lqb2weekly #179 (29 nov 2022)

Nov 29, 2022

hey,

this week and last week, something like 20-30% of the things i had planned have not happened. meetings, dinners, work, you name it. i feel like a nayirrah waheed-style poem (that i wrote) is in order:

my dearly beloved,
sit down or i will sit you down
— the earth/universe

are you experiencing this, too? it feels to me like one side of the “omg wtf the sun is ALREADY down?” vibe. which i think is also an element of the “dang i can’t believe i said i would do all this stuff before the end of the year” vibe. and that’s probably related to the “oh shit. i don’t know how i’m going to finish all the stuff on my work plate and that’s going to be really disappointing/upsetting/angering/frustrating to my friends/collaborators/coworkers/organizers” vibe.

the other day a thought came to me and i didn’t have energy to blog post it so i’m sharing it here. it might not be a new thought: in a primarily capitalist economy where our productivity is tied to our well-being (we exchange our labor for money which we need to buy goods to sustain our lives), not completing our work can feel like a life or death issue. and for some of us, this is actually true.

but this programming has been woven into our systems so deeply that many of us can’t tell the difference between situations when it’s actually true and when it’s not. and for many of the folks reading this email, it is actually very rarely true (despite what our bodies/emotions/feelings tell us).

so what i have been practicing lately is really trying to discern the difference between work my body is signaling to me that’s urgent, and work that’s actually urgent (and important). and almost everything that isn’t urgent and important i am trying to push off into the future so that i can not burnout. i believe this practice is better for the work that can be done later and frees up energy to do the work that is urgent and important now. this seems better to me than doing everything poorly, or trying to do everything and not doing actually any of it because #spinning.

*steps off soapbox* lol anyways… moving on to some other things:

earlier in nov, i got back my book draft edits from my new editor! it’s been a WHOLE journey tryna get this thing edited… mostly one of emotional overwhelm. after wanting to prioritize working with a black editor, i had two back out on me. i went on an internalized white supremacy driven emotional bender (which took me on the order of two years to recover from) but took a big step this summer. thanks to the better selves fellow from this summer who recommended christian and dynamic image publications to me. now that i have the draft back, i’m trying to work on editing 15-60 minutes a day so i’m cranking away. stay tuned for updates… :D (and you can check out the not-final cover design here! thanks annemarie!!!)

my friend, charles knight, shared this email that has a framing of the nov elections that i really resonate with. i care less and less about spending my energy working within the legislative electoral system (not that work there isn’t critical, i just want to use my magic in other places) so this might be all i say about the nov elections. enjoy.

another friend, nadav david, let me know that resource generation is having its final two gatherings of its black caucus and if that sounds interesting, check out details over here. if you’re black and wanting to engage in convo focused on black folks with class privilege and wealth, that’s your jam.

another friend, jen kiok, has recently launched her consulting work and i want to share it with yall! you can check out a detailed write up over here: consulting for collective liberation! here are a few of her sweet spots:

Sustainability: Making the work sustainable for you as a leader and for your organization as a whole.
Spiritual Practice & Presence: Anchoring your leadership in spiritual practice and presence.
Embedding Racial Justice: Integrating Racial Justice into your long term plan, ensuring buy in & investment at every level of the organization.
Budgeting & Fundraising: Moving from a scarcity to abundance mindset and heartset.
Transformational Culture: Moving from a Transactional culture to a Relational and Transformational culture within your Staff and Board.

if you’re interested or know someone who might be, dig in!

ok one last note: i think my blog has been hacked. 🥴 sometimes when you click links, you get weird popups. if you experience this, can you let me know?

and now… on to the things!

(!!) pick of the pack

writing

some things i’ve written since the last newsletter:

Nov 19, 2022 | book review: good strategy, bad strategy by richard rumelt
Nov 19, 2022 | book review: rest is resistance by tricia hersey
Nov 10, 2022 | relationship recovery time: retrograde shadows
Oct 30, 2022 | book review: the communist manifesto by karl marx & friedrich engels

quotes

there is nothing new under the sun.

