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May 1, 2022 - March 15, 2023
in organizing and relationships, accountability is key for building a lasting base; when folks see change, they feel their own investment is worthwhile.
In a successful Ruckus action, the visions and solutions are deeper and more compelling than the injustice. (We are calling for a movement-wide shift away from action that isn’t grounded in a vision of deep systemic change, as that ultimately is a misuse of our time and energy.)
Impacted leadership (the leadership of communities directly impacted by economic and environmental injustice); Privileged support (the intentional support for impacted leadership from communities/people that can identify their privilege and want to see a rebalancing of power); Feminine leadership (not just women leaders, but leaders who shift our understanding of how power can be held).
As an organization, The Ruckus Society’s operating principles include the “Jemez Principles” and the “Environmental Justice Principles.”
Mary Hooks of Southerners on New Ground and #blacklivesmatter Atlanta offers a mandate for Black people that moves me as I build towards this life of no regrets: “To avenge the suffering of my ancestors, to earn the respect of future generations, and to be transformed in the service of the work.”
Many of us respond to change with fear, or see it as a crisis.52 Some of us anticipate change with an almost titillating sense of stress.
In movement work, I have been facilitating groups to shift from a culture of strategic planning to one of strategic intentions—what are our intentions, informed by our vision? What do we need to be and do to bring our vision to pass? How do we bring those intentions to life throughout every change, in every aspect of our work? This often results in groups centering work that doesn’t depend on factors outside of their control (such as funders, or elections, which come and go and should be well used but not directive or debilitating). The clearer you are as a group about where you’re going, the
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What is easy is sustainable. Birds coast when they can.
Then I had the thought that often shifts my mood: this is all the miracle. These thirty minutes of being late to a meeting in Boston traffic are being lived by my miraculous irreplaceable body in a dynamic and outstanding system of life moving towards life.
“Your life is your spiritual path. Don’t be quick to abandon it for bigger and better experiences. You are getting exactly the experiences you need to grow. If your growth seems to be slow or uneventful for you, it is because you have not fully embraced the situations and relationships at hand.
want shifts in the direction of ecological resilience and social equity, as an imperative.
Shifts also result from well-organized communities creating new institutions that meet peoples’ needs as responses to the shocks and slides better than the dominant systems can, such as food sovereignty projects, collectivized housing systems, cooperative economics (time banks, worker co-ops, food shares, community-based restorative justice projects, etc.).
invite everyone to be facilitative: keep returning to questions, notice who isn’t speaking, let others speak your truth.
all change is not systems change or even political change. sometimes positive change upholds the status quo. we are not here to feel good all the time, but to do good. remind participants that change happens at a pace relevant for the people involved—we are not ahead of or behind each other, we are in a million experiments.
relax under pressure! there is no form of freaking out that will make this job less challenging. have a few trusted people/a team to talk to about the challenges. hold a hard line around the self-care basics of sleep and food.
instead of a list of general tasks that no one claims, generate the next steps from what the people in the room are willing to commit to!
“Organizing is to the community what spiritual practice is to the individual.”
Do you understand that your quality of life and your survival are tied to how authentic and generous the connections are between you and the people and place you live with and in? Are you actively practicing generosity and vulnerability in order to make the connections between you and others clear, open, available, durable? Generosity here means giving of what you have without strings or expectations attached. Vulnerability means showing your needs.
And in a beautiful twist, being soft in your rightness, as opposed to smashing people with your brilliance, can open others up to whatever wisdom you’ve accumulated.
In my political education, I learned how the civil rights movement had been negatively impacted by the same charismatic leaders who so inspired me. When leaders became visible, whether beloved or controversial or both, they became endangered politically and physically, which led to assassinations—tragic losses that left vulnerable movements.
People stopped seeing us. We became a place to project longings and critiques. We lost touch with the fact that it’s ok to make mistakes. Then we made the biggest mistakes of our lives. And we learned the hard way that rock star status is a cyclical thing. It becomes its own work, maintaining and promoting the rock star in the organization. The work of promoting
Lifting people up based on personality replicates the dynamics of power and hierarchy that movements claim to be dismantling.
Whether a leader is great or not, funders have traditionally preferred the narrative of a rock star leader, and have invested in individuals more than in missions. The people of an organization make or break the work, and the best mission will not be realized without the right people behind
Edge Funders, Resource Generation, and Building Equity and Alignment are three formations working to shift this and other donor/funder malpractice.
that the ones you grieve may be grieving you.
We are realizing that we must become the systems we need—no government, political party, or corporation is going to care for us, so we have to remember how to care for each other.
There is such urgency in the multitude of crises we face, it can make it hard to remember that in fact it is urgency thinking (urgent constant unsustainable growth) that got us to this point, and that our potential success lies in doing deep, slow, intentional work.
