Write with me tomorrow (Saturday, 11/14, 2-3:30pm PST): Register here for my monthly mini-writing workshop.
Both events are free, for real. Come byā¦
big exhaleā¦
Here is what Iām sitting with this morning:
Saturdayās moment of catharsis when the AP finally called the election was overwhelming jubilation followed by the deepest exhaustion Iāve felt in years. Weāve been through so much. And not just this year, eitherāthese past four years. These past many past lifetimes. And even this time of exhale and release is shadowed by the truth that we are not yet to the other side, maybe we arenāt even all that close to the other side, maybeāprobably, absolutelyāthe other side is not yet even visible on the horizon.
And, āā¦weāve paused this precipitous descent,ā as our friend AOC reminds us. And, we keep swimming. We are out of the white water. Things are slightly smoother but weāll be in these deep waters for a long time.
I want to remind us that we are human animals living in bodies. What is coming through to me today is the urgency of rest, of shoring up our reserves, of deepening into our relationship to ourselves and our people, even if it has to be over the phone, or in handwritten notes, or yeah, Zoom. Of reaching out when typically weād hunker down and isolate. Of drinking plenty of water. Of pausing and slowing down. Of being exquisitely careful with where we are placing our attention. Of allowing the intelligence of the body to step forward.
Body doesnāt lie. So often I find myself inside the striving, forcing, doing, my head running the whole thing, completely cut off from everything below my neck. But there is so much intelligence inside my skin, muscles, bones, viscera. When I slow down and listen, I know what to do.
What is your animal body telling you?
Mine is telling me to eat certain foods. To go the hell to sleep at 9pm if I am tired (and lately I am so so tired). To press pause on a big website project - to feel my way through it instead of push-push-pushing a tight timeline. To say no. To not run so hard (I mean that literally - Iām practicing more yoga than I have in months in lieu of my morning runs). To wash my face and brush my teeth - to floss! To read BOOKS, yum, delicious. To plan how and where I will place myself in service, instead of flailing around the surface of the million things clamoring for my attention and never going deep inside of anything. To be the absolute most present and generous friend and sister and daughter and cousin and lover and CITIZEN I can be.
Whatās coming through for you, my loves? šš½ Share below, please.
We need to do a lot of anti-racist, deep canvassing in this country. Because if we keep losing white shares and just allowing Facebook to radicalize more and more elements of white voters and the white electorate, thereās no amount of people of color and young people that you can turn out to offset thatā¦
Thereās a lot of magical thinking in Washington, that this is just about special people that kind of come down from on high. Year after year, we decline the idea that they did work and ran sophisticated operations in favor of the idea that they are magical, special people. I need people to take these goggles off and realize how we can do things better.
āš½ I might have to read this one about 17 more times to really get it but also, as someone very much in the business of confessional writing, this helped me examine my motivationsā¦never a bad thing, you know?
š¤³š¾ Instagram is dead. Yāall I am DIGGING the social media push-back Iām seeing all over the everywheres these days.
š¾ Speaking of: āFacebook Has Always Been Right-Wing Media.ā Oh how I long for the days when FB was nothing more than inane status updates and soft-focus photos of your beach vacation.
š¤ Ugh. If there was one link this week I would wrap in a tortilla and eat, itās this one. āI donāt know what joy sounds like to you, but joy tells me this:Ā Youāre exactly where you need to be. Thank you for following the devastating, scary clues that led you here. Thank you for feeling this magic across your skin, behind your eyes, inside the cage of your teeth. Trusting this path is your whole job. You donāt need to get anywhere. This is enough.ā
š¤øš½āāļø She also wrote this one if you just want to go ahead and lean into the waterworks. āJoy is waiting for you under the floorboards like Poeās telltale heart.ā I mean, jaysus.
š± Speaking of Jaysus: Iām not a religious person but you all know I love me some Nadia: āBullies, John the Baptist, and Narcissists as Nothin' But a Footnoteā
I love you too, Dani. Thanks for putting it out there.
thanks for being so present, Ted.
Love this thank you Dani. I signed up for a deep canvassing shift! eek! <3
you go, Sweetland <3 Love love love this.