Fill your internal reserves

Hello! Welcome to the next edition of my weekly habit of sharing.

I took off a few weeks from posting on Instagram. I still spent time in my art studio every day, committed as I am to a daily art practice, but I think like everyone else I’ve been overwhelmed by the world and filled with all the emotions that come up when living through a crisis (or three or ten!).

I’ve shared some of that here in my weekly e-newsletter.

Let’s count them…1) Spreading global pandemic…2) Imminent climate catastrophe…3) Intolerable systemic racism, 4) Corruption and deceit at all levels of power, 5) Upcoming U.S. election…...and the list unfortunately does go on.

Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing, drawing pictures.

But here’s what I know better:

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its a malevolence…” Toni Morrison

*****

As citizens and humans we are called to attend to both our external and internal worlds. One is not exclusive of the other. We can and should use our gifts and our voices to work for a better world. Even when we’re 99 years old (you’ll love this one!)

But none of us can do that if we don’t also attend to our internal selves. I created this piece with that thought in mind:

In these times especially, anxiety and fear can quickly take over. They trick us into believing we are in survival mode—that personal crisis is upon us, when actually in that moment no such event is happening.

Without internal reserves, something to hold onto internally, we can get swept away into believing otherwise.

Your oxygen mask is left dangling and you can’t help yourself or the person next to you either.

*****

There are so many reasons why I am committed to a daily art practice, but maybe the first is to drop into the present moment. Here I tumble and toss ideas around (one of my favorite activities) and I learn and grow. It’s where I come alive.

This is no trivial matter.

 Whatever it is that you do that makes you come alive—do that. It’s what fills your internal reserves for when you need it in the world.

 *****

Another thing.

Each time I set out to create something new, I have to put my Self into the unknown. Which if you think about it is exactly where we find ourselves in Life. It’s all unknown.

In front of the blank page uncertainty can gobble me up (What if I’m going the wrong way? What if there’s nothing here? What if...I. Can’t. Do. It. ?). But I do it anyway. Day after day.

My art practice is a practice mostly of facing fear, to be honest. I have to learn and re-learn how to disarm. To lower my defenses (because I forget).

Put down fear and self judgement.

Pick up curiosity.

Trust that I’ll create something pleasing—or learn something.

And I do learn all kinds of things about artmaking. I’m growing my skills, improving what I know about drawing and what I can do. I love that.

But also? I’m learning how to face the unknown.

And if there’s anything we can all learn right now living with so much that is unknown, it’s that.

So. What is your commitment to yourself? What can you do in your life that makes you regularly happy and fulfilled, that fills your inner reserves, even as you face the unknown?

One thing I can report is that the more you do for your Self, the more you’ll have for others and the world.

*****

And now here are some excellent links this week:

How and when can the coronavirus vaccine become a reality? This report from interviewing scientists examines how close they actually are (even though it will take much more time).

Why e-mobility must be at the heart of the green recovery Why can’t governments worldwide just DO this? How can we make it so?

The secular sacred This is such a beautiful way of explaining our deep connection with nature.

The danger of single stories - racism lies in our stories

40% of black owned businesses not expected to survive - indirect (or direct?) consequences of the pandemic

It’s time for specific and local change:

Redlining was banned 50 years ago. It’s still hurting minorities today.

17 Resources to learn about gentrification, racial injustice in the bay area

Peace and joy until next week—

Denise

P.S. If you know others who would enjoy this newsletter, please share this email. All are welcome to subscribe.

Heart Opening

Hello! Welcome to the next edition of my weekly habit of sharing.

Hmmm. It seems to me as I read and listen to black writers and speakers, I haven’t had nearly enough empathy. I think that’s my big takeaway this week. I felt sympathy. I recognized injustice (to some extent), but I simply did not feel the pain of fellow human beings and citizens enough.

Now I think that when people ask, “What can we do?”—and the good news is a whole lot of us white people are asking that question in this moment of history—I know it begins with empathy. Really understanding and feeling the pain of what happens to fellow human beings—which then becomes our pain too.

For the record, empathy is just where we begin. My mind continues to absorb ideas and let them tumble into concrete things we can do to make change. To take real action. But for now?

I have three must listen-to podcast episodes for you. And then, a couple of other things I think are worth checking out.

I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much. If you want to get educated on the topic of racism and social justice, oh my gosh, there is so much available to us.

But I think my links this week cut through the clutter. They’re a good start, and they’re pretty easily digestible. If you haven’t listened to podcasts much, you may discover that you can get a lot in in a little time—WHILE YOUR’E DOING SOMETHING ELSE. Cook, clean, drive, work on your art… And meanwhile? I think you’ll find your heart opening with these episodes.

