Dear loves & fellow makers,
Why don’t we abandon resolutions on the garbage heap of good intentions and commit ourselves to revolutions instead? In the face of fear, intolerance, uncertainty, and rising rage I raise an overflowing glass to call in revolution, a toast to goodness, a cheers to the possibility of change. If “magic is the art of changing consciousness at will”1 then I am a believer, not in magic that requires capes or wands, but in the kind we make together in the humblest of ways. The magic that can do the nearly impossible trick of changing minds, softening hearts, connecting lives.
Imagine if we harnessed all the energy spent on personal development and self-improvement at the start of each year, invested it into reimagining the world. The time for resolutions has past, it is revolution time now. And so with reverence and trust in redemption – this is my New Year’s Revolution:
My revolution is not bloody, does not call for flag waving, coups, or pageantry. This revolution is a refuge built from the warmth of hearth and home, comfort, welcome, and wonder – a revolution of care, healing, nurturance. The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house2, we need councils of ladles and knitting needles to stir, stitch, weave a new world into being. They can keep their war rooms, my revolution is warm rooms, senseless kindness. A revolution of the mothering kind, mending the world with gentle ferocity, a great tenderness for all our bruised and broken places.
I’m calling in a revolution of potlucks, shared harvests to fill and feed our deepest hungers and insecurities, meals that remind us of our humanity with bread and roses. This revolution is rooted in history, planted in the stories of our ancestors, drawing power from the long river of time. Bigger than borders, connecting across cultures, classes, genders, beliefs, abilities, generations – a dream of a common language3. My revolution has no need for experts, gurus, special training, or elite abilities – anyone can be of service contributing small acts that seem insignificant alone but aggregate become an unstoppable force. An army of respecting elders, holding small people, feeding each other, reaching out, showing up, defeating hatred and segregation with steady applications of presence. Loneliness has become an epidemic and community is the cure, to feel in our hearts core, the reality of others4, then behave accordingly.
Every person is a world with their own personal geography, politics, and possibilities – my respectful revolution will draw a bigger circle5, big enough to hold, cradle, unite us with all our mismatched rhetoric and ideologies. One so large and expansive that those who stay outside shiver in the coldness of a life lived without the warmth of community and knock on the door, asking to please come inside. My revolution will always welcome you in and offer a seat at the table.
This revolution is not worth fighting for, but is worth crafting, steadily, with patience and careful attention – a homemade, handmade revolution of belonging. To this I devote my work, my days. To this I dedicate my life.
What will be your New Year’s Revolution?
1 Dion Fortune, “Magic is the art of causing changes to occur in consciousness, in conformity with will”.
2Audre Lorde, ‘The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House’, from Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
3Adrienne Rich, ‘The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-77’
4 Margaret Laurence, ‘My Final Hour’
5Dr. Pauli Murray, An American Credo, “When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me, I shall draw a larger circle to include them.”
