Sheltering in place is not a gift any of us would have asked for, but we are making use of it. CoLET was started in a moment of political crisis so we know that while there is pain and suffering (far more now than that time) in crisis, these inflection points can be times of great creativity and fertility. When we are fortunate/privileged enough to be secure and safe during a crisis such as this, we can use the time to evaluate our lives. We can renew our commitment to nurturing those efforts and relationships that are working….or muster the strength to sever ties with all that weighs us down.
We can cultivate comfort and courage in uncertainty.
We can care for ourselves and each other. Checking in on neighbors and old friends.
We can discover our needs and let them be known.
We can study and dream.
And we can ready ourselves for the world that will be.
Because there is no more “going back to normal”. We can only take brave and shaky steps forward.
Here are some things we have been doing and reading in this time of relative hibernation:
DOING: gardening, fermenting, canning, cooking and cooking and cooking, learning Portuguese, taking singing lessons, working, caring for our kids, exercising — alone and across screens, checking in on our neighbors, budgeting, looking at more open and secure alternatives to Zoom (Jami, Jitsi, Nextcloud Talk), resilience mapping, washing our hands….over and over and over again.
READING:
- Local Is Our Future
- Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief
- The Undercommons
- Wages for Housework
- From Mutual Aid to Dual Power in the State of Emergency (ROAR Magazine)
- Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family
- The risks of relying on Bill Gates and Jack Dorsey in the coronavirus crisis – Vox
- Coronavirus May Prove A Boost for UK’s Bees and Rare Wildflowers (The Guardian)
- All We Have Is Each Other: A Guide to Creating Fabric Masks (Mutual Aid Disaster Relief zine)
GIVING: