Dear [name],
in her 2009 book, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, writer and activist Rebecca Solnit examines five major disasters and the ways that mutual aid, altruism and cooperation were the instinctual responses of impacted community members as well as people bearing witness to these events from a far. through in depth research, including time spent in historical archives and in conversations with those most impacted, solnit weaves stories that reveal not only the human compassion and cooperation that proliferates in the face of grief, disruption, and often repressive and violent responses of the state, but also the joy people found in one another and their collective and effective survival strategies.
one such story is this one. on the morning after hurricane katrina, hundreds of people from as far away as texas launched their fishing boats and small watercraft with the simple desire to help those left stranded in new orleans. propelled by a very human instinct of collective care, these ordinary people navigated oil polluted waters and great uncertainty with the end result of saving many thousands of lives, “one or three or eleven at a time.”.
this spontaneously self organized flotilla, which became known as the cajun navy, left a lasting impression on rebecca solnit. she writes, “ever since….when I hear that we can't save everything, we can't, but if we show up and take risks we might help someone. the fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything and everyone we can save is worth saving.”
i can think of many moments in my life when i’ve refrained from taking action in the service of social justice and systems change because i didn’t feel my actions would be comprehensive enough to address the root causes of injustice. the story of the cajun navy reminds me that direct action that saves human and more than human lives is not only part of the comprehensive response but it helps us re-member that we are designed to care for one another. such re-membering is healing and liberatory for all involved as it helps us recognize and release the toxic values of individualism, separateness and survival of the fittest that fuel racial capitalism, militarism and patriarchy.
like many in social justice movements, i envision liberatory futures where all human and more than human kin have enough to live with dignity, purpose, pleasure and joy. a world where no one needs saving because mother earth’s inherent practices of reciprocity are reflected in human communities.
as we move towards those liberatory futures, saving acts are still critical. when done from a deep understanding of our sacred interdependence, these acts are a powerful form of solidarity.
another self organized flotilla that has captured the world’s imagination is the freedom flotilla coalition. the ffc, which began launching its boats in 2010, describes itself as “a grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement composed of campaigns and initiatives from different parts of the world, working together to end the illegal israeli blockade of gaza.”
in a recent episode the how to survive the end of the world podcast, the brown sisters spoke with huwaida arraf and chris smalls about their experience on the ship handala which set sail for gaza in july 2025 carrying 15 international activists, aid and resources. after sharing critical moments that shaped his Palestine centered solidarity work, chris smalls, a labor leader and founder of the amazon labor union, recalled making the decision to join the handala mission:
“i had 24 hours to have a conversation with my children and i made sure that i explained to them that i love them and i’m doing this for their future. You know, fighting for Palestinian children that are dying every day of starvation and being slaughtered by the IOF [israeli occupation forces]. This is not a society or a world that I want to see my children grow up in.”
in hearing chris smalls, i understood how his courageous personal decision made in the context of a global movement brought us all closer to a future where the dignity, sovereignty, and the well being of all are honored and cultivated.
not all of us have the inner and/or external resources to join the ffc or other international flotillas. i’m writing this a few days after hundreds of international activists who are part of the global sumud flotilla were arrested by the israeli military in international waters. those who were deported are sharing heart wrenching and gruesome stories of overcrowded cells, bug infested food, the denial of life sustaining medicines, and the terrorizing and humiliation of those illegally detained through physical violence.
while not all of us can sacrifice our income, our caregiving role in our families and communities, or the physical safety of our bodies, the times are calling all of us to figure out our own version of launching our boats.
attunement: a journey to your authentic voice is one of my launched boats. at first, i didn’t see it that way. when describing this offering to my somatic therapeutic coach, tayla shanaye, i shared that this offering felt “out of tune” with polycrises our world is facing. tayla asked me to describe the offering to her and i said something that went like this,
“all of us are born with an authentic voice reflective of our essence. the expression of this essence is needed for the sustaining and thriving of the interdependent ecosystems we live in. to discover or reconnect with this authentic voice we need to attune to our bodies with care and listen for the sounds that want to be expressed. because of the systems of dominance we live in, these sounds are often buried deep within us. we’ve kept these sounds buried in order to survive in the world. at a certain point in our journeys we become aware that keeping these sounds buried will lead to the onset or the continuation of dis-ease we feel. this leads to the recognition that in order to heal and reclaim our dignity and freedom, we need to express these sounds. and we need to do this in the presence of others in order to experience what it is like to give voice to our essence and at times be met with resonance, at times harmony and at times dissonance. and we need to learn in community how to find our way through the jarring messiness of dissonance to divergent sounds that dwell in coherence with one another.”
after i finished speaking, tayla remained quiet. then she asked, “i wonder if you can see how attunement may be connected to the times we are moving through collectively?”
i felt my answer. it was a pulse in my manipura (solar plexus) chakra which grew in intensity, generating heat in and around this energy center connected to agency and power.
my attunement offering will not reach all of us facing the crises of intensified wealth and power consolidation, genocide as a strategy of land theft and regional domination, lawless abductions, or accelerating climate catastrophes. it will reach small groups of people willing to be open, to play at their edges, to experience the messy unknown and to re-member that their authenticity grows in the space between their sovereignty and interdependence. in this way, it is my small boat in a great sea of change.
i would love to hear about the boats you’ve launched in this past year. you can reply to this email or send me a message via my contact page.
