Support
Back to Blog

“When no one knows what to do and is asking, I decide what to do, I imagine what the thing is we want to create. And we create from that vision. Otherwise we keep replicating poorly what we already know and things get worse. Courage and creativity are core. It is a failure of nerve and a failure of imagination that will lead to our failure. Our poetry, music, painting, dance, connections to nature, etc. are keys. We have to be able to touch wonder and joy…be able to imagine. If creativity, cultural ways, our ways of touching joy, don’t survive, nothing else will. Everything – our ability to be rooted, to carry grief, to be well –  is sustained by the ability to touch joy.”

Larry Ward

In this moment of grief, rage, hope, and possibility we are working to step more actively, urgently, and intentionally into practices of liberationIn that vein, we will be closing for the week of June 29 to July 3 to provide space for rest, reflection, restoration, and touching wonder and joy. During this time, it is more important than ever that we create space for rest, especially for Black, Indigenous, and non-Black POC folx

We will rest so that we can connect to our source, engage in ongoing healing practices, attend to the sacred, develop a sense of spaciousness, and free ourselves from restrictions. We will rest so we can make art, sing, dance, and touch joy. We will rest so we can listen to our bodies, our ancestors, and nature. Yes, we are integrating these practices into our work as much as possible, and we want to intentionally create time to more deeply nourish ourselves.

At Change Elemental, we are on a journey to prioritize inner work, our individual and collective practices that replenish us, enable us to experience joy, and nurture health, virtuality, clarity, and wholeness in ourselves. 

We aim to co-create a resilient network-like mycorrhizal fungi-where staff, governance team members, and partners feel cared for and care for each other. We hope you will join us in the ways that feel right for you and your team. 

An invitation and an offering:

We invite you to join us on our journey of rest, reflection, replenishment, and touching joy. Here are some questions we have been pondering:  

What is supporting you in living the vision of love, dignity, and justice now?

What is supporting you to be present and tend toward wholeness during these times? 

We offer some of the art, poetry, music, and more shared by our staff and board members in response to these prompts. 

Share your nuggets of wisdom and joy and see our offerings here.

Banner Photo Credit: Alison Lin

3 thoughts on “Prefiguring Vision, Presence, Wholeness: Pausing for Rest + Joy

  1. What is supporting me in living the vision of love, dignity and justice:
    Be supportive, empathic and caring with colleagues and friends and with my self. Connect with people who support me and are being empathic and caring with me. In terms o selfcare, it helps me preparing myself good meals, have a good class o wine, sleep enough, listen ti music and dancing.

    What supports me to be present and tend toward wholeness:
    Taking time out during the week, for example an entiree morning in order to go for a long walk in the hoods. Play with my cat, meditate and make excercises about what I am grateful for

  2. Thank you for this. I wanted to see if there are examples of organizations balancing this while also working with youth throughout the summer and school year.

Leave a Reply to Simone Haf Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Recent Posts