I am so incredibly grateful to have been raised by a funny and caring mother. I have two silly, perfect sisters. Most of my friends are compassionate and amazing women. My mentors are brilliant women. I work at an organization of mostly women, who are smart and talented people. March is Women’s History Month and I hope you take a moment to honor the incredible women in your life, and love them up.
My mother, Shoua, demonstrates resiliency to me. She models self-care and her humor is top-notch. My sister, Pa, acts with a love that is so big and expansive. She challenges me to love big and love deep. I learn discernment and knowing your craft from Mackenzie, a mentor. She also taught me my favorite quote, “hold with love and rigor,” which I think about often. My friend Hwa Jeong teaches me how to hold tension in ways that invite people in.
All of these women have shown me how to take up space, how to hold space, and how to build more space.
Check out AOC’s pre-debate pep talk. She stretches her arms out and wide, literally taking up space. The women that have made up who I am have taught me how to stretch my arms out so that I stand firm and steady when taking up space, even though it may feel scary. They’ve taught me how to gently embrace people, as I hold space for celebrating, mourning, raging, creating together. And, they’ve taught me how to open my arms wide, ready and enthusiastically inviting others into my work. I am so grateful for them.
March 11th marks the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since then, 500,000 people in the United States have died. I feel so devastated by this and by the systemic failures that have occurred throughout 2020 and continue into this year.
If you’re feeling rageful and sad, and need to be in gentle community, I invite you to join me tomorrow at 7PM to plan our People’s Memorials. We’ll walk through how to build a memorial for what you’re mourning as we come up to the one-year anniversary of COVID-19 and we’ll also have space to make art together.
The women in my life have taught me that taking up physical space to gather and grieve is so important for our collective healing. I also believe that we must take up physical space so that those that have benefited off our pain never forget what we’ve experienced.
Join me tomorrow to build our People’s Memorials together. With our arms stretched towards each other (virtually!), we can hold each other through this month to mourn, heal, and act, so that a loss of this scale never happens again.
With love and rigor,
LyLy
