Resistance Roundup

seeking out wholeness in the world

Friends,

First, I want to thank all of you who participated in a poem a day in the month of may. It was absolutely lovely, and I can tell from the way you responded to one another’s poetry that it was a really special place.

Thank you for joining me here for all the things, and I hope you’ll stick around as we head into summer.

I’m thinking a lot about what writing will look like for me this summer, as we’ve just transitioned to a new home and I am trying to feel grounded after a really busy season.

So I thought one way we could stay connected is through a resistance roundup, a weekly list of a few people, places, stories, and words that inspire me to keep resisting.

We all live in our own little worlds, making ripple effects wherever we can. I hope that you’ve bought my book Living Resistance, and if you haven’t, here’s the link to order.

I write about how resistance happens on the micro and the macro—in the everyday personal parts of our lives, families, and communities, but also on the large level institutionally. It’s all connected, and we cannot take one without the other.

Every day I’m inspired by something. Every day I experience some moment that keeps me going, keeps me living into what resistance means to me.

So I hope the resistance roundup can inspire you, too, and I encourage you to share your own ideas of resistance in the comments every week! This is a community through words and stories, and we need each other.

Onward into the beautiful resistance of summer!

1. This film by Eddie Bauer represents what is happening for deaf folks in the climbing community, sharing the incredible work of Sonya Wilson, who advocates for deaf climbers so that we can learn to challenge ableism within our communities. Please watch it sometime, and follow her on Instagram.

2. I’m currently reading Maggie Smiths’ memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, and I haven’t read a book like this in a while, one that makes me want to write, to get still and put words to paper, to examine my own life and story from various lenses and ask what sticks. Grab your copy here.

3. It’s Indigenous History Month in Canada, and my friend Asha Frost recently released a beautiful oracle deck reflecting her own Indigenous heritage and stories. You can grab one here.

   

4. There’s an important event happening in just a few days, and I want you to know about it for a number of reasons. Here 4 the Kids is gathering thousands of women (especially white women) in Denver on June 5th to protest gun violence against children and to put pressure on Colorado governor Jared Polis.

   Fred Joseph writes about it below if you want to learn more, and please visit their website and see if you can either make it to the event or support them in other ways. This is an important moment in using our voices to create change, and it’s a huge part of what resistance is all about.

   Betting On Morality Against Guns

   

   And lastly, here’s an excerpt from Living Resistance as you head into your weekend:

When I came home from running errands one day, I heard a loud buzzing beside the sliding glass door that leads to the deck. Finally, I spotted a large bumble bee who had been trying to get back outside to the flowers. The bee didn’t understand that there was something between their body and the flowers outside, and I cannot imagine how frustrating it must have been for that little creature, stuck in our house, hungry and thirsty. I let the bee out the door. And then, not an hour later, there was another one, this time hovering by the floor and eventually making it over to those same deck doors to freedom.

After they’d both been successfully returned to the outdoors, I sat on the couch wondering about the difficulty of knowing exactly what you need yet not being able to get to it. Whether it’s subconscious or fully in our awareness, we have a desperate need for connection, belonging, and healing as human beings—it’s just wired into who we are.

During COVID, many of us experienced the world behind a mask, in our homes, behind the glass, to stay safe. We longed to get to the other side, to get back to each other, back to meals around tables, friends in homes, playdates for the kids, live concerts. We longed for what we needed, but we had to keep the masks on and the distance from one another in order to keep each other safe. Maybe the bees stuck in my house will remember that one time they couldn’t get home, the hours spent smashing themselves against a barrier that would not let them through; but maybe they won’t remember any of it, and they’ll just go about their bee lives, doing what they need to do to survive.

The lifelong work of resistance often feels like we are slamming our bodies, minds, and spirits up against barriers that will never come down. Every now and then, we get to the other side—we achieve what we were hoping to achieve, we protect waters and lands from corporations, we experience real equity, we dismantle or change an unjust institution, or we notice those in power finally releasing some control. But that’s not often the case. Often, we’re struggling, hoping that someone else will come along and open that damn door so we can be free. This is where we remember that the lifelong work of resistance will look different for each of us, with that same goal of love, justice, peace, and connectedness for all at the center.