“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

- Mary Oliver

Hey Friends,

I didn't think I would be sitting down to write the first message of the year to you with such a heavy heart.

Then again, how could it not come down to this? This unsettling reality has been unfolding for a number of years now. We can no longer pretend not to see the cruelty, the occupations, the murders happening in our communities across the states.

I'm sure many of you, myself included, have had enough privilege to not have to experience or closely examine much of these brutal injustices over the years.

Choosing to be disengaged is no longer an option.

I know how easy it can be to brush off  the avalanche of posts that flood our social media feeds and email inboxes, to tune everything out, to look away. But we need you to look. As horrifying as it is to watch literal public executions play between memes and cute animal videos, there is no other option now.

We need eyes on our neighbors, eyes on our public lands. eyes on the overtly and unapologetically fascist, pedophilic, billionaire elite who believe they have the right to take and take and take from us. To take our families, to take our friends, to take our food and our land, to take our livelihoods. People, wildlife, land, it's all one. it's all connected. when the integrity of one is compromised, the integrity of all is compromised

The biggest point I want to stress in this message to you is around the often damaging rhetoric regarding how we” should” show up to support our communities right now.

Please, if nothing else in this message plans for you today, try to get comfortable knowing that every little bit we do truly does make a difference. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, with sitting with uncertainty but still taking baby steps. The point is to take action toward extending a little light and love to someone somewhere, including to yourself.

Please lean into the things that bring you joy. Please continue practicing the beautiful art of noticing the world around you. “Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it”. These things keep us grounded, keep us tethered to reality, keep us human.

Going about my daily life right now feels wrong, like I’m ignoring the horrors or that i somehow “care less” because I still need to do chores and work and tend to various mundane responsibilities.  But we can’t be mired in the horrors 100% of the time. If we have the privilege right now to continue to tend to ourselves, to our neighbors, to our public lands and our communities, then we must do that. That is our work. That is where widespread change begins.

We can hold these MAGA degenerates accountable for their brutal crimes against humanity while ALSO holding on to the things and people and places we love. I’d argue we need to hold on to it all even tighter to remember who and what we’re fighting for in the first place.

I know it can feel impossible to make a difference or to even know where to start right now. Here are some resources and ideas I’ve collected. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but truly, do what you can from these options. Even just doing two or three will matter to someone, somewhere.

HOW TO SHOW UP*
(*Every damned day, beyond trending news cycles)

Amplify each others’ voices. Repost all the “Abolish ICE” and other supportive images you can and don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t enough! Spread the word, support creators making these art and images, raise a goddamned ruckus. This is how information travels, where inspiration sprouts, and when further action grows And of course remember to do your best to fact-check before sharing.

Put your money where your heart is. Perfection be damned, we all participate in the machine but we can still pick our poisons. Choose a few of these companies to limit or stop buying from entirely: Target, Amazon, Whole Foods, Spotify, UPS/FedEx, Apple, Google, Walmart, Starbucks, Dell, all major hotel chains, etc. The list goes on. Do your best. Shop small, shop local, and shop less.

Call or email your local representatives to show them you stand against ICE, resource and public land exploitation, and the outright theft of basic human rights. 5 Calls is a great resource. Enter your area code to get your representatives as well as scripts you can follow when you call.

Donate your time and money to immigration law organizations, organizations who are sourcing PPE to keep folks safe during protests (and in general), to public lands conservation groups, and to local food banks. here are some solid options and a couple of lists to browse for more ideas:

• RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services). I have it on goof authority that they do excellent and obviously important work.
• Oregon Food Bank and Urban Gleaners (note: money can be stretched a little further than donated food, but all help is very valid help)
• Conservation organizations like the Land Trust Alliance are a good place to start with directly helping source and protect public lands. Visit parks, pay the fees and buy the passes, pack it in and pack it out, connect with the big beautiful world and learn why a healthy landbase is non-negotiable

Lists chock full of more organizations to support:

Stand With Minnesota donation directory

How you can help MN Master List (reddit link)

Mutual aid: Connect with your neighbors, form ride shares, fill sidewalk food pantries and little free libraries, use and help fund your local library. Local action is where it’s at. Remember that many folks have been marginalized long before you joined the resistance. Be prepared to listen, to learn, to respect others’ spaces and wisdom. And if you have the privilege of being white, put that privilege to use to help protect those who need protecting. No, this doesn’t need to be billed as some sort of white savior nonsense— this is humans helping humans within a deeply flawed and divisive system. Be that human.

Familiarize yourself with peaceful protest etiquette as well as self defense methods. Here’s a decent starting point.

Tend to yourself, your family, your work, your pets, your local wildlife. That alone impacts dozens, if not hundreds, of lives, though it may seem like the least impactful item on this list. It’s not. It’s more enough. If you haven’t noticed a theme, acting locally is the best way forward. Your community is who will be here for you in the long run.

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Look, I know we may not all have  the mental or physical capabilities to be on the front lines. As an AuDHD woman with limited social spoons I know I often don’t. But where would the people doing the “big work” be without the support of their communities behind the scenes? Just because some efforts don't get widespread acknowledgment, media attention, or look stereotypically “useful” absolutely does not mean the action or the intention are for naught.

I’ll admit, being a working artist is, in general, challenging as hell for many reasons, but right now it’s even more difficult with the feelings of guilt that inevitably creep in. I have  always struggled with feeling like making art isn't “enough” in the face of so much collective grief,  and these days I am having to actively fight that voice and instead lean in as hard as I can to making because I know firsthand how easy it is to just give up. to be paralyzed, to convince yourself that doing nothing is “fine”. But if we don't have the small good things to carry us through the days, what's the point? if we're wallowing in the misery of the news cycle, disassociating through doomscrolling and working ourselves into anxiety and depression and complacency, why is the suffering worth it? We have historically leaned on art during hard times to help remind us of the beauty, wonder, and hope in this world, and this time is no different.

Please, whether society has made you believe you are creative or not, embrace your human ability to make. Whether it's  creating visual art in the form of doodles and scribbles on a page, taking photos, writing in a journal or writing an epic novel, baking or cooking, volunteering in your neighborhood, raising funds to donate to relevant organizations, or simply creating excitement and inspiring joy around you by sharing cool birds you find or fun things you see in your day-to-day life.

It’s all art.

And art is resistance.

Take care of your hearts. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a new message full of fresh paintings of some of the wetland birds I’ve seen this winter who have, in all honesty, been singlehandedly carrying a lot of my emotional burdens lately. Follow along on Instagram for updates on those before the next email reaches you.

Thank you for being here for the hard and scary things as much as you are for the wonder and beauty of it all.

Jenn