​We return this month not done imagining our future with an encore of The Future 51%.
​Our babies born in 2021 will celebrate their 21st birthday in the year 2042, the same year non-white peoples will be the majority population of the United States. Yet, we learned that 'inviting diversity' isn't enough: the future demands foundational change based on the experiences of those most affected by inequity. How are we preparing our mathematical majority to not perpetuate historical harm? The future is ours, we call upon our best imagination. 
​October 4, 2021 Learning by Julia
We begin as always - remembering that we too are connected to the land, sky, water, air, each other, past, present and future. Law of conservation says nothing disappears, it transfers. Pause long enough to remember connection, it is always there. 

We return this month to ask again, "When we are free, what would be different in your day-to-day life?"  And, again, we must first recognize a few things. Any comfort today exists in a bubble that is toooo easy to pop. That 'bubble' is: time with our children, our physical safety, our productivity with purpose and meaningful appreciation. Trauma continually pops that bubble without our permission: We wake up worried*. We attend community events worried. We parent worried. We work worried. Our very bodies suffer our worry. We worry so much that problems begin to appear insurmountable, beyond our singular capacity for change. Yet...We resist by saying, "I can both move forward and still make room for healing (trauma)." We say, "I was born free, it's the world that spends so much energy to tell me I'm not." We say, "I am not alone, I am connected."

We take a needed break ('Pause long enough to remember connection') and come back again to ask the same question, this time insisting on the word "Free". [How it mutated into "Safety", read July's Circle Learning] When free, we raise children under the open skies of the homeland, we visit the ocean's ancient shores for the first time, we turn up the car radio and fly, we wade in warm waters laughing with elders, we delight in the firefly and return of nature, we hug a little longer. Nature. Pause long enough to remember connection. Together, we discovered that wow: we are so capable of joy. It is because we understand the darkness, anger, frustration, that we are best equipped to appreciate the light. This night, we practiced the freedom to pause, freedom from having to know all the answers, freedom to feel, freedom to question, freedom to know best. We are not defined by our trauma or our commodity value: our creativity exists in its own right. As always. 

Join us for next month's Listening Circle as we continue with: "We Are Capable of Joy". Stay in tune.

* To be a only a future footnote: "Worried" is my, Julia's, word. In 2021, we used this and words like anxiety, pain, debilitating, trauma, ignorance, suffer internal oppression, go to court, un-school, question capitalism...

​Our babies born in 2021 will celebrate their 21st birthday in the year 2042, the same year non-white peoples will be the majority population of the United States. Yet, we learned that 'inviting diversity' isn't enough: the future demands foundational change based on the experiences of those most affected by inequity. How are we preparing our mathematical majority to not perpetuate historical harm? The future is ours, we call upon our best imagination. 
​August 10, 2021 Learning by Julia
We began as if it were any other day. Our land acknowledgement recognized the passage of time through the expression of nature force: buildings overgrow if not tended. Learn from nature. 
Now, the good trouble began. We asked each other, "What will be different in your day to day life when you feel free from fear?" Not if, but when. Now, we are tasked with imagining. But first we must:

• Take walks at night
• Take up more space
• Feel like the American I am in my own skin
• Be surrounded by those who look like me 
• Not be uneasy all the time
• Spend my money where I feel included
• Know the booing is not always something wrong with me
• Wake without grief
• Stop pretending

By the end of the round, the word "free" became "safe". How difficult to create when we are so busy protecting! The pain we carry, we must be able to weigh it, understand it before we can free our hands for the imagination. We do this now so our children won't have the burden. We break with the prompt again to evoke imagination. We return, stretching into:

• Freedom to take time to understand my own feelings
• Free to love another woman without hesitation
• Learning by listening, everyone has a reason only they know
• Spontaneity!
• Getting dressed in the morning based solely on comfort, weather, mood
• Detaching from the limitations of now
• Embracing the somatic ability to be in our bodies
• Following our circadian rhythm
• Integrating spirituality into our daily
• Capitalism vs bartering
• Not everyone looking the same (so dangerous!)
• Historically Queer Universities
• Public square of ideas
• Letting go of notions no good, have mercy
• Live the vision board!
• Friendships as meaningful as romance

We leave hopeful, and prepared to do what we need to now because we can. Next month, we continue to evoke imagination and will ask again about "The Future 51%" Encore edition. August 24, 2021. Stay in tune.

​THE BABY'S LAUGH: INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY
When a baby laughs that full belly, fall to the side kinda laugh, we remember our optimism in the sound of joy. We are reminded that we too were once an infant, a child, a teenager, a young adult. An elder; that we have both received and have given that exact joy. As we redefine what is important to us, the advocates of equity, we balance keeping what is good and inviting innovation as we continue the struggle for liberation as one. Join us as we place value and appreciation of our beautiful intergenerational nature.


