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Five Actions, Three Voices
Hi dear ones!
First: I’m doing a livestream today to talk about radical love of the earth and the power of the seed to change the world… Join live at 4 pm PT, 7 pm ET here:
https://go.rallyup.com/wildflowers/
This is my last week at what I call my waterfall house: the house I rent for January and February on the creek in the little village of Woodstock, upstate New York. I come with the intent to start and finish a book, but really I come here to listen to the water, take photos of the ever-changing waterfall ice and water sculpture every day (which I share in my stories on Instagram), integrate, and remember again how hard it is to write a book.
I always start overly optimistic: I can get the first rough draft done in a month! I know exactly what I’m going to write about! I’ll knock this out and then move on to the next thing! Then I am always humbled by the reality of the immense brain power and patience and holding of tension it takes to write well.
A few days ago I woke up with a fever, a headache, and a realization: I need to slow down. I need to let the process of writing do me, rather than me thinking I am doing the writing. I need to settle in for a marathon, both in my own writing, creativity, and with the current treacherous political landscape.
Loves, we are in the midst of so much change we must take time to integrate. To do our art. To be with friends. To grieve. To laugh. To spend more time in bed resting, and more time in the wild, walking in the rain or snow.
More visioning possibilities. More tears. More taking bold actions. More protesting. More making blanket forts and hiding in the afternoon.
Next week I’ll be waving goodbye to New York, driving my big orange Tundra truck the 30 plus hours back to New Mexico. I’ll pick up my new border collie puppy Mystic in Mississippi (her full name is BBC Enchanted Mystic Warrior, a nod to the Land of Enchantment and Warrior Heart Ranch), and we will start our relationship adventure together on the road, which seems appropriate. Then I’ll get to introduce her to her new human community in New Mexico — Gini and Franklin and Rowan and Laura and Ernesto — and to share with her the 180-acres of Warrior Heart Ranch.
Follow along for the puppy love adventures on my IG or FB stories : ) She is going to be a handful and keep me on my toes for sure. I’ve already downloaded four different audio books on raising puppies to listen to while I drive and get ready for this new phase of my days.
I’ve been at a little bit of a loss of what to say as we learn how to swim and celebrate rather than sink and lose hope in these times. So in today’s post I am sharing three voices that uplift and sustain me when the going gets tough. They are all different. Luvvie bring laughter and no bullshit talk. adrienne bring creative connection and vision. A reminder: LISTEN AND SUPPORT BLACK WOMEN! I just joined their patreon / membership site.
Matthew bring the wisdom of poetry as an act of culture making and revery.
In a future articles I’ll share more voices: indigenous teachings, activists, and artists and others who help bring me comfort, light blazing fires in my heart, and remind me to rest in the dark. Nature lovers and climate change activists. Sci fi and wilderness writers. Rebels, misfits, and creators. We need all the voices.
Please take what serves you and leave the rest… may you find some nourishment, inspiration, and warmth. This post is directed for US citizens, but everyone can benefit from the information. At the end of this article I share my five recommended steps.
Here are three humans that sustain and inspire me:
Luvvie Ajayi Jones
author of:
Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual
I’m Judging You: The Do Better Manual
I've been thinking about silence lately. Not the peaceful kind that restores your soul, but the heavy kind that weighs on your spirit when you know you should speak but don't. The kind that sits in your throat when you see something wrong but convince yourself it's not your place to say anything.
One truth is becoming crystal clear: monsters are not created in vacuums. The silence and compliance of "good people" is how they rise to power. This happens in businesses, families, GOVERNMENT. The days of being quiet in the face of foolishness have led us here.
When we choose silence because it's comfortable, we forget that comfort isn't always our friend. Sometimes comfort is what keeps us stuck. Sometimes comfort is what keeps us small. And we weren't created to be small.
Think about it: every major change in history started with someone deciding that silence was no longer an option. Someone looked at what was happening around them and said "Not on my watch." Change starts with voice.
As Audre Lorde says, your silence will not protect you. But your voice? Your voice might just save us all.
Your voice might shake. Your hands might tremble. Your heart might race. But speak anyway. Because your words might be exactly what someone else needs to hear to find their own courage. Your stance might be what gives someone else permission to stand. Your truth might be the key that unlocks someone else's freedom.
Your voice doesn't have to be loud to be powerful. It doesn't have to be perfect to be meaningful. It just has to be true. It just has to be yours. Whether you're speaking up in a meeting, calling out injustice, or having that difficult conversation you've been putting off, your voice matters.
So today, I want you to ask yourself: What truth am I holding back? What words am I swallowing? What change could I create if I decided that silence is no longer an option?
