Questions not answers.

Y’all. I’ve taken the last few weeks off of WELLREAD to recover from a very intense few months…only to return to a very intense news cycle. It seems there is no letting up by the white supremacist patriarchy. But equally palpable is what is the energy that is emerging from the margins, flooding the streets, refusing to comply and go back to “normal”. Which leaves me with questions…

How do we harness the energy of resistance and resilience?

How do we balance raging against the machine and imagining new ways of being?

How do we not replicate the toxic patterns we’ve inherited?

How do we support one another in beloved community?

What is the commitment that we hold for the future that we all deserve?

Powerful questions like these are key to bringing about collective transformation. These are not questions that demand the right answers, validate the status quo or even aim to reform it. They are questions that engage people in ownership and co-creating the future that we all deserve.

“Either way, change will come. It could be bloody, or it could be beautiful. It depends on us”. Arundhati Roy

Kerri (she/her)

Art by @mindbodytherapy

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1. Dear White Women Cheering Iranian Women…So successful has white supremacist patriarchy been at convincing you that you’re lucky to live in the U.S. and not Saudi Arabia or Iran, that you didn’t see what was building right here at home. [click to tweet]

2. In search of democracy’s movement. Rachel Kleinfeld says we need a broad-based, multi-stranded, prodemocracy movement around a positive vision concretized in locally rooted action if we're going to change America's direction. [click to tweet]

3. A chance to cure America’s preexisting condition: extreme inequality. We are watching in real time trauma, federal incompetence, loss, and economic disruption that promises to get worse before it gets better. [click to tweet]

4. Obscene. CBO reports the richest 1% now owns over 1/3 of US wealth. This level of inequality is unsustainable. [click to tweet]

5. As White Supremacy Falls Down, White Nationalism Stands Up. Its time to revel in our role and responsibility as storytellers and strategists to create stories that provide an alternative to the belief in white, male superiority. [click to tweet]

Voting isn’t everything. We need to abolish the many industrial complexes that got us here. We need to detox from the ways we’ve been internalized the logics of oppression. We need to reparations and repair. We need mutual aid and community care. We need more than voting. But we also need to #vote. Because things could get much much worse. And we all deserve much much better.

What’s on the ballot? Local elections have the greatest impact on our lives; and yet 30% of people don’t vote down ballot. Look up your sample ballot here.

What’s at stake? The outcome of this year’s elections at every level — from state house to Senate — will determine whether any progressive priorities, not to mention American democracy itself, has a fighting chance going into 2024 and beyond. Here’s what you need to know about the year ahead and why it’s so important we protect these lines of defense ahead of our next election.

VOTEPROCHOICE: The legal right to abortion and reproductive freedom are on the ballot. Review endorsements from trusted sources to elect progressive, pro-choice leaders this election!

Do you have a plan to vote? Democracy isn’t democracy if the people don’t vote. Given the movement to disenfranchise voting, we’ve got our work cut out for us. One of the most important strategies to turn out the vote is to make sure everyone you know knows their local voting rules and makes a plan to vote. Vote.org has everything you need to vote.

Art by @wildhomegirl

When “not enough” becomes the default setting in our lives, it not only informs our lives, but informs how we perceive and serve others’ needs and wellbeing. The lack we feel within ourselves gets projected out onto everyone and everything else. Consider: how do you feel when peers get promoted? Do you compare your lifestyle to other people? Are you constantly dissatisfied by what you have and what you don’t? Are you waiting for the “right job” or the “right conditions” to do what is important to you?  The delusion of scarcity is one in which someone is either higher or lower, more or less, perfect or inadequate, enough or not enough. It pits us against one another - forcing us to compete and protect our piece of the pie. But no one loses anything when someone lives into their wholeness. It’s not a zero-sum game. We are simply human beings being human in a compromised world. (excerpt from American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal).

Join us TOMORROW for Perfectionists Anonymous - a virtual clinic exploring unlearning perfectionism and building a practice of resistance and reclaiming. September 29th, 12PST.

Art by @kkellyyoga

How we keep going. Check out Thrive East Bay’s “Beloved Community: A Journey in Bridging, Building and Belonging”. October 2022 - June 2023.

Art by @thriveeastbay

CTZN Meet up tomorrow! Thursday 7ET/4PT for a community of practice around the Equinox & Elections! Voting is a crucial part of collective care AND it isn’t the only thing. We’ll be asking the community what’s needed as we lean into midterms and mutual care.

CTZNWELL is community powered and crowd-sourced. That’s how we keep it real. Please consider joining us on Patreon for as little as $2/month so that we can keep doing the work of creating content that matters for CTZNs who care.