Resources for the Year(s) Ahead
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer them.”
A friend reminded me of this quotation from Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God years ago and I think of it often now, especially as one year turns into another.
2024 felt to me like a year that asked a lot of questions. About Gaza and free speech on campuses and the resurgence of overt anti-Semitism. About our preparedness for and response to climate change. About leadership and massive institutions and bodily autonomy.
On a personal level, I sat with questions, too, feeling my way through many new experiences: Jackson having a new, time-intensive job; Kai going to a new school; tending my first garden; dedicating serious time and resources to my health; taking many trips for the first time in 5 years.
From my work with Following Energy (thank you Staci for my training), I’ve learned that the energy we’re noticing in our own lives is often reflected in the collective—and vice versa. So while I don’t have any answers for the bigger questions above, I can feel some answers starting to settle into my system, at least for my life, at least for 2025. I share them in case they provide an insight into a question you’re also sitting with.
I will look change in the eye, no matter how inconvenient, uncomfortable, or ugly, and prepare for its inevitability.
I will practice radical acts of paradox-holding, finding the both/and reality needed for transformative, creative, collaboration.
I will focus on building fewer, stronger relationships and letting go of the myth of constant “connection.”
I also want to share some of the resources that have helped me arrive at these thoughts and have generally helped me feel grounded through these uncertain times.
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
I’ve been meaning to read Octavia’s work for years and I appreciate that the energy sent me to this book first. This speculative fiction helped me wrap my mind around what a future of climate change and the U.S.A.’s economic decline could really feel like, in a way no non-fiction writing has. As hard as it can be to read, it also provides a powerful foundation for how to survive in any world where past expectations of safety and predictability are rapidly crumbling.
How to Survive The End of the World, Autumn and Adrienne Maree Brown
A friend recommended this podcast to me after hearing me gush about Parable of the Sower (thanks Bonnie!). Sisters Adrienne Maree and Autumn Brown start many episodes with quotes from Octavia’s work, and their own writing and thinking is deeply informed by Octavia and part of her lineage. They are also deeply skilled at holding paradox and have been doing transformative justice work for decades, coming from a place of compassion, curiosity, and connection to the natural world that I love. I already admired Adrienne Maree’s work, including Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, and We Will Not Cancel Us and have grown to equally appreciate Autumn’s deep thinking in this space.
Unbound: A Woman’s Guide To Power, Kasia Urbaniak
When this book was recommended in my women solopreneurs group, I inwardly rolled my eyes. Another book telling women how to “lean in” and “own their power.” No thank you. But when the other women started sharing about how powerful—and challenging—it was to read, I decided to give it a chance. Of the hundreds of self-help books I’ve read, this honestly is one of the most world-changing ones. Perhaps it will pique your interest (as it did mine) to hear the author studied Taoist alchemy in one of the oldest female-led monasteries in China, and paid for it as a professional dominatrix. Or that she equates yin and yang, attention in and attention out, to an ideal sub and dom relationship. Best of all, the book is packed with practices and she gives instruction for group activities to shift out of our “good girl conditioning” and take up the space we need to create the world we want to live in.
Somatic Coaching
In November, I completed a 6-month online training in somatic coaching provided by the Strozzi Institute through Coaches Rising. It has deepened and further energized my knowing that true transformation is most available when we work with the complete, complex system that is our soma (body, mind, spirit). What I’ve learned through trainings like this is that I will (must) go on the journey and receive the benefits in order to share them with my clients. In addition to engaging with practices in the classes, and a practice group with other students, I’m also working with a somatic coach now and clearly seeing the benefits of clarifying what I’m committed to and then shifting into shapes that support that commitment. I’m going to offer a few discounted somatic coaching packages in 2025 so I can start practicing what I’m learning. If you’re interested, I’d love to chat.
Group Work!
My deepest transformation has come through groups: dance ceremony, facilitator training, cohort coaching, professional masterminds. Because we get to learn from other’s experiences, not just our own. Because we get to grow relationship and feel accountable. Because we grow a shared story and vocabulary we can lean into to meet future challenges. This year I created a Creative Practice Group for a handful of former and current clients. I started a monthly group for myself with my friend Velma and two other heart-centered women solopreneurs (Tami and Tricia). Velma and I also cofacilitated a public 7Directions Dance Ceremony here in Athens. And I participated in a coaches mastermind with Barb Patterson. Hone, where I’m a coach facilitator, also started offering group coaching, which I’m leading as schedules allow. It’s a beautiful both/and with my 1:1 work and I’m imagining new ways to offer group work in 2025. Let me know if you’d like to stay in the loop.
