We Belong to Each Other

kinship over colonialism

Hi friends,

I’m writing today to share some community resources for this week and next, plus some words that I hope land right in your space, your heart, with your community.

I’m sharing a bit more than I do lately, because, well, you’re my community. And I hope, in some way, this space helps you funnel your energy somewhere. It’s loud out there. It’s loud on the news and on social media.

And it should be, because we’re on fire.

But there are things we can do—remember how Rumi puts it:

Stay in the spiritual fire. Let it cook you.

So we stay, and we honor the fight and the fire, and we keep getting cooked together.

If anything, The Liminality Journal is a space where we can sit in the liminality of this moment, name what hurts, and find ways to move forward, too. So that’s what we’re doing here today.

First, events + resources:

This first one is a resource for parents and/or caregivers of children in school. On Friday, January 30th, we are keeping our kids home from school. Now, we have the privilege to be able to do so; I know many parents cannot strike on Friday. If you can’t, I get it.

For those who can, and if you’re in a community that doesn’t have an opportunity for a school walkout, we’ve shared a resource through the Aki Institute, a template for the email you can send to your school.

Please share this resource anywhere you can. And if you share on Instagram, please tag us! @ Akiinstitute (and follow us! begin to spread the word!)

Text for the letter is below, for easy copying:

Hello,

My child (insert name and grade) will not be attending school this Friday, January 30th. We are participating as a family in the national strike against ICE and the Trump administration in solidarity with all who have been killed by ICE or affected by their violence across this nation.

We believe participating in this action on Friday is one thing we can do to practice kinship and solidarity with those around us in a dangerous time for our country. 

Thank you for your understanding.

Next, I want you to know about the first of a few online FREE events, geared toward those in Minnesota or other areas being affected by police/ICE violence. I’ll announce the other free gatherings once they’re in my calendar.

Sunday, Feb 1st 11am-12pm ET

This is a space for grief and care; we will share, journal, and sit with one another in kinship. It is for our souls, for our rest.

If you need that, please come.

Last, I’m hosting an online storytelling and sharing space next Friday, February 6th.

This is a two-hour long creative writing workshop, for folks who want to come and explore storytelling as a community.

Please join us.

Now, a word on kinship over colonialism.

In my book Living Resistance I explore what kinship means, how it works:

Kinship can feel like a very abstract thing, but imagine it like this: I have a string attached to my body, to my heart center, and it goes directly from my heart to yours, and to every other living creature on this planet, to Mother Earth herself. Whatever I do with this heart, with this body, affects you; it travels across that thread and finds its way to you. And whatever you do or embody travels to me, to the ants, to Grandmother Moon, to someone across the world we’ve never met.

We do not get to escape each other, no matter how colonized or traumatized we may be. This is kinship.

We are in a moment when we have the opportunity to ask what it means to be kin to one another. The subject of kinship is belonging. It’s the reality that we can’t escape one another.

And if we truly believe that reality, we live differently. We are affected differently. We show up differently.

Last night I had a dream. I was at someone’s house, and the freezer was overflowing with ice (ice—get it?). We were all trying to figure out how to stop the ice. We couldn’t get the ice maker to calm down.

So I went into the kitchen and grabbed some containers to help catch the ice. I filled up two bowls. I couldn’t totally fix the problem, but I came up with a solution for the moment. We did it together in community.

Now, we know what it will take to stop ICE and Trump’s authoritarianism. Something has to change. Senators and other politicians need to show up. We need to reject funding. We need to keep speaking up.

Until that happens, in the meantime? We grab every goddamn bowl we can find to catch the ice, to keep it from overflowing all over the place. We step in to see and name the problem, and we join our efforts together in any way we can.

Solving the problem matters. It’s necessary.

But along the way, helping is necessary, too.

Choosing kinship over colonialism means getting enraged, sad, grief-stricken over not just the current state of our nation but the foundations it’s been built upon.

Then we pause and take a deep breath. We look into our own souls and ask what the work for us to do looks like.

Then we find the right ways to do the work. We help.

Right now you’re here, being part of this community. You’re looking your soul, our souls, in the face and asking who we really want to be in the world.

Let’s keep doing that. Let’s choose community. Let’s show up.

Photo by Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash

Thank you for being here. Please become a subscriber if you’re not already. This is an incredible community, and we’d love for you to be part of it.

If you have other resources to share for the time we are living in, please share in the comments.