Dears!

Zoom in. See the very granular habits of your day. I observe myself wiping down the really sharp Japanese knife and replacing it in the drawer as soon as I've used it. How I make my pour over looking out the window, how the light hits the little statue girl and the stone wall. How I feel watching my son’s back as he walks to the bus stop for a fixed number of remaining days. The way the wind has dropped 1 million pine needles on my patio., I stand barefoot, breathing in dawn and sense both the soft and the prickle. 

In the texture of the rock, you can see the dialogue between you and a loved one. Listen to your very own self-talk, the particular way you hold your hips when you stand at the farmer's market, holding fresh beets. This is how I slow down, how I center in the midst of it all. What am I touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, seeing?

In Iceland this past week, I took in such abundant & outstanding nature! When I walk in the dawn light, I zoomed in, noticed the multicolored lichen, orange and then light green. Fields of mossy rocks, each one an ecosystem, a thousand-year-old growth peppered the black lava rocks. The wild blueberries are turning yellow, showing off the reddish brown bark. I see the V of white geese fly across the valley, following the river. This is my human moment. In the quiet. Zoomed in to breath and body. 

And

On the flip side, I stood in valleys with no end in sight. Waterfalls hundreds of yards below me, the noise of thousands of tons of water moving fast and hard. I ogled the snow-capped mountains hundreds of miles ahead. The impulse to hoot and howl. To imagine the life of a community on the other side of the ridge. Imagining us as a people after the establishment of safety and belonging for all. When the law serves the greater good, a vision of collective liberation. 

The valley seems endless now, and I admit so much ache and fatigue as I remember the valley of violence we belong to now. I gaze towards the mountains. How will we make it?

We will try new things

We will conquer our fears with community, by asking for help

We will zoom in when we need the assurance of heartbeat 

We will hold grace for each other’s quirks and vulnerabilities

We will speak truths kindly

We will forgive ourselves for the hard days, those shitty moments that suddenly grab us 

Find space to go microscopic and then also make an effort to see the vast. Practice what is less familiar. Celebrate your powers of perception. Zoom in and out as needed. 

Poem of the Month

Unpacking a Globe

By Arthur Sze

I gaze at the Pacific and don’t expect

to ever see the heads on Easter Island,

though I guess at sunlight rippling

the yellow grasses sloping to shore;

yesterday a doe ate grass in the orchard:

it lifted its ears and stopped eating

when it sensed us watching from

a glass hallway—in his sleep, a veteran

sweats, defusing a land mine.

On the globe, I mark the Battle of

the Coral Sea—no one frets at that now.

A poem can never be too dark,

I nod and, staring at the Kenai, hear

ice breaking up along an inlet;

yesterday a coyote trotted across

my headlights and turned his head

but didn’t break stride; that’s how

I want to live on this planet:

alive to a rabbit at a glass door—

and flower where there is no flower.

Copyright © 2015 by Arthur Sze. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 10, 2015, by the Academy of American Poets.

Provocations and Nourishment

Visioning for Democracy survey seeks respondents this month! Check out this crowdsourcing project by Cindy Ballaro and add your voice. 

This is a space to imagine what a healthy and thriving democracy could look like — one rooted in justice, inclusion, community, and hope.

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Justice Department Sues Uber Over Treatment of Riders with Disabilities 

Upcoming Opportunities

Support makers of color with a Subscription to Love & Justice, a seasonal box with beautiful artwork and delicious treats, all by makers of color. Each box also contains a book on a social justice topic. Subscribe soon and get your Winter Box in the new year! 

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The Courage to Lead: Funding Our Work Here and Now 

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Finding Freedom: White Women Taking On Our Own White Supremacy 

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The Institute for Radical Permission with adrienne maree brown and Sonya Renee Taylor!

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Ferments: Introduction to Kimchi

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Lead From Within: A Five-Week Series of Purposeful Practices for Present and Intentional Leadership

Toward Justice,

Evangeline