How to Step Forward

In these recent weeks, I’ve been finding refuge in my own ‘default settings’ detailed in a series I wrote during the earliest weeks of pandemic lock-down, spring 2020. Here, humbly gift wrapped in a lil story telling, I reflect on Part 4 of the series. For readers in the US, may these musings support your own discernment about how to step forward in this moment. For clarity, excerpts written in 2020 will appear in italics.

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Step: an act or movement of putting one leg in front of the other in walking or running.

Some weeks into this new era of social distancing, I swung by to greet some elder neighbors on their front stoop. I noted that their step was badly rotten. In these weeks of ‘staying home’, I’ve been really anchored to, and writing about, the immediacy of what’s right in front of me. I’ve been connecting to the earth and my breath, as I wrote about in part 1. I’ve been watching what my mind is doing, and shared how to tune into what’s happening there in part 2. And, I regularly connect to my heart, as I wrote about in part 3. Here, from a grounded, more self-aware place, I’m urging us all to step forward into some action.

I went back to my elder neighbors a couple weeks ago and I asked if I could repair their crumbling step. I had this gnawing apprehension one of them might step right through one of the boards. Considering their age, I didn’t want either one of them anywhere near a medical facility just now. They happily agreed.

I have some reasonable carpentry skills. In undertaking this project, I engaged these skills and added a few ingredients.
+ patience, several solid days worth
+ humor about my own fixing mind in action
+ humility in approaching a project I didn’t know how to do
+ other’s expertise generously offered by skilled neighbors

The rot extended well beyond a few planks to the entire step’s structure. And while I was offering, they asked if I could make it wider than the original, as one of them is rather frail and requires help up the step, or a good reach of the post. Another neighbor bought the materials. Assistance and tool loans were contributed by several others. At moments when I didn’t know how to proceed, I would pause a long while, and eventually ask one of my neighbors for help. The greatest engineering kink was that the concrete slab (of the step, not of the house) had settled over 2 inches lower on the left than the right, over the past 25 years. Digging up the old and creating a new concrete footing felt beyond my reach. So I worked with things as I found them.

It is now late November 2024.

The outcome of our presidential election surprised some. It horrified, but sadly did not surprise many of us. There are foundational elements of our country that need attention (inequity, structural racism, misogyny to name a few). We are here. And the reflections I had walking away from day 1 of the neighbors’ step construction in 2020 feel salient to this moment.
Going forward, we’re gonna need to do things for each other. We’re gonna have to pause and notice how those close by are doing, what they need. We’re going to have to build things, maybe things we didn’t know how to build. In that building, we will have to make choices about what we can and can’t influence. We’re going to have to ask for help, learn new things, build one step at a time, together.

Autocracy thrives on people feeling alone, isolated, powerless. We cannot afford to succumb to that contagion right now. Please plug into some expression of community somewhere to sustain yourself as we enter into this new era. We are in a marathon not a sprint. And, supporting a healthy, thriving society will require collaborative labor by all of us. How can you contribute? You alone can find your way into that step.

My invitations? I urge you to seek the medicine of connection and community (reaching for a friend or two who you really trust to speak your heart, a trusted counselor or health care provider, a social justice group you’ve heard does good work). These principles below never, ever wear out their utility and clarifying tendency for me in moving toward action. And as you discern how to move forward in this moment, these days and months ahead I invite you to:

• Pause.
• Feel your feet on the ground.
• Notice THIS precious human breath with intimate awareness.
• Notice the activity of the mind.
• Tune into the texture of your own heart.
• Start to build the path ahead.

How aware of and connected to local government are you? How can you become involved? If you are comfortably, financially resourced, please research and give locally now. Your local food bank or mutual aid organization are wonderful places to support neighbors in need. On a national level, consider the organizing work of the ACLU, and the Working Families Party. Join a national discussion about and commitment to Mass ReDistribution of resources.

This is a critical moment to consider what resources we have and need? For ourselves? For others? If you have a neighbor or acquaintance who always seems a bit more plugged in than you have been, see if you can bend their ear a minute, learn about what they’re doing, see how you can plug in. We all need to work at a pace sustainable to ourselves. Staying healthy, robust and grounded is essential. If I can support in anyway, drop me an email Clinic doors are open and I am accepting new patients. Please open your eyes to those who are suffering in your sphere of influence and consider concrete gestures you can make, concrete steps you can build. And in the same way as with construction projects, remember the adage ‘measure twice, cut once’. While there is urgency to protecting, creating and advocating for a healthy and free society in this country, haste will not serve us. Think marathon, not sprint.

I’ll conclude here with an explanation of the photos. These are paths I have walked; every single one. Steps I have taken in different parts of the world during this precious human life. Whether or not one has ever owned a passport, or left their home town, we have all traveled great distances. And going forward, we will all wend our way one proverbial, and very concrete, step at a time (including those moving with wheels or limited mobility).

What one step you can take to benefit someone else?

Please share this writing freely with others as you feel inspired. I always welcome responses and reflections in return. Holding all with tender care, onward with resolute determination,
Zoe

Photos in order of appearance: Robin Lakes, Central Cascades, WA * Simigaun, Nepal * Okayama City, Japan * Lindos, Greece * Jomsom-Muktinath, Nepal * Olympia, Greece * Central Cascades somewhere * La Bohn Gap, WA * Sogenji Temple, Okayama, Japan * My Mama scaling steps of Archeology museum Tarquinia, Italy * Ben Nevis, Scotland  * My neighbors’ front step, Seattle, WA *