How to Come Out To the Jasmine First

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>When the world feels overwhelming where do you find sanctuary?</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In this tender collection of essays poems and meditations E. Katherine Kottaras invites us into her small Los Angeles garden-a place of refuge and renewal during pandemic isolation family health crises and the daily challenges of being a queer parent in an uncertain world.</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Organized around nature's cycles of planting growing releasing and celebrating <em>How to Come Out To the Jasmine First</em> weaves together scientific research on nature-based healing with deeply personal poetry and reflections on creativity identity and resilience. Each piece includes gentle invitations for readers to explore their own relationships to place body and creative expression.</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)><em>Nature wasn't just a pleasant escape but actual medicine for our wounded bodies and spirits.</em></strong></p><p></p>