What a bloody dramatic title! I know… but hear me out.

Many of the (mostly) women I’ve spoken to in this past year are either in some kind of pain or on autopilot, surviving the days and making life work for their families.

All of these people are incredible humans.

All of them care deeply about those they love.

All of them want a better future for our  children.

And yet, they – like me – are often either in survival mode or feeling the pain of everything going on so deeply that despair threatens.

But I think there’s a lot of power in that… if we are brave enough to use it.

Every single time we’ve spoken about this pain collectively, my heart has felt safer, and the weeks afterwards have felt lighter. Like a sharing of the load.

Every time I share my survival state, or my overwhelm, it lessens – and every time I offer solidarity or sit in space, the same is true.

I listened to an analogy that said, if you go into the woods with a friend and fall and break a leg, the pain will stop you in your tracks. You’ll wait for help, because someone is there but if you have the same fall alone, your brain would block out the pain so that you could hobble to safety.

It’s the same with our collective pain – regardless of where it stems from. As the planets shift and there’s more talk of revolution and reclaiming; I think that it is in the feeling of our pain, and the sharing of it that we will build the communities we need.

Community care is far more essential that the current self-care society wants us to believe. If we can share our pain and hold each other in community, we become like the person in the woods waiting for help, protected by the pain we are feeling.

It’s messy, but it gives me hope. How does it make you feel?

For tonight, that’s enough.

With love,

Rohana x