I Love Doing This Work!
After retiring from paid work in 2018, I decided that I wanted to dive into climate justice work. I responded to a call from an Indigenous women’s group to come and shut down the streets in San Francisco (California, USA) for a large climate action.
There I met and got connected to an older women’s group (of largely white women) that responds to requests from the Indigenous Women’s Group to show up and physically support direct action by shutting down the streets and to requests from youth advocates and Global Majority and Indigenous groups that are confronting the climate crisis and racism. “Listening time” and sharing our experiences in doing the actions have been key to developing our connections with each other.
I must discharge a lot on my early distress to stay connected to the people I am meeting and working with and to remember that my brain works, that my thinking is good, that what I do makes a difference, and that I can give up my early hopelessness and isolation. I love doing this work!
El Cerrito, California, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders in care of the environment
(Present Time 207, April 2022)