Thank you to everyone who sent comforting words and for checking in after November 5. Though I’m deeply disappointed (yet not surprised) by the U.S. election results, one important thing to know about me is that my self-care practice is rigorous. I know well how to grieve, acknowledge my suffering, and take care of it so it doesn’t fester. My grief becomes the medicine for an aching moment like this, when the weight and legacy of hatred, fear and rage come full-circle into a manifestation such as putting one of its figureheads into one of the highest positions of power in the world. My grief cracks me open, but not into pieces. I will not make any choices nor plans without processing, accepting and feeling the full weight and timbre of this moment.

I believe not processing our country’s many social crises and not planning skillfully and compassionately for the future is how we got here in the first place. So that’s what I’m doing today, tomorrow, and what I’ve been doing since I was twenty-two and teaching in an East Oakland public school under circumstances that were set up for failure and that I soon realized would kill me if I didn’t reorient my life around principles of love and wellbeing. In many ways, this part of my origin and career story has made me resilient AF.

Living in this country as a Black woman is like being trapped in an abusive relationship, trying desperately to get help, while everyone is staring at your black and blue eyes and telling you that you’re imagining your visible and throbbing wounds. Hopefully, today everyone can see what we’ve been saying for centuries. Such a stunning outpouring of hate and fear at the polls and in our streets demonstrates the deceptively simple truth: hurt people hurt. The web of present and past trauma consuming our country will continue to spread until we choose to courageously acknowledge suffering from the horror and destruction at its root: the genocide of indigenous people and enslavement of Africans by a traumatized population in flight from their own abusers and oppressors in Europe. Period. This is what needs to be processed and acknowledged today and everyday. I’m not holding my breath, though, I’ll tell you that.

Yet, this is why I stay rigorously resourced, and why I’ve made it my job to be, in fact. When I started looking for photos to accompany these reflections, I was reminded that I’ve been finding, creating and supporting spaces that support black women, folks of color and young people and their caregivers for years. My belief is that when you empower and fight for the most vulnerable, everybody wins. And I’m not wired to back down from a fight, though I do so in evermore careful and thoughtful ways.

I pray this election has made crystal clear how important this fight for social justice, transformational culture and government truly is. I hope those of you who’ve never set foot in any of those red states to see some of the dystopian realities that our failing democracy and growing oligarchy has caused for damn near half a century now (my hometown of Milwaukee being one of them; check out this PBS documentary series to learn more) are perhaps finally paying attention.

I hope all Americans realize that their loss is your loss, and that you now see the necessity to rebuild with radical and transformative tools. All who’ve believed that the temporary bubble we might find security in could provide protection from misogyny, racism, binary thinking, exclusion, socioeconomic inequity, oppression, homophobia, heterosexism, social hierarchies, violence and the destruction of cultures and lives, and the displacement of millions of people. I hope it is finally clear that the problems of those most on the margins are and have always been all of our problems, and an existential crisis for America and the world, too.

In the meantime, I will continue to co-create magical experiences that renew, fortify and transform like Pause + Press Retreat for BIWOC in Chacala, MX with my dear ones like Marla Teyolia, June 21-28, 2025, and my Together Portugal Yoga Retreat March 18-24, 2025. I pray for clear eyes, full hearts, peace and protection in these challenging times.

With love,
Crystal