Hello friends 🤗
Please accept my belated wishes for a healthy & wholesome 2025, and my very punctual wishes for a peaceful & prosperous lunar new year 🐍🧧🎊
For reasons I’ll leave up to your imagination, I’ve been thinking a lot about resistance. One memory in particular.
My heart in my throat, my body electrified. If I could have seen myself, I’d imagine my face had blanched in spite of the soft, warm waters of the Gulf of Guinea.
I’d been swimming & body surfing for half an hour when it occurred to me that I was never fully arriving back at shore. I began to swim with more purpose, but no matter how hard I kicked, or how strong the swell pushed me towards land, I was just as quickly pulled back into the ocean.
This was the “little” riptide they’d warned us about. I began treading water to assess the situation.
While I couldn’t make it back to land, at least I wasn’t being pulled out more than 50m. Bobbing like a buoy in a watery purgatory, I egg-beatered my legs to lift up and wave frantically towards the familiar guests at the local restaurant overlooking the break.
They cheerfully waved “hello” back.
My stomach dropped.
✔️ Outside forces beyond my control making a farce out of my resistance.
✔️ Those just beyond the fray, unaware of my terror.
✔️ Forty-five minutes in the water, 15 of those in a growing state of panic.
Ocean, what do I do?
An ancient memory from Huckleberry Finn floated to the surface.
When caught in a rushing river, move diagonally with the flow of the water towards the bank.
I set my sights West and began to swim with renewed determination. After three? maybe four strokes, my shins slammed hard into a sandbar. I stood up and laughed.
One lucky idiot. One more lesson learned.
Panic and terror are real, physical sensations. But they can dupe us into thinking we need to exert a force equal or greater to the powers pushing and pulling against us.
Sometimes, yes. DO that.
But most of the time, there is wisdom & dignity (and sustainability!) in treading water while we presence ourselves, ask the Earth for guidance, and take the necessary action to move or remove our energy in ways that disempower those outside forces.
If we want peace, we have to be peace. Peace is a practice and not a hope.
—
Thich Nhat Hanh
Theme of the Year
For the past decade, I’ve cast annual themes that gently color my attention over the course of the year.
As I reflected on what the theme might be for 2025, my ego really wanted to find a way to promote my oft repeated guidance to “slow down & space out.” But clear as a bell, the response from spirit every single time I asked, was TAKE ACTION.
Launch the project. Build the community. Make the art.
For me, it’s helped to remind myself that it’s a good & right thing to make a mess. May we all be surrounded by imperfect blessings.
Which reminds me of another thing spirit’s been wanting me to speak aloud:
DON’T WAIT FOR A CRISIS TO BECOME AN ANARCHIST.
The world, more than ever, needs everyday anarchists. Anarchists take care of their communities and tend to the land they’re on. Resistance can look like free breakfast programs, little libraries, community round tables, repair cafes, safety workshops, or garden swaps.
Critically, start breaking dumb rules & dumb social norms. This will strengthen your liberation-muscle for when you might be asked to break dangerous rules & dangerous norms.
Every action you take that tends to the needs of your community is, in its own way, anarchy. Please do not diminish the power embedded in these small acts of connection.
Follow the dream that is also following you.
—
Pete Holmes
Your life is precious, my friend.
I hope you feel that in every cell of your earthly body.
You are worth your presence of self. The earth loves you. Your community needs you.
with love,
heather 💜