread personal & ancestral stories, tradition, and scientific knowledge together seamlessly and in such an accessible way. So many times I read the book and thought “omg, duh how did i not think of it that way before” This book continuously reminded me the ways in which the earth provides everything we need including knowledge, sustenance, and safety. In the latest podcast episode I talked about cults and how it preys on our conditioning to live in the cerebral realm instead of body, instead of nature. Kimmerer throughout this book hammers home how devastating colonialism is not only because of the horrific atrocities, but also the shredding of inherent knowledge and connection to the land. Most importantly Kimmerer hammers home that there is another way, a better way, and there are people still holding this knowledge we just have to listen.
What I’m curious about:
- What is Simard’s “mother tree” concept?
- What led Simard to this field of study?
- How does the fungal network in the forest work?
- Do trees talk to each other?
- How does Simard integrate indigenous wisdom into her work?
- How can Simard’s ideas impact conservation and our reciprocal relationship with the nature?
Supplemental Material:
- The Mother Tree Project: https://mothertreeproject.org/about-mother-trees/
- ‘My ideas are a little revolutionary’: ecologist Suzanne Simard on intelligent forests, the climate and her critics: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/14/my-ideas-are-a-little-revolutionary-ecologist-suzanne-simard-on-intelligent-forests-the-climate-and-her-critics
- 12 other books about trees and their knowledge: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/04/a-grove-of-tree-books-for-arbor-day/
⭐️ celebrating the summer solstice⭐️
It’s time once again to honor the changing of seasons. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are leaving the awakening of spring and entering the vibrancy of summer. Summer officially starts on the Summer Solstice which will be June 21st this year where we have the longest day and shortest night of the year. It marks the start of a season of abundance, freedom, nourishment, and revelry. It is our time to soak in the sun as it nourishes us and the nature around us. Just as the fawn matures and the crops grow for harvest in the fall, so to do we, our goals, and relationships. It’s a time of enjoyment and community building.
If you’re ever at a loss for how to celebrate a change of season for a solstice or equinox, you can always light a fire. A huge bonfire or a small tea light candle, you can always honor the light within and the one that sustains all life.
Looking to do a more specific ritual? Check out my dandelion magic mini article in last months babblings report:
