One of the most beautiful experiences I have had in my life to date came from one of the most unexpected places: the Staten Island Bridge. In 2019, myself and a slew of my family members banded together to run the NYC marathon in honor of my Aunt Regina who has lupus. She is currently in the hospital so please keep her in your prayers. 🦋
We were in the last wave and for most of us it was our first marathon. There was an option to leave your belongings with UPS who would drive it to the finish line in Central Park. As my protein bar jumbled around in my stomach and I wished I had gone to the bathroom at least one more time, the alarm went off for us to begin and like a slow moving caterpillar we began.
Several minutes into running, I looked to my right and a UPS driver and I made eye contact and he took his hand and slammed it down on the horn and I kid you not, I thought I was in a scene out of 300 or Gladiator. The rest of the UPS drivers followed suit and in my mind the UPS trucks and driver transformed into elephants covered in steel armor and myself and the runners became foot soldiers all united as one force.
And not a force against other people but a force against the voice(s) that live in our head that tell us we can't do it and that we aren't good enough. Next thing I knew, I was balling on the Staten Island Bridge. I was crying at finally finding this feeling and experience in the most unlikely place (cue Rhianna) and never wanting it to end completely forgetting that I had 26+miles ahead of me and the voice(s) in my head.
I've always been calling extremely sensitive (it wasn't until recently that I found out that means high emotional intelligence). I seek to find common ground - the pieces that bind us rather than separate us. (I had several experiences in my childhood that sculpted me this way and have made me ultra attune.) That's why finding this collective feeling and momentum made me a runner for life but also made me realize that anything was possible. If I could bottle up that feeling and energy and spritz it whenever I see people being unkind - I would.
I share this with you because after my best friend gave me a play by play of Reddit's virtual army that came to life this past month, which was inspired by Gamestop - I got that same feeling I did in 2019. This feeling of people coming against the bullshit that permeates throughout our culture and society. The decision to unite as one and take action. It is one of the top reasons I created Anact. To create a movement of individuals who are like ENOUGH and take action whether it's picking up trash on the street or trading through the evening to redistribute the wealth and not letting a small group of individuals determine who survives and who dies.
I am here for it.
One of my hopes for Anact is to create an Anact "army" as well as an Activist hub (think Tom's in Venice Beach, CA if you've been there) that lets the inner activist breathe and take action on what we hold near and dear to our heart. A safe space to connect with one another and be seen for who we are and not what we are expected to be or society labels us. To fight for the world we want to see and never stop fighting. I'll leave you with this piece that I recently read that captures the essence of what drives me and what I believe should drive all of us:
Mirabai Starr writes about our relationship and responsibility to the maternal energy of the universe in this way:
She is your Mother the Earth, and you belong to her. She nurtured you in her dark belly, birthed you in joy, and sustains you at great cost to herself. You have slept in her forests, beneath the safety of her canopy. You have cupped her snowmelt in your hands. You have investigated the life hidden beneath the surface of her deserts, skied her alpine slopes, and biked her slickrock canyons. You have reveled in her generosity and been grateful.
She has never asked much of you in return. Up until now, your gratitude has been enough. Your delight has been her reward. Up until now, she has not needed you as you have needed her. But that is shifting. . . .
“Tell me what is troubling you, Mama,” you whisper, exactly as she always spoke to you when you were small and frightened and bleeding from some injury (real or imagined).
“Pretty much everything, honey,” she answers. . . . “I’ll get through this,” she says. “You’re not getting rid of your old Ma so easily.” She reaches down to smooth the crease between your brows. “It’s you kids I’m worried about.” [2]
Because we have been steeped in patriarchy, we may resist the idea of a “maternal” universe, yet the pattern it reveals—that all life is birthed, held, and nurtured within this cosmos—is undoubtedly true. A cosmic egg, tended, hatched, and nurtured over time is a much better image of all growth than any transactional notion of being saved.
Let's act up.