Late to the New Moon

Saturday was the new moon, and in the spirit of adrienne maree brown’s poem, “late to the new moon,” this newsletter is also a little late. I aim to send the newsletters out each new and full moon, but this time around I was hung up on what to write. Honestly, I was frustrated. The news cycle has moved on – there is certainly plenty of news to fill the space. But, what happened at Cornell, and the underlying culture of sexual violence (because it isn’t just Cornell) hasn’t gone away. There is such a heaviness to the repetition of harm over and over again. As brown’s poem says: “we always come back here / we always cast the shadow / always with the awkward laughter that shirks accountability.”

If you met me at a sound bath or in a meditation class, you may be wondering why I’m bringing this up. Here’s why: One Small Stone is rooted in the belief that everything is interconnected. This isn’t just my belief: it is also a core Buddhist tenet as well as an extensively studied phenomenon in social justice. The good news is: what we do matters because it ripples out. We have efficacy. The harder news is that what happens “over there,” matters because it ripples back to everything else that we care about.

Climate change is usually the social justice cause that I talk about. The name "One Small Stone" was intended both as a metaphor for the ripples we make, like a pebble in a pond, as well as a reference to this planet we live on, a life-giving rock in the vast universe. One Small Stone donates money to climate change organizations, holds environment-related conversations, and - circling back to the sound baths and meditations - operates with the knowledge that when we have time to rest, we are able to come back to our most authentic selves; and from that place of grounded wisdom, we are better able to take care of ourselves, as well as the world around us. We ripple out. Self-care is community care. And, because of all these ripples, climate change isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s happening in the society we live in. It is all interrelated. So, that is my official tie-in to talking about another type of injustice…but also, even without a specific reason…we are all human. So, with that preamble, a “late to the new moon” newsletter:

First, I’m sharing an instagram post from my friend Beth Leas, with her permission. The image reads, “I believe her,” with a valuable perspective in the caption.

I also wanted to bring back this 2020 article from Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. The news cycle has moved way on from George Floyd, but we are still stuck in the reality that led to his murder. Johnson articulates one of the ways in which we all suffer when there is violence against any group. I hope you’ll read the full article, but to give a top level summary: she quotes Toni Morrison saying, “The very serious function of racism … is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work.” When we don’t fix the old problems, it’s very hard to move on and fix new ones – and there are plenty of new problems that we could be working on.

And, last but not least, I wanted to share this LinkedIn post from my friend Amy Circosta. A bit to Johnson’s point, Amy has an amazing business helping women advance and solve new problems (good for us all) – but she also has a lot of expertise in Title IX, so she is able to speak to the cycle of problems we keep recreating, which is what this post is about. I hope you’ll read the post, but also follow Amy to connect with some of her other forward-moving, inspiring work.

However you are feeling these days, I hope you are able to take time to care for yourself. Thank you each for being you, creating ripples, and weaving wonderful threads into the fabric of our world.

If any of the One Small Stone offerings call to you as ways to step out of the inertia of your life, to rest, and to tune-in to your own wisdom, I'd love to have you join one of the workshops below. And, for a little last inspiration to listen to ourselves, I’m sharing Gunilla Norris’s poem on silence (the good kind).