Heart out in front, feel your way

The sunset in Durham, North Carolina last week when I was out to dinner with friends. I had a peanut butter fudge milkshake (along with actual dinner).

Here are a couple phrases I’ve been saying / hearing lately:

“The world is on fire”

“We just have to keep going”

Makes sense; shit is really scary. I especially get it when I think about the individual person saying the phrase: maybe they’re increasingly struggling with rent or they’re afraid of legal repercussions for their gender. Or maybe they’re just in a personal struggle, like a fight with a friend.

It feels good, for a little while, to say “the world is on fire.” It actually expresses the terror and rage of our internal worlds.

There’s also danger in normalizing this as small talk unaccompanied by actual vulnerable conversation. It doesn’t feel good for very long to only say “the world is on fire.”

Ditto “We have to just keep going.” That sounds grueling, like a machine running with no oil in its gears.

Here are other things I’ve said / heard lately:

“I’m going to get off social media”

“I’m boycotting X corporation”

I’m a triple fire sign and movement always feels better to me than stagnancy, regardless of if it’s having any meaningful impact, so if my choices are “the world is on fire” and “I can try to solve everything,” I’ll choose the latter. Getting off social media and boycotting billionaire corporations are great ways to feel like we’re actually doing something. But if it feels like we’re doing it out of guilt, that’s not quite right either.

We’re not going to have a successful paradigm shift through defeat or forcing ourselves forward.

S0 what the actual fuck do we do instead?

Here’s a lesson we can learn from longtime social justice organizers :

It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and collective organizing takes patience and diligence over time.

As an artist and energy worker, intellectual approaches to organizing only get me so far. I need felt, creative pathways to access hope and change.

And lists, as you may have noticed.

Here are some creative things to do to find a way forward:

Have longer conversations about emotions and fears

Meditate.

Put your face against a tree trunk

Make art that expresses your internal reality

Talk about what makes you hopeful, with yourself and others

These kinds of actions (and they are actions, impactful and sacred) bring us solutions through gradual opening and discovery, not thinking. While our brains can bring us all the ingredients for a beautiful revolutionary stew, the water that melds them is openness to the universe and each other.

If this way of talking speaks to you, I’m so happy to have found each other. It can feel hard to to be energy-linguists in an intellectual culture. I want to spend more time with kindred spirits to remember that our job of translating energetic realities and connecting people is just as important as the journalism and protests. If you want this too, or if you simply want to find ways to gather meaningfully, read on.

I am forming, with a friend, a group of people who gather to:

Vulnerably share emotional realities within this scary world moment

Witness collective experiences of anger and powerlessness to feel connected and see what emerges

Vision for a collective future rooted in care

If you want in (the group will likely have in person and virtual options), email me at isabel@yourvillagewitch.com and say, “I want in!” If you’re not quite ready yet for group action, my email inbox is always open to hear your responsive thoughts 1-1. For realsies.

Love,

Isabel

Village Witch’s Corner

My intention this week : 

Create so much spaciousness that clarity flows in.

Question(s) I'm asking this week:

What can I discover in the void? What discovers me in the void?

What I’m reading:

Jawbone, by Monica Ojeda, translated by Sarah Booker. If I’ve already mentioned it, I’m still reading it. It’s a beautiful, weird exploration of girlhood, mothers and daughters, and the very human obsession over creepy things.

Tiny Spell of the Week:

Give my brain space to be, not do, and see what emerges.