Friends,

I feel so alive and embodied when I am moving through space. Tears of joy on an adventure. Seeing Sintra in Portugal, arriving at the top of a long hill in Seattle, soaking in the beautiful mountain vistas of Prescott, AZ. Walking to the coffee shop in an unknown town, passing some beautiful gardens, hearing children playing in a schoolyard, admiring the sight line between buildings, a breathtaking pair of Madrona trees. My friend Eddie Lee Sausage calls it drifting. Andre Breton and the Surrealists associated walking around aimlessly with arriving at a dream state. I like to tap into the present through motion. 

What is helping you feel your aliveness?

I refuse to deny my death or your death, or the simple mortality of all creatures. We lost two beautiful humans this past week, Andrea Gibson and Joanna Macy. I aim to honor their dazzling humanity with my own, every single day. 

Walking around almost always reminds me of my own tentative aliveness. Anything is possible with my big beautiful life. The unwrapping of a much-anticipated gift. The moment when my life reveals herself to me. The world hands us open doors, archways, magical paths, ocean vistas, ferries and trains, cobblestone streets. Such a cornucopia of mysteries and possibilities. 

What if white supremacy culture// racialized capitalism // modernity is precisely an attempt to keep up from anticipating and living side by side with the inevitability of our own deaths? And we are poorer for it. We numb out on botox and fashion, cryptocurrency schemes, and expensive housewares while our one precious life beats on? 

What if undoing settler colonialism is about living with our deaths, our very normal mortality - like the fox, the chicken, the cicada? What shifts for you when you imagine our society embracing death, normalizing it rather than trying to profit from audacious attempts to keep us all living longer, embalming us even before our last heartbeat?

I spoke to a young man yesterday. He’s excited to sign up for my upcoming retreat, White People, My People.

His mom will give him a ride to the workshop and he wants her to stay for the workshop. 

“How do I engage with my mom so she will join me in the workshop?” His voice is calm, he’s been engaged with antiracism and white affinity space work for a while. I ask what motivated him at first. How can he share his motivations with her and tap into what is possibly motivating her?

Something catches my eye. The fluttering of wings catches my attention. Not a deer or a squirrel, regular front yard phenomena. No, these are feathers. And then, I see it;  I catch the red. Not a cardinal, as a matter of fact, this bird is huge. I stand up, still listening to the disaster inventory, but completely obsessed with this bird a few yards from my window. 

A pileated woodpecker, according to my neighbor. Amazing.  I want to capture a picture but the screen is making that impossible. I put myself on mute and I snap 1 picture before the bird takes off into my neighbor’s yard.

I breathe in and wonder about what we create together now. What can I make of this moment? 

What are you creating at this very moment? More ease? More space? Deeper connections. You have the agency to create the relationships you want. 

Poem of the Month

Asking Too Much

By Andrea Gibson

I want you to tell me about every person you’ve ever been in love with

Tell me why you loved them,

then tell me why they loved you

Tell me about a day in your life you didn’t think you’d live through

Tell me what the word “home” means to you

And tell me in a way that I’ll know your mother's name

just by the way you describe your bedroom when you were 8

See, I wanna know the first time you felt the weight of hate

And if that day still trembles beneath your bones

Do you prefer to play in puddles of rain

or bounce in the bellies of snow?

And if you were to build a snowman, would you rip two branches from a tree

to build your snowman arms?

Or would you leave the snowman armless for the sake of being harmless to the tree?

And if you would, would you notice how that tree weeps for you

because your snowman has no arms to hug you every time you kiss him on the cheek?

Do you kiss your friends on the cheek?

Do you sleep beside them when they’re sad,

even if it makes your lover mad?

Do you think that anger is a sincere emotion

or just the timid motion of a fragile heart trying to beat away its pain?

See, I wanna know what you think of your first name

And if you often lie awake at night and imagine your mother's joy when she spoke it for the very first time

I want you to tell me all the ways you’ve been unkind.

Tell me all the ways you’ve been cruel.

Tell me—knowing I often picture Gandhi at ten years old beating up little boys at school.

If you were walking by a chemical plant, where smoke stacks

were filling the sky with dark, black clouds, would you holler, “Poison! Poison! Poison!” really loud or would whisper,

“That cloud looks like a fish, and that cloud looks like a fairy”?

Do you believe that Mary was really a virgin?

Do you believe that Moses really parted the sea?

And if you don’t believe in miracles,

tell me, how would you explain the miracle of my life to me?

Provocations and Nourishment

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Op-Ed: The Left Can Defeat the Rising Tide of Fascism

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Trans Legislation Tracker

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Trans Legislation Tracker

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Death Denial, Human Supremacy, and Ecological Crisis: Indigenous and Euro- American Perspectives

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The Love & Justice Quarterly Subscription Box

Each season, Love & Justice subscribers will get a box of BIPOC hand-crafted whimsy, and an invitation to connect to discuss the enclosed book. 

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Upcoming Opportunities

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Last call for Northern California White People, My People! Don’t miss out on beautiful Kenwood, CA, and the chance to be IN PERSON!

More information here.

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HRC | Count Me In - Fight Anti-trans Bills

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SURJ Actions

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Jewish Voice for Peace Actions

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Othering & Belonging Institute

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Othering & Belonging Institute

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Toward Justice,

Evangeline