What is really breaking my heart, and I imagine all hearts, is the loss of humanity we are seeing and experiencing right now. We can’t be in touch with our own and another’s humanity unless we’re connected to our own hearts; intimately connected to our own experience of being here as a vulnerable human being.
Our humanity resides in the shared beauty, challenges and vulnerability of being here, in this moment in time, as a human being. We are the same. When we are disconnected from this simple truth we imagine ourselves as separate and are capable of inflicting great harm on one another.
The greater the disconnect from our own self the more we are able to dehumanize another. When we can't feel our own humanity we can't feel another's. It's that simple.
The more embodied we are the less we can even imagine hurting another being, human or otherwise. Cruelty breaks our hearts. Our hearts are soft and penetrable. We feel everything. It's unbearable at times. It's not easy to be here as an embodied human being but the alternative is beyond comprehension.
Awakening is not a buffer to our humanity but an awakening to our humanity. Our beautiful and vulnerable humanity that is capable of great harm and cruelty when we disconnect from the true heart of who we are.
A powerful poem from our friend Will Hornyak. Will's new book of poetry is beautiful, brilliant, wise and nourishing for the heart, mind, and soul. — Molly
There are stories there that will whisper something of hope into your heart; the unfurling acorn, the alchemical soil, the worms journey and the seed held in the dark earth made up of their ancestors.
If you are fractious or full of grief, or feeling alone or disconnected, sit in the forest; breathe in the bacteria and smells held in the soft dark soil that helps your nervous system soften, creating a smile in your heart and enabling you to feel safer. Breathe in the oxygen given to you by the trees and the plants that whisper to your inner world of life, of rebirth and wild alchemy. The air, teeming with wild bacteria eases inflammation, helping the mind to become clearer, reminding you, that you are held. That in each breath, each moment the earth roots you into her arms, into this life. In each breath your body and this earth claim their kinship.
You cannot shame or punish yourself into growth and change. Love, care and kindness is what really creates and grows lasting change.
If I have one thing I will grow more of this year, it is the love and care I bring to my body and psyche. For I have learnt that this is what creates good soil in my life, making a mineral rich place for all the seeds that wish to root and grow through me.
As Brené Brown said, “You cannot shame yourself into change, you can only love yourself into evolution.”
Research showed that when shamed, a person would become more violent and angry, to themselves and to the world, but what the shame didn’t make happen was good and lasting change.
It is just a way of strengthening a feeling of disgust and hate we may have learnt to feel towards ourselves, and if we hate ourselves and we are made to feel shameful and unworthy, that part of us will only find ways to push us off the path.
Deepest thanks to Aly Wane for this, who is someone I have never personally met, and who lives on the other side of the country, but with whom I feel such a deep heart-to-heart connection with. When I first read Aly's words this morning, and then shared them with my husband, I wept. So moving. So needed. So true. This is how we connect, how we find solidarity, and how we remember what most matters. Deepest bow. 🙏💗 Molly
Photo by Molly
Don't Let Your Light Be Stolen
To be clear, we are seeing an unleashing of mass cruelty and one of the targets is our hearts. This administration wants to drown us in crises that encourage us to follow our basest instincts, distrust one another, and close our spirits. I can tell it is already affecting me, as I've been finding myself more short-tempered than usual, more reactive, etc.
I will be deliberately seeking out stories of human beings doing generous, inspiring things every day to actively remind myself of the ways human beings routinely step up to help each other in crises, how we often rise to the occasion in dire circumstances and our capacity for inclusion and compassion.
This is serious business. This is not some kind of fluffy practice. It is about anchoring myself in deeper truths than fascism can reach.
Don't let the bastards steal your light. That is also a necessary part of the work.
Some of us feel exhausted, others are often or always angry. Naturally there is despair. We are frightened. All understandable, relatable, but not sustainable. It leads to burnout that corrupt authorities can manipulate for their own purposes.
And, it’s not only about self care now.
In my experience meaning and wholeheartedness are essential to healing from burnout.
