Double Double, Toil and Trouble: A Pump-up Letter to Activists

Caring is hard work.

As all my activist and ally friends know, it can be depressing to open up a newspaper, watch TV, or generally absorb any media about the sorry state of our universe (yes, universe - I get sad reading intergalactic news as well). We forget how our small contributions affect people and make change in all of its local ways; we burn out and think we're not doing enough; we lie awake at nights agonizing about how the next event/protest/workshop will go and whether it will be acceptably radical enough. But, having finished reading Poe as of late, I believe that he has some choice words on this subject.

Happy March 1st!

Happy March 1st, everyone! Today kicks off Women's History Month and a great deal of wonderful programming at Barnard and around New York City.

This month is also going to be busy, busy, busy. It has barely begun and I'm already in the thick of it! So, I wanted to offer a very short post today on checking in with yourself and reconnecting to the things that matter in your life. So often we think about all that we "should have" done and desire to do that it can be hard to savor all that we've accomplished and are doing right now. Although cutting up time into sections like days/months/years is an arbitrary thing, I'd like to take today as a celebration of ourselves and the causes we support.

Whether you're working on activism, research projects, zine writing, teaching workshops and giving lectures, personal enrichment, or any other task that jazzes you up, use today as a reminder that what you have done is already enough and you are only going to make it more wonderful as time goes on.

Since it's Women's History Month, feel free to peruse my articles about feminism and women.