Recently, I’ve had several moments of witnessing first-hand the links between settling the body (that is, settling the nervous system) and showing up more mindfully, more open, and more like the “best self” that’s needed when striving for social and racial justice. In contrast, moments when my nervous system is “keyed up” (from exhaustion, from unresolved tension, from disappointment, and more), I find myself having knee-jerk reactions and being short with ... Read more ...
Racial Justice
These posts address racial justice, whiteness, white supremacy, and intersectional (in)equities. Posts ask: How can we act on a commitment to racial justice? And on related commitments to social, gender, economic, environmental, and other forms of justice?
Lessons from a Poinsettia: Growing Resilience in 40 Days and Beyond
This poinsettia is amazing me—still blooming in these last days of February and reminding me that resilience (emotional elasticity, stamina, and strength) is something we don't often recognize until it’s already present and in place. When I googled how long poinsettias bloom, I was (and wasn’t) surprised to see that 40 days are a common period. The information not only confirms this poinsettia’s resilience (blooming for 3+ months), but it also feels like the ... Read more ...
Why I Don’t Believe the #CovingtonCatholic Student’s Statement
I woke up today (the day after MLK Day in the U.S.) to a Facebook friend who presents as a white woman asking if I’d seen the #CovingtonCatholic student’s statement because she’s not sure what to believe. Later in the day, a white family member also sent me the statement, presumably to vindicate the white students. These messages come in response to me speaking out over the past few days about the incident, asking for white folks to break patterns of niceness and to ... Read more ...
My New Year’s Resolution = Self-Love for Countering White Fragility
The days leading up to this new year have been bumpy for me, pushing me to recommit to radical self-love. I’ve had some really tough conversations with family around everyday injustice, and these conversations have reminded me why we need a deep well of emotional literacies for confronting complicity. In the midst of one of these tough conversations—in which I was speaking aloud my embodied responses to white supremacy—I shared that my heart was throbbing, and I ... Read more ...
My Heart Hurts on Election Day
Election day morning: I join a line that snakes around my new polling place. Like others, I pull my raincoat tighter against the cold and damp morning air, as kids squirm, jump, and cry around us. After 40+ minutes and only few feet of movement, I step out of line, knowing that if I stay, I’ll miss a hard-to-reschedule doctor’s appointment. I feel frustrated, disappointed, and angry. Election day evening: I re-join the line and, again, wait outdoors in the rain. ... Read more ...
Beyond Self-Care: How Hiking Invites Self-Work
Time outdoors and along hiking trails is especially important time to me. As I’ve written previously, it’s time to consider the steps involved in making change, including learning to tread alternative paths. It’s time to slow down, notice beauty, and appreciate life, even in the roughest of conditions. It’s also time to do important intrapersonal work toward disrupting biases and internalized inferiority + superiority. It’s possible to consider activities like hiking ... Read more ...
“Pedagogical Too-Muchness,” Or a Call for Shaking up Schooling
This year I turned 39, and it’s my first in which I won’t be returning to school. I’ve spent my life in academic settings—as a child and adult, as a student and teacher, as a researcher and writer. Many of my friends are teachers, too, so I understand how August brings both angst and anticipation for the upcoming school year. Recently, I’ve been having conversations with friends about syllabi and course designs. I’ve been reading social media posts about the start of ... Read more ...
Naming Trauma as Trauma
As part of my research on epistemic injustice, I’ve been thinking about the power of naming: the power of having the linguistic resources to identify, describe, and call out varied experiences, especially experiences of injustice. Systemic oppression works in a way that denies the ability to name experiences of wrongdoing. When experiences are named, they can be acknowledged and addressed. To me, this is part of the power of the word microaggressions: the word allows ... Read more ...
Countering Resistance Fatigue with a Both/And Approach
In the past few days, I’ve seen countless posts detailing “the horrors of this administration,” the latest of which include separating families and imprisoning immigrants. I’ve seen friends describing their embodied physical and emotional pain, including pain from complicity and always too-small actions. I’ve seen friends accounting their own family stories of separation, as the history of state-sponsored violence against Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) is ... Read more ...
A Barrage of Microaggressions
Some years ago I began recording everyday microaggressions toward learning to recognize racism, which is so often coded and which whiteness has taught me not to see. This recording project aimed at building a repository of common microaggressions to teach with and practice interventions using Augusto Boal’s theatre of the oppressed. The project emerged from conversations with colleagues of color, who shared how often white colleagues failed to believe their experiences. ... Read more ...
![My emotions are all over the place and surprising me these days—a sure sign that I’m grieving. One minute I’m crying, and the next I’m laughing. Then I’m irritable, exhausted, and falling asleep or fighting sleep. I’m hopeful and despondent and desiring and imagining and so, so much more.
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This photo represents one of the upbeat moments of the past week: feeling supported by the natural world, connected with my partner, and interested in the eagle perched nearby.
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I want to hold onto this sense of what’s possible, asking myself regularly: What/who am I connected with? Curious about? Inspired by? Committed to? Longing for? Bringing into being?
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Truly in a state of both/and, may I feel the pain and possibilities of this time—not denying what’s happening or taking it all on myself, but being in/with what’s required of us (individually and collectively) at this time.
