This is a process of decolonization. Whether you are the descendants of colonizers or the colonized—or, like me, both—all of our peoples have experienced the loss of something essential to our liberated well-being. Whether that was taken from you or given away in the bargain to win power, it is loss.

what it might look like for us to prioritize and honor our friendships in a way that allows for a more expansive understanding of what friendship is. Nordgren writes that “relationship anarchy questions the idea that love is a limited resource that can only be real if restricted to a couple.”