Love. Let’s lead with love. I love you, in all of your tenderness and complexity and vulnerability, strength and pain. Feel that love. Words are inadequate.

Yet words are what I have. Transformation feels slow. We move through cycles, change is not linear. Yet change comes. The oppressive structures that crush us are not invincible. We are.

Right now I am recalibrating where to push, what to call in, how to better align my frequency with the fecund ecosystem that is the movement(s) for liberation.

Those who the system privileges are being called to task. The violence that maintains inequitable power continues to be brought to light and challenged. Yet the system grinds on, producing the same results. The ache that this process causes is immense. How do we ingest the daily news? How do we use that shit to fertilize affirming alternatives?

The unraveling of this paradigm requires our engagement. The creation of a truly sustainable society calls for our honest and joyful effort.

Conversations are crucial. There are those around us who have yet to begin their journeys towards awareness and action. We know white people, men, straight people, able-bodied people, et al who need to hear and process the truth. We know the truths we are still processing. Let’s be kind, firm, bold, and brave with ourselves and others. We can be voices for the shifts that can free us all.

I see you doing the work. May you continue to find ways to care for yourself while fighting like hell for everyone to be cared for.

I believe in us.

Bonus

Need some fuel for your fire? Read “Report: Recommendations For Us Right Now From A Future” by adrienne maraee brown for SubLevel Mag. For real, read it and drink it in.

Community notes

This is a busy season for me, as I have been working on two great projects for October I’m pleased to share with you.

The first is the CPC Annual Gathering coming up on Saturday, October 13, which I am assisting with. It’s been such a profound honor to have the chance to work more closely with the amazing, visionary, thoughtful, non-hierarchical team that is the Center for Participatory Change. They are in the midst of hiring new co-directors, who will be announced soon. A long time fan of CPC, I am excited to witness the next phase of their organization. I expect nothing less than more collective amazingness. The CPC Annual Gathering is for participants, staff, board, supporters, and donors to CPC. Click here for details and to RSVP. Can’t make the gathering? You can always make a donation.

Once again, I am helping to produce the African Americans in WNC & Southern Appalachia Conference. This year’s conference, the 5th Annual, will be held October 18, 19, & 20. There will be a lot of illuminating content packed into those three days, I encourage you to attend what you can! This year’s planning committee came up with the theme “Making the Invisible Visible,” which I think summarizes the underlying goal of the conference nicely. All events are free to attend, with advance registration requested. Click here for details and to register.

Closing

As always, thanks for reading and caring. Special thanks to the donors and Patreon patrons who help to make these posts possible.

If you live in Asheville and are looking for places to connect with your neighbors, check out my events calendar, which, while incomplete, has some good stuff on it.

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