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My counselor tells me that we’re experiencing vicarious trauma in addition to individual and collective grief. We’re each having our own histories of trauma, loss, injustice, and wrongdoing activated. And we’re attempting to hold space for each other, while needing others to hold space for us. Our capacities to show up will ebb and flow (will be all over the place, much like our emotions), but staying with the question of what am I able to hold is what’s required now. So, I stay with these questions, these emotions, these awarenesses. I stay in the mess of it all.
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Thoughts on this Friday, as I try to settle my body through writing. With love. <3 Beth
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[This image shows a selfie of me and my partner, both wearing jackets and black hats, surrounded by marshlands: water and mud and a cloudy sky.]
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#reflections #reflection #emotions #emotional #emotionalliteracy #outdoors #outdoorphotography](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/c2.0.1435.1435a/s640x640/90827178_143254807199654_4490575750736160124_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=102&_nc_ohc=-knC9GpgshEAX8gwT0W&oh=76bd6a4daaa6c266b1c69c1d57546628&oe=5EA9C71D "My emotions are all over the place and surprising me these days—a sure sign that I’m grieving. One minute I’m crying, and the next I’m laughing. Then I’m irritable, exhausted, and falling asleep or fighting sleep. I’m hopeful and despondent and desiring and imagining and so, so much more.
.
This photo represents one of the upbeat moments of the past week: feeling supported by the natural world, connected with my partner, and interested in the eagle perched nearby.
.
I want to hold onto this sense of what’s possible, asking myself regularly: What/who am I connected with? Curious about? Inspired by? Committed to? Longing for? Bringing into being?
.
Truly in a state of both/and, may I feel the pain and possibilities of this time—not denying what’s happening or taking it all on myself, but being in/with what’s required of us (individually and collectively) at this time.
.
My counselor tells me that we’re experiencing vicarious trauma in addition to individual and collective grief. We’re each having our own histories of trauma, loss, injustice, and wrongdoing activated. And we’re attempting to hold space for each other, while needing others to hold space for us. Our capacities to show up will ebb and flow (will be all over the place, much like our emotions), but staying with the question of what am I able to hold is what’s required now. So, I stay with these questions, these emotions, these awarenesses. I stay in the mess of it all.
.
Thoughts on this Friday, as I try to settle my body through writing. With love. <3 Beth
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[This image shows a selfie of me and my partner, both wearing jackets and black hats, surrounded by marshlands: water and mud and a cloudy sky.]
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#reflections #reflection #emotions #emotional #emotionalliteracy #outdoors #outdoorphotography")
![Individually and collectively, we’re sitting with a LOT in this moment, including a lot of uncertainty, change, and crisis. If you’d like to connect and process with others, consider joining an upcoming lunchtime webinar: “Processing the Pandemic with Heart-Head-Hands.”
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You could drop in tomorrow, or make it a habit (joining weekly on Wednesdays).
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Learn more and register: link in bio.
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[This image shows colorful paintbrush strokes shaping a heart and has the words "online processing space" on top of the heart.]
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#processing #holdingspace #communitycare #pandemic #meetingonline #connection #heartheadhands #feeling #thinking #doing #together #gathering #gatheringonline](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/90861773_663154867774183_7278386536859769139_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=107&_nc_ohc=4Yn9uQtGwsUAX_fyUVu&oh=4d658e49c16051f1b8eae9d0159744b2&oe=5EA8F4CA "Individually and collectively, we’re sitting with a LOT in this moment, including a lot of uncertainty, change, and crisis. If you’d like to connect and process with others, consider joining an upcoming lunchtime webinar: “Processing the Pandemic with Heart-Head-Hands.”
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You could drop in tomorrow, or make it a habit (joining weekly on Wednesdays).
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Learn more and register: link in bio.
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[This image shows colorful paintbrush strokes shaping a heart and has the words \"online processing space\" on top of the heart.]
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#processing #holdingspace #communitycare #pandemic #meetingonline #connection #heartheadhands #feeling #thinking #doing #together #gathering #gatheringonline")
![So much is changing day-to-day, but one thing that consistently grounds and guides me is writing. So, connecting in online writing community feels especially important at this time.
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If you’d also like support through an online group, consider joining this next group, starting Tuesday.
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Register and learn more via link in bio.
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And if you know others who might be interested, please share with them. I find that folks find my offerings through personal connections and word-of-mouth recommendations. BIG THANKS!
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[This image shows a pink journal with “dots” written on the cover, alongside pink gemstones and gold sparkly hearts, bracelet, and ink pen: all against a white background.]
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#WritingCommunity #WritingGroup #OnlineWritingGroup #writers #writersofinstagram #writerslife #writerscommunity #writersblock #instawritersgroup #academiclife #academicwriting #blogging #grantwriting #dissertation #writingsupport #journaling #drafting #revising #recommitting #publishing #techwriting #supportforwriters #writingsupport #writerssupportingwriters #write #writing](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/90318620_493368561539197_3086907694045978767_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=101&_nc_ohc=GjGP0ReEaH8AX-Ssgee&oh=535514e9c844b2e4341c418d53df23f3&oe=5EA73C5B "So much is changing day-to-day, but one thing that consistently grounds and guides me is writing. So, connecting in online writing community feels especially important at this time.
