Over the holidays, in the midst of a cozy week off with family, I was interrupted by a push notification: Colorado Supreme Court Disqualifies Trump from 2024 ballot.
In less than a minute flat, my mind had spun off into a dizzying spiral of potential scenarios, from what would happen if Trump is elected to what would happen if he is not elected. None of my imagined scenarios were particularly reassuring, and as I began to layer other potential concerns over our country's coming electoral quagmire, my anxiety increased:
From the weakening of democracy to the rise of fascism - from our rapidly accelerating climate crisis to the ongoing realities of racism, capitalism and neocolonialism - from the increase of state conflict worldwide to the same of state collapse - 2024 was looking kind of bleak.
The Great Unraveling
Molly Young Brown in a recent podcast interview called this phenomenon "polycrisis" - which she says originates in a our separation from each other and from the earth. And Buddhist thinker and theologian Joanna Macy calls this moment we are experiencing The Great Unraveling.
But as both Brown and Macy (and many others) point out: if our systems are grounded in a sense of separation - from each other, from the land, from our sense of the sacred - then what is there to fear, really, in their demise?
Rather than worrying about what might happen in the future, we might instead begin to dream and imagine how we can be a part of shaping our collective future - a future grounded in love and liberation for all beings on this sacred planet.
Building a Future in Love
As my own fear and anxiety itself began to unravel, I remembered that I am not alone. Among other beloveds, I have the privilege to walk alongside all of you.
And even more, I remembered that Leaven's Strategic Goals for 2024 and 2025 beckon us toward that same future rooted in love and liberation:
(1) Grounding ourselves in a radical culture of belonging, we will (2) organize for justice, considering (3) becoming a Community Resilience Hub.
Together, we'll (4) nurture our relationship to the sacred in post-religious spaces.
And we'll do all of this while tending to Leaven's (and, I hope, our wider community's) (5) financial sustainability.
When all is said and done, what we have is our relationships with each other, with the sacred, and with our precious earth. This 2024, I want to stay close to Leaven’s intentions - trusting that they will bridge us toward a future of love and liberation for all beings.
