( 1 )

stoic ideals & how the pandemic forces us to confront mortality 

On the good days, it feels as though this previously inconceivable experience has led to living life in an incredibly profound way. Even mundane tasks feel profound. The confrontation with our own fragility, a more personal understanding of impermanence, makes everything more sacred, more precious, more worthy of our attention, like flowers that bloom in the spring for maybe a week, leaving as quickly as they came. Their ephemerality demands our attention and appreciation. If they were always present, we’d most likely take them for granted, a lifespan of something deeply informs our relationship and value of it. 

—Madison

( 2 )

re: stoic ideals & how the pandemic forces us to confront mortality 

I love this. I love this state of profound meaning in the simplest of ways. Its not cautionary or being scared on these good days but I have access to care and patience. I used to confuse the two. Your words above are so refreshing and im just thinking wow, we have words, that have meaning, they have history and some are just being added. Words like “hangry” haha but to feel it is another thing and then to relate is another thing and then to extend those words and be about it. is… another thing. The good days are sooo sooo (as you put it) profound. 

— Bree

( 3 )

on today’s history

……….splitting in quarters for protection to prove that WE are deserving of life beyond protesting and proving worth. It seems logical that earth-- encompassing people, plants, animals, ideals, trends, societies, cultures, the vast range of differences spanning person to person, flower to flower, bee to bee-- logic is thwarted, the cycle of what we deem normal has ended its cycle. 

the blooming of compassion as a means to make, a means to wake up, a means to tend new soil and grow from empathy and understanding of perspectives, listening!

to listen! to then feel! to then empathize! to then SHOW COMPASSION and create acts of compassion. Defensive barriers, and lack needs to diminish. 

— Bree

(4)

re: on today’s history

REMEMBER THIS. How many times have we been here? How many more times will it take? Why did it take what it did? Why couldn’t I feel a call to action before it came to this? Why is it a struggle to embody problems which don’t directly impact us? REMEMBER THIS. Remember the feeling. Remember the anger. Remember the self-confrontation, the reflection, the hurt, the disappointment, the rage, the fear, the discomfort. Remember it’s not even a fraction of what those who experience the direct impact feel. Remember the work you are committing to. Remember sitting with yourself, accounting for, taking ownership of all the ways in which you participated in the hurt and oppression of other human beings. Let this not be debilitating but the fire that fuels you. When it feels painful to REMEMBER, remind yourself this: To have to remember is a privilege. You’re trying to bring into consciousness an experience of the past. It means you will not live it, day in and day out. That’s privilege. If you forget, because you return to comfort, you’re letting the same system that keeps you satisfied, continue to oppress others. You’re letting the system keep your needs met silence you and continue to benefit from your complacency. Commit now to long term strategy. Commit to integrating a tangible practice that prevails when the emotions pass.  And then REMEMBER and remind yourself what privilege it is to be separate enough from injustice that you can look at it as a past experience. REMEMBER, until everyone obtains the privilege of REMEMBERING.

— Madison