Beyond the collapse: freedom

Last night, a loud THWUMP startled me awake in the middle of the night. I knew what it was. My husband said he heard it start -a scraping, wruuut wruuut sound before the impact. We turned over and fell back asleep. 💤

Being the early riser in our home, I saw it first: the entire railing outside the front door was ripped off, collapsed under the weight of the heavy spring snow. 

Collapse has been on my mind. 

Eleven years ago, my revered teacher was knocked off his pedestal when I finally saw the abuse. The pedestal was built from narratives craftily designed to lift him up and degenerate my sincere aspirations. I couldn’t see it was control dressed in holy frocks until the collapse. Eighteen years of whittling away my personal agency was enough. In one fell swoop, his reign ended and a new version of mine began. 🌟

Of course it wasn’t that simple. It never is. But when the dust in my mind began to settle, reality presented itself. And in reckoning with reality, a seed of liberation took root within me. 🌱

A few months after I left that manipulative teacher, I happened to hear an interview with Meg Wheatley. It was an hour-long interview. I listened to it three times in the five hour drive to my mom’s, hitting re-wind several times. She spoke about historical rhythms and the nature of unwieldy organizations and how they exhibit specific, predictable patterns before the collapse. She spoke with objectivity and clarity about a process that can sometimes be averted and sometimes not. Most compelling is how she reassured me of life beyond the collapse by asking one essential question. 

Who do I choose to be at this time?  

Meg spoke to the part of me beyond my broken heart, beyond confusion and beyond the despair for my psyche that had been fragmented by coercive tactics. She spoke to the very core of my being. Meg spoke to my strength. To my integrity. To my capacity to face reality. 

Under its current authoritarian leadership, I believe we are experiencing the collapse of the United States Government. ❤️‍🔥 I can say this only from my gut. I know little about history and less about politics and even less about global stuff. But I know what I know about cultic, authoritarian systems, how they establish control and how they dehumanize. I watch in horror as structures and systems are being discarded by a destructive, insatiable force. 

The scaffolding of my psyche was ravaged using many of the same techniques being wielded against the American people today. Back then, I found solace, calm and strength through writing. ✍🏼 A sturdy, wild weed with deep roots began to grow as my psyche became unshackled through my words. I wrote. I spoke. To myself. To my friends. My family. My broken heart. My wildest dreams. 

Author and educator Melissa Febos wrote:

Writing is a form of freedom more accessible than many and there are forces at work that would like to withhold it from those whose stories most threaten the regimes that govern this society.

My friends. Please write. Your words are powerful and the world needs them. We all need them. More than ever. 

Who do you choose to be at this time? Come to a Friday class, the Zoom Party, or schedule a one-on-one if you want. We can face reality together, set our voices FREE. Fuck the forces that want to keep us scared, keep us compliant, keep our heads spinning. 

I hope you will turn off the radio, stop scrolling, and see what happens in the quiet of you. A deep breath. Do you want to write? 

Reply to this email with a simple no, yes, or i don’t know. I’ll follow up with the latter two and together, we can discern if I can support you. If not, I will do my damndest to point you in a direction that will. 

With a whole lot of fire in my belly, 

Gerette

PS Meg Wheatley’s work continues to inspire me. 

PSS So does Melissa Febos. 

PPSS Click on the symposium image below for more info or to register.   

PPSSS Scroll - just once (wink) and you will see the DATES for the upcoming CONNECTIONS Program.