Our big dreams

How’s it going? This past month has felt like a 1,000 years. January and February are always too long and too dark and too cold but the coup is frankly just too much on top of what we already deal with seasonally. 

Are you taking time for good things? Are you making something with your hands? Or are you caring for folks in your sphere? Are you checking in on friends, family, and your wider community?

Making things with your hands

I wanna focus in on the “making things with your hands” today. I know approximately zero of you are surprised by that. Making things and building things are hard. They require skill and creativity and a willingness to search for knowledge when you run up against road blocks. 

Tearing things down just for the sake of tearing them down is the purview of uncreative, small minded people. Tearing things down takes no skill and no heart. Creating things and building things takes a lot of effort and engagement. You have to be willing to face being wrong and having to start over if you want to build things. 

So if you are in the business of making things, writing stories, singing songs, making dinner, building community then you are doing amazing things! Keep at it because the world needs your good gifts right now!

How I am combating the sadness

I’ve been sad a lot in the last few weeks. The other day I was talking to my partner and during that conversation he said that it is a waste to see so many things being broken and torn down in this country. It makes me sad. We should take the time to mourn and lament that which is broken and hurts people.

We also need to start imagining and working toward what we want to replace this destruction. 

What would our lives look like with Universal Basic Income and nationalized healthcare? What could you contribute to society if those two things were covered for you? And what would our lives look like without the treat of gun violence and fascism? How would you be able to move in the world free of those fears? What would our country look like if the billionaires paid their share in taxes? Think of what our schools and roads and communities would be like! Start dreaming now because when the stupid fascists are gone (and they will be gone) we will need people with big dreams to take their places. 

Maybe you think that the tiny things you make with your hands don’t matter in the grand scheme of things right now but I’m here to tell you that’s just not true. Your stories or you art or your best homemade cake remind us that there’s a better world right here with us. YOU are doing that. So lean into it. 

These are hard days and making even a few small things gives me respite from the terribleness. You deserve that too. So make time to do some of these things for yourself this week.

I’ve been working on my 208 Weeks Project. (Maybe by the end of it I’ll have a better name for it but that’s good enough for right now.) And my initial thoughts about why I’m doing it are still feeling really important. This past week was Chris Kluwe and his peaceful civil disobedience. What a role model for us all!

What are you making right now that’s keeping you going? I want to see it! Email me or start a conversation by leaving a comment on this post! If you’d like to keep up with what I’m working on, I’d love to have you as a newsletter subscriber. I include blog posts from here, cool things I find online, and pictures of my dogs. Sign up here.