“The search for love continues even in the face of great odds.”
—graffiti message shared by bell hooks (All About Love xv)
I’ve written previously about the roller coaster of emotions I’m currently riding—fired up one minute and laid low the next. My guess is this up-down, high-low rhythm will be my norm for some time to come.
At one point, I’m knocked down by the force of historic, mounting injustice; the next I’m connecting with and inspired by others truly committed to racial justice. One day I’m literally curled up from the HURT of this era of dehumanizing pain; the next I’m filled up with HOPE from seeing people show up in persistent and powerful ways.
This morning I’ve riding high and want to share why, as I hope these resources might help with finding love, fueling justice:
- I’m truly inspired after seeing activist Shaun King speak last night here in Milwaukee. I’m deeply grateful for his reporting and calls to action via social media.
- I’m learning so much from working with America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM). I really appreciate their “Breaking News” and online collections.
- I’m feeling unbridled by reading Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/LaFrontera and planning an experiential gallery walk for class today. I’m committing (again) to working against all forms of injustice, including linguistic prejudice.
- I’m lit by sharing bell hooks’s All About Love: New Visions—the perfect book for Valentine’s Day—through “love notes” to students and colleagues.
Today is a day when so many of us celebrate love. May we search for love in the face of great odds. May we work to understand love better—to truly know and create it in our lives. May we build the emotional literacies, stamina, and resiliency needed for addressing our own complicity in injustice. May we seek to enact love, as we make actionable commitments to justice.
“To truly love we must learn to mix ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication.”
—bell hooks (All About Love 5)
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This post is written by Beth Godbee for Heart-Head-Hands.com. Please consider liking this blog on FB and following the blog via email. Thanks!
![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.”
.
You could drop in tomorrow, or make it a habit (joining weekly on Wednesdays).
.
Learn more and register: link in bio.
.
.
[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.
.
If you’d also like support through an online group, consider joining this next group, starting Tuesday.
.
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!
.
.
[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).
.
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
.
.
[This image (taken from the Eventbrite page) shows a colorfully tiled V (like an arrow pointing down).]
.
#Reflections #FridayFeeling #Workshops #WritingGroups #CommuinityCare #Gratitude #Support #GraduateEducation #HigherEducation #HigherEd #Academia #Careers #CareerDiscernment #CareerAdvice #reflection")
Love this. =) <3
Thanks, Sarah, and sending love! Thanks for your support, for reading, for standing beside me. Deep gratitude.