Three Must Listen-To podcast Episodes:

(To listen to these episodes, you can click on these links and listen via your browser—or you can also find them on your podcast platform of choice such as Stichr, Spotify or my favorite, Overcast (some available for free in the App store).

Brene Brown podcast, Unlocking Us, with Austin Channing Brown, author of I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

Oprah”s SuperSoul Conversations Part 1 and Part 2. ( believe you can view these on YouTube, too).

This is a two part panel discussion with politician Stacey Abrams, journalist Charles M. Blow, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms,  filmmaker Ava DuVernay,  author Jennifer Eberhardt, journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning founder of the 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones, historian and author Ibram X. Kendi, actor David Oyelowo, Color of Change president Rashad Robinson, and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign  Bishop Dr. William J. Barber II. 

More recommendations:

I have to share this: Protesters in Boston are setting off fireworks - so lovely…and who knew about the fireworks?

I am STILL loving How to Be an Anti-Racist with Ibram X. Kendi (on the panel above)—historical perspective mixed with lived memoir. It’s also available by audiobook…

I just ordered I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. After listening to her interview above, how could I not?

Peace and joy until next week—

Denise

P.S. If you know others who would enjoy this newsletter, please share this email. All are welcome to subscribe.

Unmasking the moment

Hello! Welcome to the next edition of my weekly habit of sharing.

If you know me you know that I am not a follower of any Religion. But I am spiritual. I believe that, like you, I am ”a spiritual being having a human experience” and I’m endlessly curious about this experience we call Life.

So it is with a spiritual lens that I see that humanity is having a moment right now.

We all feel it—we are steeped in it right now—on the internet and if you’re like me, in every single conversation with friends, family and strangers these days. I sit with it within myself: a huge swell of emotions, an uprising of anger, fear, outrage, guilt, grief…

I want solutions. Right now. Make the virus go away. End racism. Stop injustices. Stop destroying the planet. Fix all that is wrong with our country and our world. DO something. Right now. How can I fix this? How can we fix this? More emotions uprising.

Yet the answers aren’t simple—and solutions won’t happen in a short timeframe. Also, maybe in the grand scheme of things unknown, maybe this is the Moment to see more clearly. To understand more deeply. Maybe this is our work.

Rob Bell says on his podcast this week that we as a human society—like other ancient societies before us—seem to be experiencing what he calls The Great Unmasking. And in fact this seeing and naming what IS is a necessary first step to creating what comes next:

“You cannot have the new world until you have fully named and unmasked all that’s wrong with the present world. You cannot have a new, higher, better order until you have been brutally honest about with everything that is corrupt and destructive about this order.”

—and then out of deep understanding, a moral revolution.

May it be so.

Privilege Is

The Damage that White Onlookers Inflict

21 Racial Micro-Aggressions You Hear on a Daily Basis

We are Not the Virus. We are the Kamikazes.

The Power of 2020 and America’s Promise

“Have a look at the New York City Budget for the fiscal year 2020 and you will very quickly note the priorities (policing) for public expenditures and for cuts (social services of health, education and youth services). A quick back of the envelope public expenditure review reveals and illustrates the fiscal story for the fault-lines nourishing and giving free rein to the virility of both viruses of anti blackness and of the pandemic. And this is the story of masked interventions for maintaining inequity and cruelty…”

Finally, I’m reading How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi—I highly recommend it. First new idea: The opposite of racist is NOT not racist. It’s antiracist.

Peace and joy until next week—

Denise

P.S. If you know others who would enjoy this newsletter, please share this email. All are welcome to subscribe.

A prayer for the dead and the living

Hello! Welcome to the next edition of my weekly habit of sharing.

Wow. What a week. I struggle to find words. My heart goes out to the families and to George Floyd …Ahmed Arboury …Breanna Taylor…

With these senseless, awful deaths, may we all wake up to the truth that people of color in this country are too often brutalized, marginalized, and unjustly treated because of the color of their skin. And that this malevolence is built into an entire system and worldview of white supremacy. And that this system is inherited over centuries of industrialized colonization—baked into our history, our institutions, our communities and into each of us individually because we live here.

And may we each find more empathy and understanding before we can dismantle, rebuild and heal.

An article: Protests, Uprisings and Race War

A video: Tyrone Edwards Shares

Peace and joy until next week—

Denise

P.S. Feel free to share this email. All are welcome to subscribe.