July 7, 2021 Reflections on Learning (by Julia)
In June, we ask questions about time. Specifically we ask, "How will our time be talked about into the future? How will they remember us?" We begin by contemplating the real meaning of Juneteenth, including the lies (Black people knew about the end of the Civil War, they just couldn't enforce the new laws until 'Juneteenth'). Who tells the story belonged to the victor, but with the digital age at hand that future story-counting belongs to many. What will be so obvious to future generations that we simply don't see today? A perfect example: In one of the wealthiest cities in the world, we have grown used to folks sleeping in tents. How absurd will this look in the future? We listen when Zora Neale Hurston says, "There are years that ask, and years that answer." For us, this is a time that answers, but with better questions. May we be known for hope, for trying new things, for no longer accepting the status quo. Let us be known for a time that welcomed the power of the virtual space - how we were the first to ignore geographical community boundaries! We have the power to reinvent, to rediscover: we must. Ancestors present in our consciousness or not, we choose to reinvent by no longer passing along pain. We rediscover the value of family under one roof. We make new traditions. For our children. 
Or maybe no one will care: We know and care very little about the day-to-day lives of our ancient ancestors. Who are we but specks of sand? We are no more or less than them: our age shall too be marked by catastrophe. We are living in the death throes of a dying empire, do you feel it? Both an end and a beginning just as our ancestors began again. 
After our break, we came back to ask, "Who influenced this world view just shared?" We took all the time needed to feel their absence, to say their names in love and remind each other we are amongst the living. In living we struggle, it's how we know we are alive. Yes, we deserve the absence of struggle, but its constant absence doesn't make for an interesting or grateful life. Let us be known through the ages for finding joy in struggling together. We leave grateful for each other, fellow witnesses to this grand life. 

What we readin:
"We Lived Happily During the War", Ilya Kaminsky 
"The Turning Point", Fritjof Capra
"The Power", Naomi Alderman

THE TRIBE.
​For those with and without a named tribe, we invite you all to join us as we explore what it means in the world of Equity. We've held circles to talk about "Self in Community", what it means to be an individual in relation to others, and "Helping Each Other Finish the Job". Now, we grow in defining who WE are: those who compassionately advocate for equity. It's time to find our tribe because we belong to something greater than ourselves. Join us as we find our place in history.
​
June 1, 2021 Reflections on Learning (by Julia)
This month, we find plenty of reason to pause and acknowledge those who bring us joy and peace. We ask first, "Tell us about the people you enjoy spending time with and what makes that time enjoyable?" We answer and bring these souls into our space. We remember walking into a room when, for the first time in too long, everyone looked like us. That need to explain ourselves disappears and we can start with the living right off the bat. We discovered that room, and then realized with deep pain that room isn't our normal. "It must be what it's like for white people all the time." Yet, we still seek. 
If we don't have the room full of folks that look like us, speak our language, then we find our own. We coach our youth with the love of a family, we teach our young people with the honor of being accepted, we find those who share our experience of loss too soon and we grieve together. We celebrate by dancing with abandon; our way of speaking different languages of love through touch and attention. We dance around shifting sands, pointing out with grace our blind spots as we gently pass power from hand to hand. 

​May 6, 2021 Reflections on Learning (by Julia)
We asked, "As you were introduced to the grown up world, what surprised you about how adults work together?" We shared awe at the lengths people will go to avoid discomfort, perpetuating inequity by simply staying in one's lane. We children were also told that loving is simple, we should love everyone regardless, that if we are kind that the world shall reward. Yet, we find that love takes work (parents worked at loving), and all work is hard. That's why it's work. We balk at the introduction to adult gossip, even having recognized adults in our childhoods complaining about bureaucracy and toxic co-workers. We expected them to figure it out but realize that age does not necessarily mean wisdom. Some still "play adult", appreciating the power but not the responsibility.

Once we learned what "Dad does all day" , we take their experience, this work inherited, and find new purpose: the actual work is about relationships. We learn that process is just as important as product. Relationship growing is different here in the Pacific Northwest, each geography has a different way of grown up work. Seattle folks be extra petty tho! But regardless of where we grew up we remember that children, that childhood is in itself, a great teacher. We learn from the compassion of children, their sense of fairness and unconditional love. And, in some places in the ancestral world, we are all ages; we are both infant and elder as the day alone repeats itself. This is life work.

From our shared childhoods, we look to the future. We asked then, "What happens if the job should never end? What does it take to keep the -ism's in check?" Better known as, "The Work". Knowing the tenacious nature of racism, sexism, colorism, ableism, all the isms, we appreciate the need to walk away. We know what resilience feels like, why it's needed, but we also need rest. We rest while others pick it up. We rediscover personal boundaries (loyalty at play), while "finding our tribe". We seek comfort and communion with those who understand and support so we may honestly ask, "What is mine, what is not?" and value the ability to let things go. And to hold things when needed. "You've been warned once, twice, three tiiiiimes" a lady but now with two middle fingers at the ready. While our needs for help are diverse, we all have one in common: We need each other, we need our tribe. 

