“It hasn’t been a choice to wake up and decide that we are going to fight for the protection of Mother Earth,” she told us. “It’s a responsibility that we just understand in that sense. We understand that for us to be healthy, that Mother Earth needs to be healthy, that there is that symbiotic relationship, whether it’s with the water, with the sal

“You’re not making any mistakes because you’re not doing anything.”

They do as they are told and try to replicate the same set of relations that defined life before. As things deteriorate, they keep trying. They do not know what else to do.

To resist the erosion of empathy, we must invite people to participate in acts of care, defense, aid, and rescue. We must normalize acts of mutual aid amid the everyday crisis of capitalism and build these mechanisms into our organizing work at the ground level.

the ache of awareness.

For thirty minutes, material would be read aloud—creating space to collectively listen while also allowing members who could not read the opportunity to hear the information. Members would then spend fifteen minutes discussing the material, listening to each other’s thoughts in response to the work.

As we move forward, we must ask ourselves, Are we making space for grief in our organizing work? Are we talking about the practice of hope, and how we can orient ourselves in these daunting times?

Similarly, in our times, memorial gardens for victims of COVID-19, or whatever loss a community is enduring, can create a therapeutic space while also providing a resource for the community.

acceptance of that discomfort and pain actually reflected the depths of your caring and commitment to life.