INSPIRATION
CREATION THEORY
~RIVER SMITH
If there is a beginning, I know it is flooded with joy.
Why is it so hard to believe if there is a design,
that it is etched in love, thrown on a wheel of possibilities,
bathed in a brew of pleasure?
Why else would our skin be so large and receptive to ecstasy
if it's not our destiny?
Why else would our souls sing so loudly
when we stumble upon each other?
Why else would our muscles long for the deep touch
waiting in the fingertips and strong hands of a
brother-sister-lover?
Why else would our ears hear the music,
our blood feel the rhythm of every beating heart,
every pit of pattering,
as the rain smacks the window,
the leaf,
our beautiful faces?
​
Art Installation by Victoria Kahakina
THE UNACCEPTABLE IS NOW HERE
~River Smith
The unacceptable is now here. Disinformation over fact. Fear over hope. Division over community . Disrespect over acceptance. The unacceptable is now here. Prejudice over understanding. Vengeance over justice. A man with an enemies list and no understanding of democracy or history or government or science the unacceptable is now here
But the dream remains.
The dream remains
Though our hearts may be heavy or even broken, our hopes temporarily buried in the crash of this disaster, the dream remains.
Our anxiety soaring, our fears indigestible, our heavy hearts aching so,
The Dream remains.
This is a multi-millennial, multicultural effort and journey passed on and on and passed along to us as Love and kindness and voice and choice and the noise of aspiring justice, of a yearning learning caring growing community which continues to blossom generation upon generation upon millennium upon generation because
The dream remains.
It is in hearts and voices of each new generation as it unfolds
It was here long before us
It will fill hearts long beyond us, Because the dream remains.
Yes, unacceptable is now here, but the dream remains
The whole world can feel it as our love and hope continue the struggle to heal it
Because the dream remains.
~
JOANNA MACY RESOURCES
We Are The Great Turning Podcast
on Sounds True, Apple, YouTube
Free training: http//www.ActiveHope.training
AMERICAN DREAMER
Gratitude to the Brilliant Rob Breszny
The essay below is written by one of my new favorite authors, Joan Westenberg. She’s here: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/author/joan/
Your World Is Burning. Here's What You Can Actually Do About It
​Everything hurts right now.
You open your phone. War. Collapse. Crisis. Corruption. Some days, it feels like watching the world burn down to ash in real-time.
The weight of powerlessness settles in.
The crush of too much information, too little agency.
The vertigo of trying to find solid ground in shifting sand.
But powerlessness is a lie we tell ourselves.
Your circle of control exists. It’s real. Not as a motivational concept or a bullshit management framework but as the basic building block of action.
You control more than you think:
- How you spend the next hour
- Where you direct your energy
- The problems you choose to solve
- Who you help
- What you build
- When you act
- Why you move
Notice what’s missing from that list: Other people. Markets. Systems. Politics. The vast machinery of the world that occupies so much mental space.
This isn’t about retreating from those realities. It’s about recognizing where real leverage exists.
The truth is brutal but liberating: The only way to deal with a world on fire is to focus on putting out the flames you can actually reach.
Not because it’s all you deserve. Not because it’s all you’re capable of. But because it’s where real impact happens while everyone else is paralyzed by the spectacle of collapse.
You can doomscroll, or you can create.
You can rant, or you can build.
You can theorize, or you can act.
You can wish, or you can work.
The world is burning whether you watch it, read about it, spiral over it - or not.
But in your circle of control, you can build something that matters.
Something real.
Something that helps.
Real power lives in the granular. It’s in the newsletter you publish about local issues nobody else covers. It’s in the mutual aid network you start with three neighbors that grows to thirty.
It’s in the skill-sharing workshops you organize in your garage. It’s in the community garden you plant in the abandoned lot. It’s in the tech support hours you offer seniors at the local library.
It’s in the tools and knowledge you share without waiting for permission or platforms. Small actions, multiplied by consistency, backed by a commitment to a specific place and specific people.
It’s in your circle of control.
Start there.
The rest is noise.
• More good news here: tinyurl.com/RedemptiveNews
• 86 Stories of Progress: tinyurl.com/FixingTheNews
• Good News Network: goodnewsnetwork.org
• Reasons To Be Cheerful: reasonstobecheerful.world
• Yes! magazine: yesmagazine.org
• Uplifting News: reddit.com/r/UpliftingNews
