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| ISSUE NO. 693 |
| "THE ONLY SUREFIRE WAY TO EASE SUFFERING MAY BE . . . to not be in a hurry." We're getting our inspiration today from the words of Elizabeth Scanlon, editor in chief of the American Poetry Review. As we wrote last week, one of the gifts of specificity is the ability to focus in on the tiny details that matter most. Moving slowly is the sister of focus - a version of stopping time by expanding it to a sense of endless abundance. There are many harmful pitfalls to hurrying, or urgency, and often we think of those things that overwhelm our senses - a honking car horn, a person fidgeting with agitation at a checkout counter, or someone yelling at a customer service agent. But this week we're thinking about a different form of hurrying...the kind that fuels judgment and criticism over awareness and action. Author Sim Kern offered a perspective on this with their instagram post asking 'who does our anger serve?' In a week that has seemed surreal in its serving of the unexpected, the painful, as well as the reminders of all that is still beautiful and joyful in the world, work like Kern's helps to center me, along with Nikki Blak's newsletter, so overflowing with wisdom that I wanted to dedicate some space to her words here. Recently, Blak wrote, "Every single human being on the planet is capable of the deepest, darkest evils and the most beautiful, expansive expressions of love...[but] if certain people and things are automatically "bad" and certain people and things are automatically "good," then we will never be willing to examine what is happening, ask why it is happening, and make changes." The awareness needed to do what she is calling us in to do is hard to find when we are acting with urgency. When we are hurrying to find an outlet for the internal feelings that we really need to stop and spend time with, we run into a problem. In Blak's words, "The problem is that you've turned the distraction of other people's apathy into your problem to solve when the solution is actually the work you will do in liberation." There is no one alive and in community with us who does not deserve to feel at least a little bit of ease from their suffering. We invite you to expand your perception of what it means to hurry, so that you can find more ways in your week to slow down. We invite you to trust yourself, and the center of power you'll find within when you get specific and move slowly, to do the work that gets us all free. You can learn more from Nikki Blak by joining the Wayfinder Activism Incubator, an anti-racism and liberation program that empowers you to go from small steps in allyship to a full sprint toward activism. Learn more here. In community, Tay + Dor |
tidbits...resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . |
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