There's a meme popping up all over social media that goes like this:

Whenever I see it, I can feel my defensive reaction, feel myself moving to anger. I want to slow down, and if you will bear with me, I want to explore what is happening with me and this meme.

For starters, it’s not true. It’s preposterous to think that living today in 2025 is anything at all like what it was to exist in 1930’s Germany/Poland/Italy/France or to have been alive and making our way in the southeastern US during the late 18th century. Even throwing the Civil Rights Movement into this list of genocides feels off balance and unclear.

The intended message is that we must get off the couch and resist, I get that.

But the shaming quality of it is stupefying. At least for me, shame is not a big motivator. And my hunch is that this comparison bothers me because it pushes a button - a button of “yes, I could be doing more.”

So, let’s turn our attention to what now?

I hear myself talking to my friends and it goes something like this:

How to Be Alive Now.

Get really big. And work with laser focus.

Get really big? This moment is demanding from me a Both/And of epic proportions.

As strange or counterintuitive as it feels, now is the time to go for your most alive self. This is how we resist fascism. We become exactly who we want and need to be.

Now is the time to be huge with our vision and our longings. Resist shrinking into a hard, small place indefinitely. We are grieving, we may be scared, and we may be rageful. Of course, these are normal reactions to deeply disturbing abuses of power.

I am also looking for opportunities to expand and hold the bigness of my desire - what might you need to feel your aliveness more? To reconnect to your own heart? Here are some prompts to consider as you picture yourself living your biggest life:

★ What values can you identify that are non-negotiable for you?

★ What is your truth or your mission in this life?

★ Now is the time to ground in what is real and right for you. Ground in the knowledge that you are held, you can foster a safety net of joy and reciprocity starting now.

★ Make a list of the people, places, and work that most bring you pleasure, joy, and dignity.

Get laser-focused with your aim!

Now that we are fully expanded into our big & beautiful truths, we need to conserve energy. I believe we need to focus - what exactly are we setting out to do each day? What is our activity level?

→Reflect and refine, my badass comrades, into the purposeful stretch of your most wonderful aim.

→Think small and mighty efforts that are right sized to your energy, pliable and joyful.

→Change directions and be nimble - avoid sticking it out and becoming resentful.

→Just like how we need at times to save our energy for getting down on the dance floor to that 1 song, choose wisely.

→Don’t hesitate to leave it all on the field, even when the field is a foosball table.

→Be generous with your resources, share your magic, and ask for help.

→Keep it mighty and tiny!

If this beautiful paradox of becoming MIGHTY and acting TINY appeals to you - join me in a coaching adventure.

Starting this month, I have space for 3 new coaching clients. Together, we can discern what will bring you the breakthroughs your heart most longs for. Click here to schedule a free 30-minute roadmap session.

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

By Franny Choi

Before the apocalypse, there was the apocalypse of boats:
boats of prisoners, boats cracking under sky-iron, boats making corpses
bloom like algae on the shore. Before the apocalypse, there was the apocalypse
of the bombed mosque. There was the apocalypse of the taxi driver warped
by flame. There was the apocalypse of the leaving, and the having left—
of my mother unsticking herself from her mother’s grave as the plane
barreled down the runway. Before the apocalypse, there was the apocalypse
of planes. There was the apocalypse of pipelines legislating their way
through sacred water, and the apocalypse of the dogs. Before which was
the apocalypse of the dogs and the hoses. Before which, the apocalypse
of dogs and slave catchers whose faces glowed by lantern-light.
Before the apocalypse, the apocalypse of bees. The apocalypse of buses.
Border fence apocalypse. Coat hanger apocalypse. Apocalypse in
the textbooks’ selective silences. There was the apocalypse of the settlement
and the soda machine; the apocalypse of the settlement and
the jars of scalps; there was the bedlam of the cannery; the radioactive rain;
the chairless martyr demanding a name. I was born from an apocalypse
and have come to tell you what I know—which is that the apocalypse began
when Columbus praised God and lowered his anchor. It began when a continent
was drawn into cutlets. It began when Kublai Khan told Marco, Begin
at the beginning. By the time the apocalypse began, the world had already
ended. It ended every day for a century or two. It ended, and another ending
world spun in its place. It ended, and we woke up and ordered Greek coffees,
drew the hot liquid through our teeth, as everywhere, the apocalypse rumbled,
the apocalypse remembered, our dear, beloved apocalypse—it drifted
slowly from the trees all around us, so loud we stopped hearing it.

Provocations and Nourishment

Supporting the Transgender People in Your Life: A Guide to Being a Good Ally

Also, I am happy to offer “How to be a Great Cis Ally” at no cost to the first three requests I receive. I know there are organizations and individuals seeking ways to be more present to the needs of gender queer and trans folks.

Tangle is a bipartisan news subscription service. “Political news is broken. We’re fixing it. We're a non-partisan politics newsletter that gives you a 360-degree view on the news. No spin. No clickbait. Opinions from the left, right, and center so you can decide. Join over 300,000 independent thinkers in 55+ countries. Unbiased news for busy people.”

I found out about Tangle by listening to This American Life, episode 845, “A Small Thing That Gives Me a Tiny Shred of Hope.”

 Upcoming Opportunities

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Toward Justice,

Evangeline

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