I've had this image sitting in a corner of my desktop for the last year or so. The statue is called Melancholie by Albert Gyorgy, and it sits on the edge of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Last week's news landed me in this position, in the middle of the kitchen floor while trying to make dinner—head between my knees attempting to regain my ability to function.
I ricochet between that feeling and this one:
"Vulnerability is a hell of a thing to withstand, but when we are raw and stricken with grief, we are also free—sometimes for the first time in our lives—from the norms of femininity that have constrained us. We’re cut loose. As we watch EPA regulations, civil rights, and international peace fall like raindrops outside our windows, we are abruptly liberated from caring about how our hips and thighs appear. We are free from fretting about the timbre of our voices and the deference of our words. No longer bound by the rules of pretense or decorum, we are gloriously, magnificently unhinged."
That's a passage from Chapter 3 of Physical Disobedience. A year on, it seems almost quaint to mention the ways our hips and thighs appear. I feel considerably more unhinged than I did last August... unleashed in both grief and command. As summer comes to a close, I wish you more freedom to be exactly where you are, who you are, how you are.
— Sarah
Survival Mechanisms
I am in the process of scheduling a series of events and workshops with corporations, non-profits, and individuals to support this community of thinkers and caretakers through the coming year.
The times we are living in can feel like a steady IV drip of chronic stress. We need systems in place to purge the stress-induced sludge from our veins so we can honor our lives, our work, and the values we hold dear. If you or your organization need help hearing the distress signals being sent by your body—or your community—and responding with protective mechanisms to support your personal or collective productivity, please feel free to reach out. You can find more info HERE.