Tiny Hopeful Action to Get Yourself Going

For starters, I recommend these two things

The news has been bleak lately, and the general mood of the world seems to be following suit. In an effort to stay proactive and to get hopeful muscles moving again, I’d like to share two ease-back-into-things actions that I find to be particularly healing for the moment. They’re also good for the world and a bit rebellious in their own ways.

Watch your latest city council meeting.

Many municipalities stream their meetings, record them, and post them online afterwards. So, this action item is one you can do lying in bed. You can walk around the house and listen to it like a podcast. You could join live if you felt so bold.

I did this earlier in the week, and it warmed my heart. Mundane as the proceedings can be, I know that there are lots of people working passionately about each bullet point on the agenda. It is inspiring to witness. Attending these meetings can also be a great way to see what’s going on around you and to get plugged into local activities.

There is a portion at the beginning of each meeting for public comment, and it is packed full of people who care deeply about your community. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear from non profit organizations or citizen groups. They talk about the work they’re doing, an award they received, or some other noteworthy accomplishment. You also may see individual citizens bringing up an issue or posing a request to the council. I once saw city workers fighting for union rights.

No matter how wide-reaching or obscure a topic is here, council meetings showcase people showing up and doing what they can to make things better.

In the big scheme of things, us paying attention to what is going on at our local levels helps us fight against shady Project 2025 inspired legislation taking root.

Unmanicure a Landscape

There was a great therapy that I once did from the top of a hill with a container of bubbles. As I thought about this nagging memory that was really hard to let go, I blew a slew of bubbles and watched as they floated away and popped. It kind of set in my memory that I was done with it. I didn’t need to carry it with me.

Right now I could use a concrete reminder that I am a fighter. A visual affirmation that I’m a rebel against the stupid system that brought us another Trump win. That I’m not taking this lying down, and I have power.

My first instinct for this was to grow something wild. In a country where much of our problematic history has come from the claiming and taming of wild land, and where many of our current wealth disparity and environmental issues come from private land ownership, I think we should look at the soil.

Going all the way back to Thomas Jefferson, expansive, well-manicured lawns have been a status symbol in America. Well-manicured lawns and pricey exotic plants showcase wealth. In his day, he was flaunting his force of slave labor and his sheep that it took to maintain the land. It also was a way for him to illustrate his international importance, that he had great connections all over the world where he could get obscure ornamental plants.

Beautiful as they may be, landscapes like this are harmful. They wreak havoc on natural systems, introducing and harboring invasive species and limiting habitats for native ones. They are also so unnecessary.

To me, pristine lawns scream going along with the status quo, keeping up with the Jones’s, and a desperate desire to overcome nature. They are tied to restrictive and abusive home owners associations, irresponsible water usage, and ultra conservative home improvement stores. I could go on, but I’ll cut myself off here.

My act of defiance is to section off a small portion of our yard, over by the edge. I’m dumping a couple bags of dirt and scattering two packets of wild flower seeds. I’ll water them, cover them with leaves, and just let them grow as they will. It’s a little patch of land in my care that I’m giving back to the world. That I symbolically take out of the neoliberal capitalist system, prioritizing the butterflies, bees, and bunnies over all else.

That I look at and remember that just as land can heal, we can heal. Just as shoots grow from the earth, surrounded by the most oppressive and limited environment, the resistance too will rise. This world is regenerative, and so are we.

Let me know what you are doing!

Whether these ideas help you, or you’ve found your own techniques for moving forward, please share your experience getting back on your feet the last couple of weeks.

With love and hope for the future,

Stephanie

What heals you right now?