what if we start here, with this small project, in this one small town? can we make a difference?
what I’ve been thinking about lately involves systems of oppression; money systems, prison systems, racist systems, how to dismantle them and what’s needed to do that. organizing, teaching, making art, protesting, voting, donating, studying, resting, discussing, unlearning, relearning. that’s a few ideas. can movement be included? and don’t think I am squeezing that word, movement, to just mean one thing, either. it’s everything, from pulsating cells to felled statues to bodies shaking things off, shaking things up. being embodied, can knowing what’s happening inside of me be medicine?
this project, what’s happening with Sadhana Service Project (SSP), is more than a sole event, standing alone. it’s one of many in a fight to create; life, art, abolition, justice. it’s part of a movement, very loud now, a movement that continues to creep forward, to insinuate inside of systems and caterpillar its way out. SSP is doing that, in our small way.
how do we welcome the un-welcome. how do i? how do we follow through? what’s needed for that? sustaining a movement means valuing everybody that contributes and mediating between differences of approach, of tone, of skill, of chemistry, of opinions, so everybody is heard, not thrown out, but possibly transformed.
one thing that’s needed is a process, an agreement, or agreements. what are our dreams? where are we pointing the arrow of time? can we imagine what we want, how we want our world to be? we have so many obstacles to this kind of seeing, including oppression, trauma, white supremacy, patriarchy, sexism, ableism, heteronormality … but can we try?
so, take the SSP – what if we start here, with this small project, in this one small town? can we make a difference? i believe we can.
i also want to honor our limitations; i’m limited in my energy and you are too. can we name our fatigue, and practice quiet, napping, moving without urgency, and therefore cause less harm? i look to trees, to rain, to the half golden moon last night. i move, it’s medicine for me. right now i sit beside a warm sleeping puppy and am comforted. I trust that things will unfold, yes, they will.
with love, sondra