Sonia Connolly

"It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.

So… ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.

Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive."

shadowkat

siderea

My point here is that you don't have to feel bad that you can't do it all. You have to remember you are one person in a huge, multifaceted movement of resistance, and other comrades will be doing the things you don't do. The second most important thing to believe in, after yourself, is one another.

Relatedly, we need to resist the temptation to tell other people they're not picking up the right rocks or the rocks they're moving aren't important. All the rocks ultimately have to get moved, all the rocks are important.

But something Adriana and I have talked about over and over is that dealing with your feelings about hard problems isn't a distraction from the work; it's part of the work. So I'm reaching out to you, through text and symbol, to say: let's work together. When somebody asks you why decisions in Washington matter, here's a story you can share.

They do not understand power. I'm not sure they understand wealth either.

It is time to be in cockroach mode. To keep going, by whatever means possible. When someone tries to stamp you out, avoid them with a swiftness and a scurry that will haunt their dreams. [...] For some of us, survival may be easier. If you fall into that privileged group, consider using your energy to remind others that they are precious, and beautiful, and so, so loved. That if they left the earth, grief would drown those of us left scurrying across the wreckage without them.

To everyone who feels like their heart has been ripped out of their chest, I feel the same. To everyone who is afraid of what happens next, I share your fears. But what we do next is important, and I need you in this fight with me.

We are the united legal frontline in the fight for people and our democracy. We will fight for people, freedom, and our democracy against any odds. We know the playbook, and we’re ready to fight back.

The world can feel scary, but no matter what happens, I’m glad you are in it. And if it helps, I wrote a long essay about Mutual Aid and how we can show up for each other—especially the most vulnerable among us—right now and always.

We must deepen our relationships of trust and care across lines of difference, across coalitions, across communities. That's the foundation upon which everything else resides.

As diasporic rebels, our Jewishness teaches us to rely on solidarity beyond all borders. Our teachings compel us to lean on the community of others to live lives worth living, whether we are mourning or celebrating, or grappling time and again with what liberation should and could look like. [...] 2. Make people soup and do not stop inviting them over for soup! Be a reason for living.

“Oh, you want to know how you can support disability justice? MAKE SOMEONE A POT OF SOUP!” my friend William Maria Rain, a true disability justice OG, yelled at the audience at a disability justice panel at the D Center at the University of Washington, circa 2014 or so. Someone had probably been wringing their hands during the Q&A and timidly asking, “Um, what’s a good way to help the disabled community?” William made the answer very plain: You help disabled people by making sure we’re not dying of starvation in our apartments.

muccamukk