lqb2weekly #195 (19 mar 2024)

Mar 19, 2024

hey,

spring is here! i’m both really excited and, as my friend jen kiok has been saying a lot lately, i’m also really not ready! i’m looking at my schedule for april may and june and i’m like… wait… no more chill, slow, indoor winter vibes? 😵‍💫 i know in like 1-2 weeks i’ll be psyched about spring being here and putting all my coats and gloves and winter stuff away but in the meantime i’m like… winterrrrrrr don’t goooooo! i feel like we were just getting to be friends! big both/and energy atm… oof lol.

in other news, i have a relatively straightforward but somewhat vulnerable public ask. i don’t mean to make a bigger deal out of it than it is but it’s an ask that we have learned (and taught others) not to do in the age of an “don’t ask me; educate yourself” anti-oppression approach. anyways, in my weekly fast for gaza, as i connect with others about it, two information gaps keep coming up: (1) the conflict in the congo and (2) how really did the nation-state of israel come into being in 1948? so, i’m just gonna ask and hope i don’t get desperately dragged: if you have any good resources for beginners for either of these questions, i would love to be pointed to them! i am not actually a full beginner in either situation but most things i’ve seen are either like 4 paragraph articles or entire books. i’m kind of hoping for something in between but i’ll take whatever! thank you!

moving on… i forgot to share in my last newsletter edition another episode of my podcast: we are what we practice! this time i’m sharing my highlights from my interview with bernice shaw. some of my fav things about this episode:

it’s bernice’s first podcast interview ever!
bernice sharing about:
- being a free radical (and then looking for a reframe on it)
- falling into unintentional practices (ones that you don’t like!)
- making boring things (like taking out the trash) unexpectedly fun
the imposter society

enjoy!

also, coaching for healing, justice, and liberation (CHJL) is recruiting for the next intro to liberatory coaching (ILC) weekend training (21-22 june) and, as you may have heard, i really loved the 9-month program i did with them! i got my first taste of CHJL during an ILC and it was epic how much shift in myself and transformation in others i experienced. here’s where to find out a little more about what this 2-day intro training and here’s where you can sign up!

a money ask: an old black sci-fi book club buddy, bernadette, has an emergency urgent ask for $1500 by march 21. please click here to check out her original post on IG and to share it if that is a way you help spread word about things. here’s her text in case you aren’t an IG person:

Hi. I’m Bernadette. Mamabear of two littles (6/8), liberator who was not so gently liberated from her job last December. I have cancer. A rare one. Where all I needed was one pill a day to be in functional remission. When I lost my job, I lost my insurance for a month (and access to that once a day pill) and two months later the chickens came home to roost. On a trip home to El Paso, Tx, I crashed and burned and my cancer took me down. I’ve been in the hospital since February 25, half a continent away from my babies and my hospital stay has wrecked my bank account. I’m getting a GoFundMe launched by a dear dear friend but I have an emergency need for $1500 by March 21 to ensure that my health insurance premium is paid. I cannot loose my health insurance again in the midst of this ongoing crisis. My cashapp is $BMerikle. Please help me keep my insurance. $5 makes a big difference and a share of this post makes a bigger one. My gram is public for a minute here so you can see the type of person you are helping. Trust me. You’ll want to buy me coffee (smile). Although I drink tea. Thank you for helping me. I am eternally grateful. Shares permitted and gravely appreciated.

please contribute if you can!

finally, my friend, chris antonowich, is out here looking for a jerb! here’s a tiny bit about him and how to contact him.

on to the things!

(!!) pick of the pack

writing

some things i’ve written since the last newsletter:

Mar 18, 2024 | black history/futures: a mile
Mar 1, 2024 | family vacation: an oxymoron - follow up

quotes

there is nothing new under the sun. also, full transparency, many of these quotes come from james clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter (which i love).

Inside every one of us is a garden, and every practitioner has to go back to their garden and take care of it. Maybe in the past, you left it untended for a long time. You should know exactly what is going on in your own garden, and try to put everything in order. Restore the beauty; restore the harmony in your garden. If it is well tended, many people will enjoy your garden. — thich nhat hanh, taming the tiger within

The secret is not to find the meaning of life, but to use your life to make things that are meaningful. — James Clear

A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought — they must be earned. — Naval Ravikant

The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life. — Jessica Hische

In theory, consistency is about being disciplined, determined, and unwavering.
In practice, consistency is about being adaptable. Don’t have much time? Scale it down. Don’t have much energy? Do the easy version. Find different ways to show up depending on the circumstances. Let your habits change shape to meet the demands of the day.
Adaptability is the way of consistency. — James Clear

Be prepared to appreciate what you meet. — Frank Herbert

I think of beauty as an absolute necessity. I don’t think it’s a privilege or an indulgence, it’s not even a quest. I think it’s almost like knowledge, which is to say, it’s what we were born for. I think finding, incorporating and then representing beauty is what humans do. With or without authorities telling us what it is, I think it would exist in any case.
The startle and the wonder of being in this place. This overwhelming beauty—some of it is natural, some of it is man-made, some of it is casual, some of it is a mere glance—is an absolute necessity. I don’t think we can do without it any more than we can do without dreams or oxygen. — Toni Morrison