Planting new worlds

Greetings all my loves, I hope you’re hanging in there.

Real talk: I am one of many freelance, contractors in the wellness & yoga world currently experiencing all workshops, classes, teachings CANCELED! I’m privileged in that I still am able to work from home a bit with my community organizing position, and my sweetie also works from home doing computer-related engineering work.

All this said, thanks to the generosity of our loved ones (and gotta send love to our own damn-resourceful practices) we are safe and well and home with the pups and kitten, and in the extra time what I'm noticing is this:

Between the widespread fear, the travel bans, the lockdowns and separation from loved ones much of the world is now navigating circumstances oppressed, & colonized communities across the globe experience regularly.

It’s being exposed now that the government can put a stop on evictions, that housing is (and always has been) healthcare, that our economic system is fragile to the point of needing to aggressively move trillions of dollars around because of a microbe that we saw coming a long time ago.

A lot of people are beginning to wake up and recognize that the nation-state does not provide a safety net for so many people, and that the United States government’s response to COVID-19 has only deepened pre-existing hierarchies that make people vulnerable to premature death.

For so many generations people have been fighting for a world in which universal basic income, universal health care, and other functioning social systems exist. As addrienne marie brown says, “we can never teach how evil a thing is better than it will show us itself, with time.”

It is showing us what was previously invisiblized, hidden, normalized.

I am here for the swell in mutual aid efforts, connecting to pods from afar and care practices centering folks most vulnerable during this time; and I feel the worlds we have been dreaming take shape. These times are uncertain, but we have the skills and collective resources to get through to the other side more resilient and conscious of our interconnectedness. Check in virtually or by phone, share food and funds if possible, and wash your hands.

One way to strengthen our immune systems and stop panic and hoarding is by getting grounded with the tools we have available. To this cause and for your pleasure, I will be sharing some brief meditations and movement practice via email newsletter, and if you'd like to stay connected and go in on some free goodies, please subscribe!