Dear Friend,
This past month has been a bit of a slog. I am pooped out.
We arrived at the final day of March and there I was providing the March Ratcheteer with just hours to spare.
It’s interesting to be a person who studies thriving in a time like this, when the call for protection and survival is so deep it vibrates in my bones.
At the same time, a large part of what resources people through struggle is hope, and hope is an abundance practice—a practice that enables thriving.
We are surviving, yes, but we are also building something other than perpetual cycles of threat, trauma, and pain.
Courage
This moment has me thinking about courage. The courage to face down hoses and dogs. The courage to walk the bridge. The courage to speak up anyway. The courage to refuse. The courage to BE. What makes us brave?
Here’s what Audre Lorde had to say in 1977:
“For to survive in the mouth of this dragon we call America, we have had to learn this first and most vital lesson–that we were never meant to survive. Not as human beings. And neither were most of you here today, Black or not. And that visibility which makes you most vulnerable is also our greatest strength. Because the machine will try to grind us into dust anyway, whether or not we speak. We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and ourselves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned, we can sit in our safe corners as mute as bottles, and still we will be no less afraid.”
Many of us know what it feels like to place ourselves out front advocating for something or someone only to look to either side and find no one else there. Oof.
Nevertheless, many of us would do it again, though perhaps with greater wisdom or skill... I know who and what I am fighting for. And I know why. (gestures widely at history repeating itself)
Even so, even with the courage of our convictions, when the threats are very big, we need to fight collectively. We need models. We need a plan. We need each other. Community fuels courage.
And whenever I learn about a new atrocity, I know that action is the medicine that will keep my spirit intact, so focus feeds courage, too.
We’re in a moment of reckoning. Every good thing we’ve taken for granted is under threat, including the very air we breathe. So, what do we do?
Models
Here, I turn to the wisdom of seasoned activists: Dean Spade, Kelly Hayes, Mariame Kaba, and Mimi Kim. Between Spade’s Mutual Aid, Hayes & Kaba’s Let this Radicalize You, and Kim’s Creative Interventions Toolkit, we have a powerful starting point for figuring out not just WHAT to do, but also HOW to do it together.
And the authors have put out free workbooks and reading guides and toolboxes (linked below) to reduce barriers to access.
Also, here’s a seven-minute video explaining “What is Mutual Aid?”:
This time IS overwhelming. The stress IS intense. BUT, we have agency, we have choices, and we have power.
I hope this note shores up your relief, abundance mindset, and sense of community as you design for thriving—even in these times.
With love,
Dr. Kia