Because here's the thing: in a world that often tries to silence us, using our voice becomes an act of revolution. Speaking up becomes a declaration of our humanity. And staying silent? That's no longer a luxury we can afford.
Follow Luvvie on Instagram, receive her weekly newsletter, or join her Patreon
adrienne maree brown
author of
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good
Loving Corrections
beloveds i am recovering from norovirus (like an ayahuasca or ayurvedic purge without the magic) and its a slow recovery, but i have some thoughts. i put these thoughts into four buckets to help with making meaning, getting concrete and moving forward.
bucket 1: accept reality and decide what you will do
accept reality, which is not the chaotic story they are telling…we lost a round, and it’s already costing so many of us, and is going to cost us, so much. but we did not lose to a coherent, aligned, functional force…there is an erratic, emotional, disinhibited leader who knows how to harness negative attention, surrounded by people convinced they can use him to grow their money, power, or regressive ideologies. they were elected by people who want a lot of different things, many of whom have been hoodwinked, many whose desires are closer to what we are interested in growing than what he will be up to. the reality is we need to be ready to welcome them however late they awaken.
the reality is bleak and chaotic, but not permanent. remember the future is unwritten. we are not IN their story even if we are IMPACTED by it. we have to keep writing and living OUR stories, the ones where justice and love and equality and material well-being and care and connection and freedom and safety and dignity and belonging and earth are at the center. in OUR stories, this is either a failure (because we don’t learn anything but vengeance and smallness and violence)…or a tragic set-back that we turn into a multitude of opportunities for liberation and a living economy.
the reality is that the elite are wildin’ out. and making themselves so visible and plain. we reject that whole way of being. every day, relinquish and resist exceptionalism and elitism. american exceptionalism is fatal for the whole world. what our nation has instigated, funded and/or allowed to happen anywhere in the world is going to happen to more of us here, we need to be humble about that. and remember, elitism in practice doesn’t require money, just thinking you are better than somebody else. D-Elite! let go of being better than anyone, of deserving more safety or resource…that’s one root of this harmful time.
the reality is scary, so really take your life seriously. this is, among other things, a numbers game. we need every one of us. we need you. stay as safe and healthy as you can. use the OODA loop method when you’re in acute crises – observe, orient, decide, act (repeat) [hear the method in detail by Queer Nature on this episode of the How to Survive the End of the World podcast]
bucket 2: find others to do it with! be intentional about who you are in community with
we have tried answering this with big mass efforts and i know i am speaking to organizers with big visions…i always have to make a case for the small and steady, the tangible and connected. when you feel overwhelmed by the scale of the changes and problems and urgency, focus back down on what you can do, and get specific with your support. who can you actually show up for? who can you ask for help and let show up for you? everything large is made up of the small.
how intimately can you live the block and build strategy in your daily life? divest from MAGA businesses and institutions! building our love-based, worker-based efforts.
don’t pull each other under…notice that when we are all going under we can start pulling each other into danger. people stepping up to lead right now aren’t outside the danger or exhaustion or sadness or fires or sicknesses. I just survived norovirus and nothing in the world stopped — but that was ok because I am in community who cared for me and covered me instead of asking for more. community allows us to stagger and pace ourselves through this.
experiment together! try things and assess if they work, if they make your community tangibly safer. don’t get attached to the experiments, stay attached to the well being of the community.
bucket 3: rearrange your boundaries when it comes to communications and information.
notice what overwhelms you and place boundaries. reclaim your precious precious attention.
notice who misinforms you or misleads you and place boundaries. divest, unfollow, correct! don’t waste attention!
notice who is in control of each app you use and why you are in those spaces…and place boundaries. (remove yourself from muskymetaverse, come say hi on bluesky and i am figuring out where i can do my meme magic…)
become a source of information on the things you care about…not just everything like a firehose, but uplift what you know and can vouch for. we can help each other connect to opportunities to help!
find those people and places still committed to journalism and fact checking and don’t just join/use/follow/boost them, but invest in them.
bucket 4: Ritual!
politics is ritual on ritual on ritual. we need to re-root in the sacredness of even this time
notice the sacredness of the moment, of your emotions, of the change, of all that you love
act precious
find a grounding ritual practice. one of mine is tarot and i pulled this tarot card for the collective today from the Medicine Cards deck: “raccoon, the generous protector. this robin hood of the animal kingdom…has the uncanny ability to assist others without allowing them to become victims or dependents…tends to the needs of the tribe before taking any for themselves. uncommon lack of greed. who needs you?”
