The preposition is *through*
Helping Friendly Newsletter, 05.03.24
GM! ☕️
Here are this fortnight’s 5 things to consider:
A new podcast, We Are the Great Turning, has captured my heart. Buddhist teacher and climate advocate Joanna Macy, who is 95, pairs with 35-year-old kindred spirit Jessica Serrante to present what they openly discuss as Macy’s final offering to the world. Their conversations are an unflinching reckoning with death and grief—for Macy, for each of us, and for the planet. “My preposition these days is through. Honey, we’re going to have to go through this.”1 Prepare to cry healthy tears.
Elsewhere in podcast-land, Glennon Doyle, Amanda Doyle, and Abby Wambach discuss unhooking from busy-ness. “If you feel like everything is a flat gray to-do list…if you wake up and your day and your life are constantly outsourced to a schedule…if you don’t even know how anymore to check in with yourself to find out what you want and need and feel,” then this is a place to start. The episode provides a good map of the inner landscape and cultural pressures. To break free from busy-ness is neither easy nor risk free, but it is possible.
Two critical perspectives on meaningful work: Erin Cech (The Trouble with Passion) gave a thought-provoking interview on purpose, exploitation, and burnout. And, Stanford Social Innovation Review covered new research on the connection between heroic work and exploitation.
The potential for passion to be exploited—either the passion of workers who have it, or by expecting workers to perform it—was a deep-cutting finding that led to my own reckoning with my perspectives about work. It forced me to think critically about how my passion for my own work might have been a blinder to processes of inequality... I also had to come to terms with my own overwork… Even more than that, the research demanded that I ask myself, “who would I be, what is my identity, outside my line of work?” — Erin Cech
How to listen: The urge to rush in and fix someone’s problem can be a sign of our own discomfort. The alternative, “staying with the trouble,” is tough, but it goes a long way towards making folks feel seen and supported.2 (Related: How to do nothing.)
I found this old profile of Charles Schulz so relaxing that I went to the library for The Complete Peanuts. “All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.”
Brain bonus
If you are someone whose vocation involves deep work, or for whatever reason you want to strengthen focus, brain.fm is promoting a free trial. I’m not affiliated or earning commission, or anything like that. I just find this a useful tool and wanted to share it. It’s not a quick fix, but it does help me find flow.
Thank you for reading! This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 To support it, you can upgrade to a paid subscription (coming soon), share this post, or engage my services. You can learn more about my work at jenniferlphillips.com.
Peace,
Jenny
P.S. and the courage to change the vibes we can👇🏼
Macy makes this observation in The Great Turning, a 2023 short film on her work.
“Staying with the trouble” - phrase via Donna Hathaway’s Staying With the Trouble.