Congratulations, you are alive
Helping Friendly Newsletter, 06.20.25
This issue is dedicated to everyone celebrating Juneteenth this week and Pride this month. May we discover ever more solidarity on the road to liberation for all.
GM! ☕️
Here are this fortnight’s 5 things to consider:
From mass deportation, to authoritarian displays, to troops on city streets, to divisive rhetoric, to war signals, to cruel decisions and more, our political situation in the U.S. is tragic and simply wrong. I know you know, so I’m not here to rant. However, I do want to come alongside you to name it and lament.
“I am learning to lament, to mourn, to weep with those who weep, to take our shared sadness and bewilderment into my own soul too. It’s okay to feel it. It’s okay and it’s necessary, it’s holy and good work.” —Sarah Bessey, Out of Sorts
Even as we activate and give each other reasons to hope, it’s normal to struggle. If you feel overwhelmed, distressed, angry, afraid, frustrated, fatigued, or even unsure, you’re not alone—and, congratulations, you are alive. These are all sane and sacred human responses to harm and loss.
I don’t have an elixir, but I do overflow with gratitude to all who are showing up and speaking out. Whether whisper or roar, your voice is essential—and your acts of care, however humble, will endure. Remember this: No billionaire can buy out tenderness, and no strongman can crush the kinship of living things.
I’m hearing good things about Hilary Giovale’s new book, Becoming a Good Relative. Her work invites white folks onto a path of repair that involves exploring Indigenous European roots, understanding legacies of harm, breaking patterns of silence, and making a plan for personal reparations.
How to curate your personal canon: “It’s not handed down from universities or intellectuals…It’s not necessarily a list of favorites or even the best works you’ve consumed. Sometimes it might include works that you’ve struggled with or even disliked, but what’s important is that they stayed with you in a meaningful way. Your personal canon reflects your intellectual and creative foundation, the influences that have formed your worldview, guided your thinking, or left a permanent mark on you.”
Jennifer McShane’s documentary The Quilters tells a humanizing story of restorative justice through an incarcerated men’s quilting group in a Missouri maximum security prison. These men are dedicated, they’re finding purpose against bleak odds, and they sew beautiful keepsakes that bring warmth both to themselves as makers and to the children who receive them as gifts. “Art and meaning can be found in the most unlikely of places.”
A classic. Go do the thing.
DEAR ABBY: I am a 36-year-old college dropout whose lifelong ambition was to be a physician. I have a very good job selling pharmaceutical supplies, but my heart is still in the practice of medicine. I do volunteer work at the local hospital on my time off, and people tell me I would have made a wonderful doctor.
If I go back to college and get my degree, then go to medical school, do my internship and finally get into the actual practice of medicine, it will take me seven years! But, Abby, in seven years I will be 43 years old. What do you think? —UNFULFILLED IN PHILLY
DEAR UNFULFILLED: And how old will you be in seven years if you don’t go to medical school?
SOLSTICE BLESSINGS
The ☀️ in me honors the ☀️ in you.
PAID SUBS, I am still collecting addresses for a bit longer.
Paid subs, I would love to send you some analog fun this summer. I’m still deciding what that will be—maybe a zine? a cool sticker? a postcard, or some combo? If this sounds like a welcome surprise, hit reply to send me your snail mail address or DM it to me on Substack.
✨ ICYMI ✨
Spiral in, spiral out
5 things to consider: mental modes, books, AI, self-compassion, and joyful noise.
Thank you for reading! This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 To support it, you can upgrade to a paid subscription, share this post, or engage my services. You can learn more about my work at jenniferlphillips.com.
Peace,
Jenny
P.S. yes, please 😴👇