https://adriennemareebrown.net/
Follow adrienne maree on Instagram, become a member on her website, join her patreon podcast
adrienne On Being: Radical Imagination and Moving Towards Life
https://onbeing.org/programs/adrienne-maree-brown-on-radical-imagination-and-moving-towards-life/
Matthew Stillman
Matthew is a dear friend and one who knows the importance of beauty-making. I’ve taken three of his poetry memorization courses, and I cannot recommend his courses enough. They are a way to turn your brain towards creative visioning and holding beauty. Each poem has rearranged my cells and opened my heart. I know it doesn’t make logical sense to memorize poetry in difficult times, but truly this is a life saver on so many levels I can’t even begin to explain. (Did you see my recitation of the most recent poem I memorized? Check it out here.) Matthew is offering his upcoming introductory course as a pay-what-you-like. Here is his invite:
Friends,
During World War 2, machinists making munitions that were going towards the war effort put placards on their die-stampers, lathes, drill-presses, mills and welders that read: "This Machine Kills Fascists."
Woody Guthrie famously repurposed those signs by putting the same placard on his guitar signaling that his art and music was a poetic response to the times.
I've been confounded, vexed, and (for the moment) more frightened than personally hurt by the alacrity of this most recent and potent form of the sweep of fascism in the United States and the way it is ricocheting around the globe. The steady thrum sucks up attention and capacity from those in the wake.
I can't stop what is rolling out, but I can maybe respond in a small way by gathering an illustrious assembly of ordinary people - like myself and maybe like you - with a taste for beauty on the tongue. Let's add this to the ecology of the time that seems gasping and gulping for beautymaking.
But I want to add an Anti-fascist discount for those who are feeling wobbly right now. The course is normally $300 for three poems over four weeks but for this round, at least, the course is Pay What You Like.
same introductory class as ever. Online
Tuesdays at 3pm eastern
February 25th, March 4th, March 11th, March 18th
Or
Thursdays at 7pm eastern
February 27th, March 6th, March 13th, March 20th
The full description of the course is here
https://stillmansays.substack.com/p/introductory-course
Email me at mstillman@gmail.com for questions or to register!
Until soon
M
Five specific things to do:
Pick one or two media sources you trust.
Below is a list of recommendations; please share more if you have other favorites. I also highly recommend at least once a week reading / watching media from other countries to get a different perspective.5 Calls (for US citizens)
This is a simple way to take action every day. Specific scripts and daily support for contacting your representatives. An important way to make your voice heard.
Website: https://5calls.org or download the app on your phoneActively build community
Meet your neighbors. Reach out to friends. Network. Find, join, and/or create networks of relationships. You don’t have to agree on issues. For example: in my gathering of neighbors up on the land in Northern New Mexico many of us have very different political and spiritual views. Yet we all agree that we will be there for each other in emergencies. At least every quarter I host dinner parties that bring people together around good food and shared love of the land. I know I can show up at a neighbor’s house, or they can show up at mine, if we need anything. This type of local weaving is critical. Also find online groups that nourish you.
Call / reach out to your friends that are most impacted / vulnerable
Your trans friend, your neighbor who works for the national park service or any government organization impacted by DOGE, any young woman or person of color or disabled or veteran or queer or human impacted by haphazard and harmful politics: reach out. Ask how they are. Listen. Let them know you care.Lean into more joy and play. MORE ART!
Get your art supplies out and create something. Set an alarm or make a regular date with yourself to go to a museum, send a card to friends, take photographs that make you happy, do a craft. If you can, set up a space in your house dedicated to play / creating art. I have a little table set up for making seed balls, which I do before bed. I also just signed myself up for an eight-week pottery class in Santa Fe. YUMMMMM.
More resources to share:
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
https://www.crisistextline.org/
— please share others in the comments
Media sources:
Pick one more more; I’m sharing the FB and Substack links. All of these can be accessed for free, or as a paid subscriber
Heather Cox Richardson
Letters from an American
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson
Substack:
Joyce Vance
Civil Discourse
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoyceWhiteVanceLaw
Substack:
Dan Rather
Steady
The Contrarian
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61571811085909
Substack:
The Atlantic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAtlantic
Website: https://www.theatlantic.com
— please share others in the comments
Sending you waves of friendship, hugs and support from France. I may not be a US citizen but I feel concerned about all of my friends that are going through this and its ripple effects. I stand with all of you 🫶🏽
I have read and reread this article. I can't tell you how much freedom it has brought me to be able to combine my spiritual world with the political world that is swirling around us. I can finally feel like my gifts can be helpful in ways I wasn't aware or sure. Thank you for sharing your go-to supports. It helps me immensely.