Someone with half your IQ is making 10x as you because they aren’t smart enough to doubt themselves. — Ed Latimore

Keep ignoring feedback and life will keep teaching you the same lesson. — James Clear

The brilliance of the stars would be invisible without the vast darkness of space behind them. Do not wish away the difficult portions of life. They provide the contrast needed to appreciate the joyful moments. — James Clear

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. — Annie Dillard

The essential dynamic of pseudocommunity is conflict avoidance…..In pseudocommunity a group attempts to purchase community cheaply by pretense… the basic pretense of pseudocommunity [being] the denial of individual differences. — m scott peck

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. — Charles Kingsley

In some areas of life, value is unlocked by starting. Even a five-minute workout or a short walk can reset your mood and benefit your body.
In other areas, value is unlocked by finishing. It does you no good to build a bridge halfway across the river. You need to complete the project to realize the value.
Do you need to start or finish? Are you building a body or building a bridge? — James Clear

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it. — Lena Horne

You do not have to be a medicine man in order to do your part to restore wholeness and fullness to a world in dire need. You just have to learn to come home to the magic that waits at the core of your Self. — gibrán rivera

Freedom is not a secret. It’s a practice. — Alexis Pauline Gumbs

poetry

new face — alice walker

reads

some things i’ve read since the last newsletter:

listens

some audio and/or podcasts i’ve listened to since the last newsletter:

watches

some videos i watched since the last newsletter:

jams

some things i’ve been (aurally) enjoying since the last newsletter:

jobs

Fiscal Sponsorship Co-Director | Resist | $65k | Remote
Baby University Father Facilitator, Childcare & Family Support Services | City of Cambridge Human Service Programs | $37.5/hour | Cambridge, MA
Director of Development | Never Again Action | $40-60k | Remote
Research Manager | Builders of Color Coalition | $85-95K | Boston, MA
Core Consultant/Trainer | Racial Healing Initiative | $20k ($75/hour) | Remote
Clean Transportation Program Director | Union of Concerned Scientists | $171,000-$191,000 | Remote
Mijente
- Development Project Manager | $73-77k | Remote
- Director of Transformational Giving | $80-87k | Remote
ICA Group
- Communications Director | $73-78.6k | Remote
- Executive Director for the Fund for Jobs Worth Owning | $95-105k | Remote
- Cooperative Growth Consultant | $62-66k | Remote
- Director of People and Culture | $75-81k | Northampton, MA
Muslim Justice League
- Campaign Organizer | $50k | Boston
- Communications Director | $50k | Boston
Jews for Racial & Economic Justice
- Executive Director | $80-90k | NYC
- Lead Organizer | $65-70k | NYC
Responsible Computer Science Challenge Fellow | Mozilla | $45k PT | Kenya
Boston Neighborhood CLT
- Project and Operations Manager | $80-90k | Boston
- Resident/Neighborhood Organizer | $60-65k | Boston
Consultant - Program Director | Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions | $140-160k PT
ECCO
- Field Coordinators: English-speaking, Bilingual English-Spanish, Bilingual English-Haitian Creole
- Community Ambassadors: English, Spanish, or Haitian Creole speaking
- Data Coordinator
- All the positions

events

fun-raising

priestess of twerk

other opportunities

exploring histories of education advocacy before and after brown v board w/ my friend tomashi

newsletters

black ecologie: i (almost) went hunting
solstice newsletter: #4 - eclipsed + w/ updates!
emet ezell: how do you make your body big enough for all the feelings?
building belonging: I asked for belonging... they gave me power
astroradicals: THE MOOD: On Pause
better humans daily: Pausing the newsletter for some big changes.

right now i’m learning…

about how valuable accountability is for folks who caused harm (it gives them/us a path back to right relationship in our community). see until we reckon by danielle sered.