“Rage — whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders’ insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us — is a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion.” ― Bonnie Myotai Treace
Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest
Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week. A random grab bag of delights!
The election is over. We won some, lost some, and now is no time to get comfortable with it - the work continues.
I'm settling in to working from home. Sure, there are occasional jaunts to various locations, but it's weird and sort of isolating to not go in and laugh with people and walk down halls with them... I'm doing ok on the getting lunch with people front, so far anyway. Need to work on getting out for walks . But... generally settling in. It's... weird at the moment though!
Medusa's Garden
When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.
One of the advantages of working from home is that when i need things to stop so my brain can catch up and make sense, I can actually take a half hour and lie down. Whether I sleep or not is a different matter, but I can pause, let my brain run in the background and come back to a problem with a fresh mind. I mean, can't pop out of the middle of a meeting but generally it works. I also need to remember that just like at work, I can go for a walk for the same sort of fix. :)
Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads
What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.
Have been spinning up some Halloween yarn - merino and silk in black, orange, grey, and white. I'm still working on that silk & baby camel scarf - I'm so close to done, but... I... may have discovered chess. Which. Is a thing. And it can be distracting from the fiber stuff, but we're working on both now, I guess!
Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life
Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.
Because for too long have women and women of color been told to suppress their rage, suppress their grief in the name of love and forgiveness. But when we suppress our rage, that's when it hardens into hate directed outward, but usually directed inward. But mothering has taught me that all of our emotions are necessary. Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger is the force that protects it.
Once more -Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger is the force that protects love. The idea that anger is the force that protects love was really striking to me. This quote is from this TED talk -3 Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rageby Valeri Kaur.
The other quote that really struck me from this talk was this one...
And we dance. In the darkness, we breathe and we dance. Our family becomes a pocket of revolutionary love. Our joy is an act of moral resistance. How are you protecting your joy each day? Because in joy we see even darkness with new eyes.
I'm reminded both of the saying that ''friends are family we choose', as well as, 'We are all 32nd cousins to some degree of removed, some of us closer than that - we are all family. Dance in the darkness together, my friends=family. Find joy in connecting and protect that joy and love. <3
May we find our way through our rage to a better world because we protected what we love with our anger, that we love ourselves as much as we love others and worth our anger to protect ourselves and others, and that we practice joy as moral resistance every single day.