Wise enough

Helping Friendly Newsletter, 11.22.24

Nov 22, 2024

Every other Friday, I share 5 things to consider. On the Fridays between, I mix things up. Today is a Friday between.

GM! ☕️

I made us a new scrapbook.

It’s a love offering for these uncertain times.

You are here:

Venn diagram: L reads "remaining present with the difficulty of this moment in history," R reads "releasing freely to the tiny miracles & personal joys & beauty that make life worth living," overlapping center has a heart that points to text "we are big enough for this" — We are big enough for this: remaining present with the difficulty of this moment in history AND releasing freely to the tiny miracles, personal joys, and beauty that make life worth living.

Both sides of the Venn are necessary, it seems, for whatever goodness we’re meant to be part of.

Both are impacted by our social location and privilege, and they entail no small responsibility.

Both are quite serious, even where the particulars seem silly. Both flirt with absurdity, even when stakes are sky high. Both, both, both…

We are big enough for this.

We are wise enough.

*****

Poem excerpt: "Resist loss of the miraculous / by lowering your standards / for what constitutes a miracle. / It is all a fucking miracle." - Louise Erdrich, "Advice to Myself #2: Resistance" — Louse Erdrich, “Advice to Myself #2: Resistance”

*****

A few miracles I have seen with my own eyes, just this month:

the healing that comes from proximity to water, and soup, and friends 1
colleagues figuring out how to care for one another in times of grief
home cooked meals, day after day, for a busy family 2
dusk’s peculiar balance of light and shadow in late fall
clarity whispered in a murmur of leaves, across a forest, on a breeze
hounds howling in the distance
a young man walking his elderly cat in the park with such remarkable tenderness (i only wish you could have seen this human following feline curiosity, lifting the old cat to get a peek at things, and helping his beloved explore among the greenery. the degree of care was radiant, and the trust between them was exquisite.)

Illustration of a bunny in overalls, laying on their stomach with head propped in hands, gazing adoringly at a cricket. Background is green and yellow with ladybugs and dragonflies. Text reads, "Sorry we're running a bit late, something important came up." - @wonderled.life on Instagram — Meme by @wonderled.life. Art by Richard Scarry.

A list of words I compiled from research on how environmental activists encounter nature and find meaning in their mission(s): 3

word cloud of blue text on white background, includes terms like SACRED, BELONGING, DEEP, MYSTERY, AND WONDER.

Words those same researchers and activists used to describe experiences of climate crisis, species loss, degraded ecosystems, and other harm:

word cloud of blue text on white background, includes terms like DESECRATION, ANGER, VIOLATION, FRAGILE, GRIEF, AND GUILT.

Words they used to describe the work of resisting that harm:

word cloud of blue text on white background, includes terms like ACTION, RESPONSIBILITY, COMMITMENT, COMMUNITY, AND PROTECT.

I am heartened
⬆️ to notice ⬆️

the list of words
signifying connection
dwarfs the list
for harm

CONNECTION IS GREATER THAN HARM

17th century earthenware plate with blue script that reads, "You & I Are Earth, 1661." — Via Sophie Strand.

✨✨✨

Ani DiFranco wrote “Joyful Girl” in 1996, and I love her version. But I first came to it through this cover ⬇️, and I really dig Soulive’s instrumentation. “The world owes me nothing, and we owe each other the world.”

10 ways to be prepared and grounded right now:
Trust yourself.
Find others who you trust.
Grieve.
Release that which you cannot change.
Find your path.
Do not obey in advance; do not self-censor.
Reorient your political map.
Get real about power.
Handle fear.
Envision a positive future.
—Daniel Hunter, Waging Nonviolence4

*****

Alice Walker on political change:

“You cannot really change consciousness by murdering people, by brutalizing them. You can only change it, I think, by—very patiently, actually—creating a vision of a different world. So that’s what I do.”

✨ and ✨

nothing
will
ultimately separate
us:
not
space
not
time
not unanticipated
turbulence
&
discord

✨ and ✨

“Hard times require furious dancing.”

*****

I can honor the skeptic in me and tenderly hold my anxieties,

Social media post by Jeneque Pinnock: "Does the process know that we are trusting it?"

while gently reminding us all:

“Courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”
—Nelson Mandela

Photograph of swamp with tree trunks and rainbow stripes on the water. — This earth! Rainbow swamp, Caw Caw County Park, Ravenel, SC.

Thank you for reading! This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 To support it, you can upgrade to a paid subscription, hit the like button (it helps folks discover me online), or engage my services. You can learn more about my work at jenniferlphillips.com.

Peace,

Jenny

P.S. here for you, here with you👇🏼

Background illustration / collage with sun, clovers, ladybugs, butterflies, and frogs, with text: '"I love you" as in 'You deserve a kinder world than this. I'm here beside you while we build that world together, and I'm not going anywhere."' — @leilamadeline___ on IG.

Rappahannock River, chicken & orzo, so much laughter. Thank you, SL and crew ✨

Thank you, AJ, again and again 💞

Deal, P. J., Magyar-Russell, G. (1011). A qualitative study of sanctification: How nature becomes sacred for environmental activists. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 9(1), 40–54.

Deal, P. J, O’Grady, K. (2020). Environmental Justice Activism: A Transformative, Contemporary Nature Religion. Review of Religious Research, 62, 315–332.

Ivakhiv, A. (2003). Orchestrating Sacred Space: Beyond the Social Construction of Nature. Ecotheology, 8(1). 11-29. Ivakhiv, A. (2003). Orchestrating Sacred Space: Beyond the Social Construction of Nature. Ecotheology, 8(1). 11-29.

Via Michael Cheuk and Charlottesville Clergy Collective.

Note on #5 - Hunter suggests 4 pathways: “protect people, disrupt & disobey, defend civic institutions, and build alternatives.” We don’t have to do everything; find your path.

Note on #7 - We will need to move beyond left/right, good/bad, blue/red binaries.

Note on #8 - Hunter writes, “It will be helpful to have a power analysis in our minds, specifically [one] that’s known as the upside-down triangle.”

Note on #9 - Hunter actually says “handle fear, make violence rebound,” which is a word choice I find confusing and decided not to quote in full. The deeper idea is not to replicate political violence, but to end it.

Jenny Phillips

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