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If you’d also like support through an online group, consider joining this next group, starting Tuesday.
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Register and learn more via link in bio.
.
And if you know others who might be interested, please share with them. I find that folks find my offerings through personal connections and word-of-mouth recommendations. BIG THANKS!
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[This image shows a pink journal with “dots” written on the cover, alongside pink gemstones and gold sparkly hearts, bracelet, and ink pen: all against a white background.]
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#WritingCommunity #WritingGroup #OnlineWritingGroup #writers #writersofinstagram #writerslife #writerscommunity #writersblock #instawritersgroup #academiclife #academicwriting #blogging #grantwriting #dissertation #writingsupport #journaling #drafting #revising #recommitting #publishing #techwriting #supportforwriters #writingsupport #writerssupportingwriters #write #writing")
![What a week and whirlwind it’s been!
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I woke this morning thinking about how I was scheduled to give a keynote and workshop with Jasmine Kar Tang at the Minnesota Writing and English (MnWE) conference today. Throughout the day, I’ve been feeling grateful for how the MnWE organizers communicated event changes, and I’m missing Minnesota friends (I hope to see you in-person in the future).
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Also this week, I shifted what would have been an in-person workshop to a Zoom meeting. There were downsides to moving online, but one upside is that the workshop, “What Matters to You Most? Career Discernment for YOUR Career Pathway,” is now online, thanks to the University of Minnesota’s Graduate School for sponsoring the workshop (and for keeping it scheduled). I share in the link in my bio, in case you might be interested in questions of commitment-driven career discernment (in the midst of #covid_19 and all the uncertainties of this time).
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There have been a LOT of uncertainties and changes day-to-day, and I’m grateful for conversations and community lifting me up this week. This includes friends and family; neighbors and mutual aid groups forming online; today’s online writing group (and a new group starting Tuesday); and folks showing up for “Processing the Pandemic with Heart-Head-Hands” (w/ gratitude for folks giving language to shared experiences).
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There’s been a lot to process each day, a lot of pivots to make, a lot of possibilities within each lesson (so many emotional and learning-full moments throughout the days). I’m not sure what’s ahead, and my heart is getting a real workout (from aching and grieving to feeling so loved) … but I sure am grateful for feeling closely connected (with myself and with others) in this moment of staying physically distant.
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Some thoughts on Friday~ with love, commitment, and willingness to face what’s ahead. ~ Beth <3
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[This image (taken from the Eventbrite page) shows a colorfully tiled V (like an arrow pointing down).]
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#Reflections #FridayFeeling #Workshops #WritingGroups #CommuinityCare #Gratitude #Support #GraduateEducation #HigherEducation #HigherEd #Academia #Careers #CareerDiscernment #CareerAdvice #reflection](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e35/c138.0.399.399a/90089552_587936011803957_6938475479033474092_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=109&_nc_ohc=KoPRsQurh8MAX8QjTvd&oh=e8c3dc4ece996a93333571044759aedb&oe=5EA94D29 "What a week and whirlwind it’s been!
.
I woke this morning thinking about how I was scheduled to give a keynote and workshop with Jasmine Kar Tang at the Minnesota Writing and English (MnWE) conference today. Throughout the day, I’ve been feeling grateful for how the MnWE organizers communicated event changes, and I’m missing Minnesota friends (I hope to see you in-person in the future).
.
Also this week, I shifted what would have been an in-person workshop to a Zoom meeting. There were downsides to moving online, but one upside is that the workshop, “What Matters to You Most? Career Discernment for YOUR Career Pathway,” is now online, thanks to the University of Minnesota’s Graduate School for sponsoring the workshop (and for keeping it scheduled). I share in the link in my bio, in case you might be interested in questions of commitment-driven career discernment (in the midst of #covid_19 and all the uncertainties of this time).
.
There have been a LOT of uncertainties and changes day-to-day, and I’m grateful for conversations and community lifting me up this week. This includes friends and family; neighbors and mutual aid groups forming online; today’s online writing group (and a new group starting Tuesday); and folks showing up for “Processing the Pandemic with Heart-Head-Hands” (w/ gratitude for folks giving language to shared experiences).
.
There’s been a lot to process each day, a lot of pivots to make, a lot of possibilities within each lesson (so many emotional and learning-full moments throughout the days). I’m not sure what’s ahead, and my heart is getting a real workout (from aching and grieving to feeling so loved) … but I sure am grateful for feeling closely connected (with myself and with others) in this moment of staying physically distant.
.
Some thoughts on Friday~ with love, commitment, and willingness to face what’s ahead. ~ Beth <3
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[This image (taken from the Eventbrite page) shows a colorfully tiled V (like an arrow pointing down).]
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#Reflections #FridayFeeling #Workshops #WritingGroups #CommuinityCare #Gratitude #Support #GraduateEducation #HigherEducation #HigherEd #Academia #Careers #CareerDiscernment #CareerAdvice #reflection")
