How to thrive in the fall of the empire
I always thought that the country I call home would have a longer time at the top. As a young, indoctrinated US citizen, I had heard it was our nation’s birthright, our manifest destiny, if you will. My mind (and heart) exploded in college as I studied the unfolding War on Terror and the age-old policies of imperialism, and I was never the same. The words of the national anthem, which I had sung solo at countless public events (with all the flair that a baby Mariah fan could muster), just didn’t make sense anymore. The pledge of allegiance became an empty ritual. Our country became a hollow hole for all my rage against the machine.
Of course I found joy, too. In community, I forged relationships, I found my truth amidst the noise, and I ran, read and sang my little heart out until I couldn’t remember how broken I felt. My community kept morphing, though, and I couldn’t understand why the stability I sought didn’t seek me.
I tried:
clinging (my early modus operandi),
performing moral perfection (my enduring strategy until I was yesterday years old),
being cute and funny all the time (harder than one might think but still trying this)
substance abuse (peer pressure is real and not always a bad thing),
therapy (this one can stay),
…and so so many other ways to hold my center in trying times - when friends didn’t always look like friends and partners rarely stuck around to see who I was behind the mask.
So what does all this have to do with thriving? And the fall of the empire?
Everything and nothing. It’s my journey to here, to you, reading these words right now. Wherever you are in the world or in your mind, you got here somehow. You wanted to get here enough to see what happens next.
I promise we can thrive despite the (actual) horrors. I know how because we know how. Resilience is our actual birthright. Community building is our manifest destiny. You have a gift to bring to the world, and I want to help you find the right container, place it delicately, jauntily or rage-fully into the center of your intention, wrap it in beauty that only you can define, and hand it to the world, to our community, to yourself.
Get onboard if you want. Let’s thrive in the fall of the empire - together.