Stretching

Artist: Lydia Grijalva

The Humboldt County Women's March is experiencing birthing pains. The original leaders have postponed the march until International Women's Day due to lack of leadership participation of women of color and due to indigenous boycotting of the event. When I first heard this I felt the surge of "yes!" - let's get below a rally and march and look at the deeper issues of injustice in our community. So I attended the subsequent meeting of this group to look at next steps and am both enlivened and challenged by it.

This is calling me to stretch and widen my perspective - exactly what I've been wanting since the first march, and it is the first time I'm really feeling it. Our community is in a chaotic mess at the moment and I find that exciting, like the transitional stage of labor, it's painful and messy, but if we are willing to breathe and stretch way beyond our comfort we may begin to birth something new that can be worked with. It will be exhausting.