We need you resourced.
Creating and charging in the midst of burning and suffering.
My heart is heavy this week with the wildfire destruction impacting people I love and millions more in Los Angeles, the expansionist rhetoric from the incoming US President about the sovereignty of my country, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, rough sleepers freezing to death in brutal winter temperatures... all the things I don’t even know about. It’s all a lot.
I’ve been pulled in many directions. And one of them is to abandon any self-facing focus. I really believe there is a reason that so many of us have found and experimented with self care modalities over the last decade. It wasn’t frivolous. Many of the things we found are valuable (some we’re glad to know we don’t want). But, we are always being prepared for what we need. I know things about how to care for myself under this kind of stress that I didn’t learn anywhere else.
As we firmly enter the intense times before us I keep hearing calls getting louder for “only community care” and it sets off some warning bells for me because those policing of priorities calls usually mean more extraction of resources from the poor, the marginalized and women. I want to remind us that we have to hold onto complexity and nuance.
We do need to come together and act with communal care of the people and the planet centred in our efforts in a way that has not been present for decades. Systems need to change and the ones we have that work need to be strengthened. AND, ALSO we cannot make the world different, more fair, kinder, better, living within resources, if we refuse to do that for ourselves. We have to figure out how to do the hard work of the good things needing doing AND how to tag each other out, to make sure we can be resourced up individually too. Calls to centre only extraction from you are the same as the things we are trying to change in the world. To me this is one of the most important things we have to figure out.
I know we need what you have to bring into the world, and the way you will do that… your inventions, your art, your support and defence of others, your imagination, your gardens and farms, your care for the young and elderly, your financial investments, your community organizations, your teaching, your physical business where others also get what they need.
Right now one of the resources we need to create what we want to see is money, like it or not. We need it to survive, we can use it to propel, protect, and ease the way for things we believe in, and it lets us help others that are slipping through the cracks around us. If you have it, it’s ok to circulate it and direct it towards the world you believe in and your ability to impact it. Whether you have it or not, it’s ok for you to work on your business. You’re allowed to need money. It’s ok for you (and me) to charge for your work and make sales while the world pivots. It’s not a simple time. We need you resourced and able to have the impact you’re quietly imagining. It’s time. Figure out how you are contributing, where you need resources and which ones you have to contribute.
I’ve decided that one of my most valuable contributions is my ability to support small entrepreneurs in their businesses. To use my experiences as a global business consultant to be a resource, council, and sounding board to help you do your thing in the best possible way for you and the world.
What is the contribution you dream of making?
Susie
PS. If you want support while you figure out how to take care of yourself and our world at the same time I’ve got something for you. Check out Resiliency Club.