Another lesson I observed from the people’s mic experience at Occupy Wall Street…if someone called for the mic, they were granted it. But if people weren’t feeling the statement, eventually they stopped repeating it. I shared that observation with Jenny and she observed that in a way, twitter has prepped us for this succinct and self-selected rebroadcasting of each other. And just like with the people’s mic, and our social media efforts, what we pay attention to grows.
“There are so many formations I am not a part of—my non-participation is all I need to say. When I do offer critique, it is from a space of relationship, partnership, and advancing a solution.”
As Detroit movement ancestor Jimmy Boggs taught, “It is only in relation to other bodies and many somebodies that anybody is somebody. Don’t get it into your cotton-picking mind that you are somebody in yourself.”
When we imagine the world we want to shift towards, are we dreaming of being the winners of the future? Or are we dreaming of a world where winning is no longer necessary because there are no enemies?
Transformative Justice: Acknowledges the reality of state harm. Looks for alternative ways to address/interrupt harm, which do not rely on the state. Relies on organic, creative strategies that are community created and sustained. Transforms the root causes of violence, not only the individual experience.
Meaningful collaboration both relies on and deepens relationship—the stronger the bond between the people or groups in collaboration, the more possibility you can hold. In beginning this work, notice who you feel drawn to, and where you find ease. And notice who challenges you, who makes the edges of your ideas grow or fortify.
they want it to be an antidote to power. And it’s not.
consensus does not mean or require equal status. It rather requires equal voice.
I keep pushing away from utopia. In nature it’s more like we all get our day, our time. Nothing blooms 365 days of the year, someone told me that.
I have a commitment I repeat to myself in key leadership moments throughout the day. “I trust myself in the face of the unknown.” While I say it, I focus on my breath, ground through my heels, feel my back, and remember that all of my skills and experience are available and have prepared me for just this moment.
“Commit to Dharma,” led by Larry Yang, someone I consider a key teacher.
Finding a community, a sangha, is really, really important. One resource is dharmaseed.org—it’s a library of talks, guided meditations.
Interview three people you trust in your extended community to give you feedback about how you show up in the world. Share you purpose/intention with each of them and ask them to hold that as they answer your questions. Sample questions: What is my impact in the world? In three words, what am I embodying? Where do you think I could grow?
Can everyone in the organization state the vision and mission accurately, even passionately?
Assessment of Interdependence and Decentralization Who do you lean on? Who leans on you? (Explore the places where those lists overlap, and where they don’t. How can you increase mutual relationship?) Are all of your needs met? If yes, how? If not, why not? Did you answer either question above as if it’s all your responsibility? If not, try it. How does that feel? If yes, answer again as if nothing happens with you alone.
Who makes work happen in your group? Me! A small core group of us Everyone shares the work Does everyone take vacation time and weekends where you work? Do you feel comfortable using the sick and/or vacation time you earn? If you disappeared tomorrow (because aliens chose you as the ambassador from Earth to the Alliance of Evolved Planets, for instance), how would your organization respond? Close its doors Period of chaos and power struggle Redistribute my work and be overwhelmed Redistribute my work and adjust for capacity so that we’re still on path How does your answer to the question above
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It takes three hundred repetitions for muscle memory and three thousand repetitions for embodiment.89 What do you need to practice? What does your organization/collective/alliance practice? (Include all the things you practice in your collective work—conflict avoidance, glorifying burnout, over scheduling, mission drifting, check-ins, retreats, active listening, community accountability, etc.) What do you need to practice? How long does it take you to understand your feelings and reactions? How quickly do you (individually, collectively) translate experiences (successes or failures) into
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How often do you engage in personal reflection?
What are your individual resilience practices? What are resilience practices you and your organization/group/alliance/collective do together? Do you increase or decrease tension or dramatic moments that happen between you and loved ones (family/lovers/friends)? (If you aren’t sure, ask them.)
What are all of your gifts? Are you living a life that honors all of your gifts? If yes, how did you create all this possibility for yourself? If no, how can you create more possibility today? Tomorrow? This month? This year? What are your organization’s unique gifts? Is your organization able to hold complexity?
What is it we need to practice as individuals and communities to come more into alignment with the emergent practices of the universe we know as home?
My practices have included meditation, somatics, visionary fiction, facilitation, working out, yoga, intimate community on social media, check ins with woes/buddies, orgasmic meditation, sex, self-documentation (self-love selfies! Learning to see beauty and power in my standard breaking appearance), sugar shifting, sabbatical (big one in 2012, annual mini-sabbaticals since then), poetry, unscheduled time, moon-cycle rituals, tarot (I am such a fan of this practice that I have bought five other people tarot decks), sage and frankincense cleansing of my home, journaling.
Often the biggest support we need is to speak the truth out loud to those who will hold it with us from a vantage point of unconditional love.90 It’s friendship, but with a lot of transparency and intention
