Dear Friend,
I was chatting with someone recently. He was talking about his work to facilitate Black boy joy. I was yapping about human thriving (as I do). He remarked that he wasn’t sure he’d ever been able to thrive. I nodded. Our world has certainly been designed to get in the way of that.
But, as we continued to talk, he brought up his daughter. When he talked about her, I could feel sunshine spill through my computer screen, so I asked him...
“When you get playtime with your daughter, do you feel a sense of true belonging? Powerful connection?”
“Yes,” he said.
“And since you two both love to nerd out on science, do you feel like you get to be your true self? Is your identity affirmed? Does it feel like you get to be creative, honest, joyful? Do you experience any sense of relief? Do you feel whole and uncontested?”
"Yes, yes, yes, and yes."
“That sounds like a moment of thriving,” I said.
He paused. And he smiled.
I call my framework a Bridge to Thriving because life will take us back and forth between vibrancy, wholeness, and flourishing, and difficulty, despair, and survival. We don’t just “arrive” at thriving and call it day (alas).
Sometimes we’re doing great in some areas and not others. It comes and it goes. BUT, we also live in a world that can make us over-focus on survival and that gets in the way of designing something better.
The invitation of a focus on thriving is to unapologetically claim our right to do it, redirect our energy, and take action accordingly.
That might mean setting up mutual aid networks in your local community. Maybe it’s leaving big chalk outside next to your little free library full of children's books. It’s dancing at the Ball Saturday and protesting Monday. The possibilities are literally endless.
Right now, as our world is shaking apart, and we get to build something new in real time, grounding our efforts in an inclusive, collective right to thrive feels crucially important… clean air, clean water, accessibility, liberation, a future...
This newsletter will be a source of provocation and, hopefully, inspiration—my contribution to a growing movement. I hope you find it valuable. I hope it helps you thrive.
Let’s dream defiantly together.
With love,
Dr. Kia