Please enjoy our weekly family resources taken from the Soulful Home packet to continue exploration of our monthly themes at home.
June: Delight
From the Mailbox
Our literal mailboxes connect us to the wide world outside, sometimes with messages asking things from us (a donation letter or flyer encouraging us to vote), sometimes with messages offering us gifts (a letter from a friend or a special delivery). Our “From the Mailbox" section applies this metaphor to today’s call for families to engage in the work of dismantling white supremacy culture within the context of climate crisis. And so, we open and accept these “invitations” to join those wise leaders and organizations who are co-creating an anti-racist and environmentally responsible future.
Delight in Life on Earth
Self-described “young climate queer feminist” Maria Alejandra Escalante writes about the centrality of joy and pleasure in her activist work. Escalante describes how focusing on working on issues and in places where one’s “energy rises” adds the powerful qualities of “camaraderie” and “care” to one’s efforts, which make the work not only sustainable, but delightful! Escalante is the Senior Advocacy Officer for Climate and Environmental Justice at FRIDA, The Young Feminist Fund. The fund provides unrestricted funds to emerging young feminist groups all over the world.
Where in your life have you experienced hard work that is also joyful? How could delight amplify your personal or community endeavors for climate justice? Is it time to rejuvenate your own or your community’s commitments with a few of the delights of being alive? What might that look like?
Invitation:
● Of course, you can donate directly to FRIDA and provide resources for young feminists all over the world, and especially in the southern hemisphere. You can also use this as inspiration to find a young feminist group working in your own community.
● In other writing Escalante describes salsa dancing as a way to experience joy in the body. What is that pure-delight experience for you? Put time on your calendar to engage in that activity this month as an important aspect of your advocacy or activism.
● In what ways is it a delight for you to support others? Could you support the work of other climate-concerned groups in these ways–providing childcare, cooking a meal for a meeting, paying for bodywork sessions?
