f*uck those emails

but not this one

Yesterday, it was announced that Michelle Obama will not attend Trump’s inauguration. Without a reason. Just a no. I posted about it on Instagram and here are some of the comments I got:

This year is coming at us so fast, and, especially as women or purpose-driven people, we are inclined to just speed up with it. I talked to a friend yesterday who is moving at warp speed and it bit her in the ass (as it tends to do) and she said she feels like she’s just spinning. Like the universe is telling her to slow down.

But I have so much to do, she said.

Just don’t do it, was my response.

That’s the second time I’ve given that advice this week. The other day, I spoke with a colleague who was lamenting their lack of productivity through grief.

I have like 892 unanswered emails, they said.

Fuck those emails, was my response.

Our only “job” right now is to be human. By breathing, by existing, by resting our eyes, by finding pockets of joy, we are completing our job. That is it. That is all that is required of us. Because none of this shit is normal. No matter how much the people in power are trying to trick us into believing it’s business as usual, it isn’t. The world feels like a woven basket that has lost its ravel. It is coming undone, and we are falling through the cracks.

So, please. For the love of god. Fuck. those. emails. Which is, ironically, the same advice my spinning out friend gave me just a few weeks ago—she said, The biggest gift you can give yourself is just to delete all of them—but now it was my turn to say it to her. Because we always forget. We always need a reminder. There always seems to be too much going on to remember to slow down, which is by design. Because this world was built that way. This world banks on us being too harried, too spun out, and too defeated to see clearly. To have a moment to breathe and formulate a plan of action. A plan of change. A plan of care.

Fuck that, is my response.

Look, I know we all have to pay our bills and do our actual jobs, but fuck all that other stuff we put on ourselves. Yall know exactly what I’m talking about. The stuff that eats at our time and our peace. The stuff that isn’t really all that important. The stuff that can, actually, wait.

There’s so much beauty when we slow down and give ourselves some grace. It gives us time to hear ourselves and our intuition, which is what leads to a life well aligned, which leads to joy and peace, which is the true resistance. Which is what I tried to say yesterday in this video, but I was moving so fast I didn’t realize half of it was cut off. Lol @ me trying to speak to slowing down while simultaneously spinning out.

But it’s ok. Here it is (below) in its totality. It all ebbs and flows. We learn and we forget and we learn again. But the baseline is that no is a complete sentence. You can just say it. Just like that. Just like Michelle. Which is something the middle-aged white men seemed to have learned long ago, so maybe that’s one thing we can take from their playbook. Along with world domination.

My sister facetimed me yesterday post my hyper-productivity-trauma-response-survival-mode-induced hysteria and caught me playing solitaire. Like with an actual deck of cards, seven neat little rows laid out in front of me, a webinar on in the background that I had forgotten about, and she started laughing. “You’re just at home playing solitaire?” she asked.

You damn right, was my response.

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The first ever nah brah political shitstorm prep sesh UPDATE!

It went so well! It felt so good! It gave me hope! And a sense of community!

Last week, I convened a small group of people who were looking to get their political lives in order. We met, we talked about our vision for a more just world, and we did some political shitstorm prep—looking up our elected officials, sharing resources, and aligning our passion with our action.

We are coming up on a real clusterfuck of a time—the inauguration is Monday, and social media platforms are becoming more and more destabilized. Now, more than ever, we need to strengthen our community ties on our terms. So, I will be offering the political shitstorm prep and community zooms on a regular basis. I was going to rush and set everything up so I could announce this week, but then I gave myself some grace. I’ll have more info for you next week.

In the meantime, take care of yourself. Go take a bath and maybe watch Rush Hour (1, 2, and 3).