Caring for yourself is necessary. Please keep showing up.
/"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." – Audre Lorde
Showing up can mean a lot of things.
It can mean marching in the streets.
It can mean donating to local groups dedicated to lifting up the lives of people in marginalized communities.
It can mean sleeping in when you are tired.
It can mean supporting good journalism by subscribing to newspapers and magazines who prioritize unbiased reporting.
It can mean reading books, poems, and speeches by revolutionaries who have come before us, and those on the ground working to make sure our hard-won rights are not stripped from us and the ones we love.
It can mean hosting friends at your home who are willing to talk about the hard stuff.
It can mean less visible ways of showing up when staying home is necessary.
It can mean honoring the process of grieving, taking the risk of loving, daring to make space for your voice and the voices of those at risk.
There is room for all of us in this.
Thank you for showing up. This is not the beginning, and it is certainly not the end.
If you need some help figuring out what you can do, I've included some suggestions here:
Marching in the streets:
Pamela Palma Photography
Donating to local groups:
East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy
RYSE Center
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Showing Up for Racial Justice
Supporting unbiased reporting:
Reputable news sources
Reading and listening:
Angela Davis' full speech at Women's March on Washington
Is This Normal? - Melissa Harris Perry
The Other America - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
The Stop Trump Reading List
Hosting your friends at home:
Start a House Party- here's how
Please try your best to keep learning how to take care of yourself, however you can right now.
Keep learning about who you are.
Change does not come at a predictable pace, but in strong bursts driven by steady movements and dedicated people.
Learn how to show up for the most vulnerable of us (and the vulnerable parts of you!), and remember to keep doing the work no matter how hard it gets.
Take care of yourself in the process of loving and caring for others.
I originally had a different image for this blog post, from the same Kickstarter hosted by Shepard Fairey as the image above. It was of a woman wearing a hijab of the American flag. After reading this article, I thought more deeply about that image, and decided to use the one you see here instead.