Do something personal and uplifting today that helps care for another. Look an unhoused person in the eye when they ask you for money whether you choose to give or not. Thank a young mother pushing her her infant in a stroller for doing amazing work. Plant, promote and protect trees in your neighborhood. Rest, and help others to do the same. Offer a few hours of childcare. Feed someone this week. Keep it simple, personal and maybe inspiring. We can’t contribute if we are running a deficit.
The new, larger work and activism that we will need to do next together will become clear. I don’t know what it is yet but I trust in the liminal space.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2025. (Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
"All around us, we see clear signs that
the monster has become master."
By Jake Johnson
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said during his address at an annual gathering of global elites on Wednesday that the world's addiction to fossil fuels has become an all-consuming "Frankenstein monster" imperiling hopes of a livable future.
"All around us, we see clear signs that the monster has become master. We just endured the hottest year and the hottest decade in history," Guterres said to the audience gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"A number of financial institutions and industries are backtracking on climate commitments," Guterres continued. "Here at Davos, I want to say loudly and clearly: It is short-sighted. And paradoxically, it is selfish and also self-defeating. You are on the wrong side of history. You are on the wrong side of science. And you are on the wrong side of consumers who are looking for more sustainability, not less. This warning certainly also applies to the fossil fuel industry and advertising, lobbying, and PR companies who are aiding, abetting, and greenwashing."
"Global heating is racing forward—we cannot afford to move backward," he added.
Guterres' remarks came as President Donald Trump, a fervent ally of the fossil fuel industry, took office in the U.S.—the largest historical emitter—and moved immediately to expand oil and gas production, which was already at record levels.
Intensifying climate chaos—and global elites' disproportionate contributions to the planetary crisis—spurred several protests inside and near the Davos forum this week, with activists demanding higher taxes on the mega-rich and a rapid, just transition to renewable energy.
"It is more than obvious that the super-rich must pay their fair share," Clara Thompson, a Greenpeace spokesperson in Davos, said earlier this week. "Especially when they are among the largest contributors to the climate crisis."
"It shouldn't be the people, already struggling to make ends meet, who have to foot the bill and suffer the consequences of worsening climate impacts," Thompson added. "The scarcity narrative is simply not true—there is enough money to fund a just and green future for all but it is just in the wrong pockets."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is pictured at President Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
"In the coming months and years, our job is not just to respond to every absurd statement that Donald Trump makes. Our job is to stay focused on the issues that are of importance to the working families of our country."
By Jake Johnson
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump posed in a garbage truck and performed a staged shift at a McDonald's as he postured as a champion of the working class.
But Trump "ignored virtually every important issue facing the working families of this country" during his inaugural address, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) noted Tuesday in video remarks recorded after he attended the event, which was packed with prominent billionaires and corporate executives—some of whom the president has chosen to serve in his Cabinet.
"How crazy is that? Our healthcare system is dysfunctional and it's wildly expensive," said Sanders. "Not one word from Trump about how he is going to address the healthcare crisis. We pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs—sometimes 10 times more than the people in other countries, and one out of four Americans are unable to afford the prescriptions that their doctors prescribe. Not one word in his speech on the high cost of prescription drugs."
"We have 800,000 Americans who are homeless and millions and millions of people spending 50 or 60% of their limited income on housing. We have a major housing crisis in America, everybody knows it—and Trump in his inaugural address did not devote one word to it," Sanders continued. "Today in America, we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had... but Trump had nothing to say, not one word, about the growing gap between the very rich and everybody else."
Trump also rolled back a Biden executive order aimed at lowering prescription drug prices.
In his remarks on Tuesday, Sanders said that "in the coming months and years, our job is not just to respond to every absurd statement that Donald Trump makes."
"Our job is to stay focused on the issues that are of importance to the working families of our country, and are in fact widely supported by the American people," said Sanders, pointing to broad backing for guaranteeing healthcare to all as a right, slashing drug prices, tackling the housing crisis, raising the long-stagnant federal minimum wage, and taking bold action against the climate emergency.
"No matter how many executive orders he signs and no matter how many absurd statements he makes, our goal remains the same," the senator added. "We have got to educate, we have got to organize, we have got to put pressure on Congress to do the right things."
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