From the desk of Lea.
Last year, our first newsletter opened with a compass to help us navigate difficult battles ahead. That compass moved us through a cycle: grief and anger to joy and connection, and then into action. It reminded us that even in hard moments, we could move.
As I reflect on 2025, I realize there were two pieces missing from that compass.
The first is rest. Rest is not withdrawal. It is the sacred space where we pause long enough to reimagine, to dream, to remember who we are before we step back into the work.
The second is presence. Physical, emotional, and mental presence. When I look again at the Grief → Joy → Action → Rest cycle, I see now that presence is embedded in every part of it.
Right now, many of our neighbors are living in fear. Those of us who understand history recognize that we have seen moments like this before. We know what it means when fear is used as a strategy. We know what it means when distraction becomes a weapon.
Because while real harm is happening, the most powerful weapon being used against us is not always visible. It is distraction. It is the flood of chaos meant to exhaust us, disconnect us, and make us believe that what is unfolding is inevitable.
I will be honest — resisting that is hard. I find myself drawn into the endless stream of alarming headlines. I feel discouraged at times. But I’ve realized something important: if I am constantly consumed with the world as it is, I lose my imagination for the world as it should be.
Presence is how we resist that.
Presence in grief allows us to truly acknowledge and process what is happening — which makes space for joy.
Presence in joy strengthens our resolve that we can do this together — which drives us toward action.
Presence in action both invigorates and drains us — which moves us toward rest.
Presence in rest restores our energy and expands our imagination — which brings us back into the tension of grieving what is, so the cycle can begin again.
Presence is not passive. Presence is disciplined attention to what matters most.
What does that look like in practice?
It looks like checking on your neighbor and asking what they need. It looks like planting seeds in the garden while imagining who will be nourished. It looks like fighting for housing policies while remembering the real families whose lives will change. It looks like offering and receiving healing so that we can organize from grounded, restored bodies and minds.
Ever successful movement in history has required ordinary people showing up daily — committed to relationship, committed to community, committed to a future they may not all live to see.
There is a Mexican proverb that says, “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”
We carry more wisdom, more ancestral knowledge, and more collective power than fear would have us believe.
So I am asking us, as I did last year, to use the breath in our bodies as evidence: we are still here. And as long as we are still here — and we still have each other — winning remains possible.
Can we commit this year to stay present with each other?
Can we commit to stay present with the truth?
Can we commit to fight alongside our neighbors for the world we want to live in?
What Can You Do as a Supporter of Our Work?
One of our goals this year is to ensure that 13 communities across the state and country are using our
methodology through our community-led engagement consulting (the Community Voice Blueprint) and workplace culture consulting -- not just to organize on the surface-level but on a genuine, community-centered decision-making level built on trust, shared power, and lived practice.
Do you know an organization, faith community, school, or grassroots group that would benefit from our training and coaching?
You can help us grow this work. That might look like:
Making an introduction
Sharing our Blueprint methodology with your networks
Connecting us to leaders who are ready to organize differently
Inviting us to train or coach in new communities
Presence grows through relationship. Your relationships matter — and every connection you make helps strengthen communities and expand the courage to show up.