Rooted & Resourced: A tiny green shoot, and the promise of more to come...
April News. Announcing a soon-to-come new name and purpose for this newsletter: Rooted and Resourced will be a Newsletter About Building A Movement of Resistance and Resilience in Perilous Times
Dear friend,
Today is Easter Sunday in my religious tradition. It is also Earth Day. Our Jewish friends are celebrating Passover. Never in our lifetime has it been more important to remember and practice the path of liberation from deathly regimes and the return to an embrace of the sacredness of all life. However you are doing that today, I honor you and celebrate life’s renewing capabilities with you.
I have written much less frequently since November 2024 when Trump won the presidency. Although I have been quiet here, writing less frequently, I have not been inactive or disengaged. Quite the contrary. I have been listening on all levels: I have been following the news closely as I also keep my fingers on the pulse of my local community through a network of close friends and colleagues who serve the most vulnerable in our community: our children, especially our trans, Black and Brown children.
As I do this outward listening, I am also listening inwardly: I have been deepening into my personal contemplative practices like never before in my life. I have also been leaning into my closest personal relationships, the relationships where we help one another face what is real with tenderness and courage.
In the quiet, we are rooting down and resourcing, and we are orienting to this moment.
We are in times more dire than any we have known in our lifetime. The perils facing the most vulnerable among us cannot be overstated. To be clear, the “most vulnerable” includes all young people; queer and trans people (and the parents of trans youth); Black, African American and BIPOC communities, immigrants, seniors, ill people, and poor and low income people.
“The vulnerable” is a widening swath of society, and even if you are not (yet) fully in this group, you too are made vulnerable because all people are made vulnerable by a regime that is dismantling our democracy and punishing dissenters and resisters in lawless ways. This is both the terrible news, and also, weirdly, the good news. In a way, we have never before all been “in it together” to quite this extent.
The little bubble of those who are protected from the harm-to-come is shrinking.
The urgency and opportunity for building collective power has never been more ripe than it is right now. This moment in history invites us to dare to become all that we can be, personally and collectively, in the service of love and justice.
I think many of us feel the perils and possibilities of this moment. I am seeing new levels of willingness in people across my communities to engage in collective action for the common good. It is strangely heartening: even as people are expressing fear and deep insecurity, there is a rampant sense that people want to be together, to stretch across differences to connect, and to deepen together; that we want to save our democracy, and we want to serve the collective good. It’s all hands on deck, and people are getting ready.
In light of these times, I am revamping my newsletter with a new name and a new focus. Starting next month, Soul Care Studio News will be called Rooted & Resourced: A Newsletter About Building Movements of Resistance & Resilience in Perilous Times.
This new newsletter name and purpose will also highlight a new wave of community organizing that my partners in ministry and I are undertaking behind the scenes right now. We are in early days, but I will have more invitations for members of the local Berkeley and East Bay community very soon.
Rooted and Resourced will include stories, learning, invitations and inspiration from our Berkeley-East Bay community organizing and community care efforts through these perilous times. Our aim is to support one another and focus on building community care and resilience, even as we oppose and resist authoritarian forces. This newsletter will be one place where I share and deepen our learning, inspiration, and guidance for these times.
I have no more to say right now, my friends.
In my tradition, we recognize Easter not as a single day, but as a season. Like a garden in Spring, new life comes first with tiny green shoots. Sometimes the green shoots have to push through the debris of last season. If we clear space for those green shoots, if we protect them, nourish and care for them, in the fullness of time, we will reap a new, full harvest.
Next month, in May, look for the first green shoot of the new newsletter: Rooted & Resourced. The newsletter will come about monthly during the Summer months of May, June, July and August, and will include several offerings and invitations. By the end of the Summer, I plan to be writing more frequently again, highlighting voices, stories, and offerings of others in my network who are part of building a resistance & resilience movement for these times.
In the meantime, and against all odds ~
Grace and Peace be with you in these perilous times.
Rev. Angela
P.S. I just finished teaching a series, called Body Temple Time, in which I shared the spiritual and somatic perspective and tools that I use on a daily basis to help me root and resource myself inwardly. For the time-being, all the lessons and accompanying audio recordings are available here. If you are in need of tools to help you regulate and ground in these challenging times, you are invited to make use of this material. Enjoy!
Angela’s Art News
I’ve temporarily set aside my paints for a special project of a different kind. I am making a quilt for my child’s eighteenth birthday, which is coming up in May!
I made a tiny baby quilt for my infant eighteen years ago, and I knew I wanted to make a new quilt for a new season of life. I asked what colors it should be and was told, “Jewel tones!”
I am glad I asked because I wouldn't have known. I honestly had to look up what “jewel tones” meant, but apparently it’s exactly like it sounds: jewel tones are the color of jewels, like ruby, emerald, sapphire, and gold. When I googled “jewel-toned quilt” for visual inspiration, it opened a whole new world to me of a kind of quilting called “crazy quilts,” which are made of scraps of recycled fabric, and became popular in the Victorian era.
Apparently, “jewel tones” was part of the classic “crazy quilt” aesthetic, and I think it may be just what my kid had in mind.
So… in my quiet hours I have been learning a new craft…. and in the learning, I have had a had a new inspiration—
It’s not official yet, but stay tuned…..My friends over at Center for Food, Faith and Justice and I are cooking up plans for a Community Quilting project coming in the months ahead. More to come!
Open Studio Update: I’ve decided not to do East Bay Open Studios in June. There’s just a little too much happening in our family right now. But I may do a special Open Studio project in August. Will let you know.