Next month, inspired by our learning about helping each other finish the job, we talk about The Tribe. As we build a nation of those capable to consistently and humanely address inequitable harm, we find relief in each others' power. Stay in tune.

We all know at some level that a goal of diversity in any organization is simply not enough. What happens when we are at the table? [See Aspects and Assumptions of White Culture in the USA] We've been told to "Bring your authentic self" but when we do, it's misunderstood. [See Seattle's very own Jodi-Ann Burey's TedTalk, "The myth of bringing your authentic self to work"] It's our turn to define what "professionalism' means. We need assurance of expertise, but how we chose to work together is now our decision.

April 1, 2021 Reflections on Learning (by Julia)
We asked on March 30, "When have you found yourself needing to stray from 'professionalism' and how was it received?" The images of 'professionalism' no longer fit what we need. WE are the '100% professional', that's why you hired us, and we know what we're talking about. Too often, we're invited into spaces for diversity, but there is no interest in what we have to say. Tests, credentials, titles alone are no longer able to accurately gauge a person's ability to do the job. We add layers of humanity, the ability to: look at bigger pictures, play well with time, question the role of capitalism, see the person, and more that is still unknown. 
As we come back from break, we ask, "When we have our way, how would your working world change?" [Or something like that...] To be completely unprofessional, let's free flow this one...slow down...DJ, slow it down....yeah...like that...
solidarity   democracy  input  collective   redistribution   power   decisions   manifest   solidarity   seamless   teams   tasks   workload   management   defined   flexible   bold 

We all know at some level that a goal of diversity in any organization is simply not enough. What happens when we are at the table? [See Aspects and Assumptions of White Culture in the USA] We've been told to "Bring your authentic self" but when we do, it's misunderstood. [See Seattle's very own Jodi-Ann Burey's TedTalk, "The myth of bringing your authentic self to work"] It's our turn to define what "professionalism' means. We need assurance of expertise, but how we chose to work together is now our decision.

​April 1, 2021 Reflections on Learning (by Julia)
We asked on March 23, "What have you been wiling to forgive in others as we adjust to a new normal?" As we go around, I realize my question is asked to those with immense amount of compassion. Responses tended to include the word GRACE, almost in replacement of "professional". The experience of TO WHOM we bestow grace is intrinsic to our calculated giving of 'professional' grace, Yet, we too often find ourselves only on the giving end of such grace. 
"I jump through hoops with no guarantee."
"There will always be a reason to not have me around."
"I say 'No' because my ancestors couldn't."
The social contract is broken. Grace presents itself with a soft strength that says, "I know a better way."
The social contract is rewritten. Qualifications, expertise, and assurance of quality remain as needed. Added to this need is the acceptance of potential, of learning, of growing expertise. In this, grace again is present. The social contract is new. We trust in the abilities of others to respect our grace (expectations), and firmly commit to each others' potential. 
We break and then come back to ask, "What do you see changing as we redefine what it means to work together?"
Reading over my notes, I went straight to, "When you give grace, it grows."
"People can't read my mind."
"I will be my most generous self."
"I will show grace."
"Perfection is overrated."
"We share what is deserved. And by fact of our very birth, we deserve grace." ['Giving' implies a power dynamic we are willing to leave behind]
As we pulled it all together, April's theme became clear: "Helping Each Other Finish the Job". Stay in tune. 

What better way to continue what we realized at our January Good vs. Evil January Listening Circle: speaking truth to power requires not only trusting your gut (intuition), but also the validation of others. Others together create systems both harmful and potentially good. Then, how do we interrupt, pause, demand urgency, with grace? What does power look like in the hands of the compassionate?

March 12, 2021 Reflections on Learning (by Julia) We ask, "When someone is trying to take something from you - be it time, dignity, space - what do you really want to say?" Knowing the boundaries of courtesy, of being nice, we first find ourselves asking internally, "Do I deserve this?". When the answer is "No!" we acknowledge we have choices, not just reaction.  Sometimes that reaction is to shut down, to freeze because too often, we too nice. Sometimes we wish to say other things. Like: "What gives you the right to feel so entitled?", "That's your problem, not mine", "You don't realize it, but your words are trying to steal my dream", "This isn't the end, you will not just 'move on' this time", "I put in work that you can never take from me", "It's mine. I deserve it."
In truth, we find it too often said in anger. Anger is an emotion that invites rawness, eliminates the need for censorship. When others chose anger as an avenue to express truth, we listen. And like when in quicksand, we have the choice to struggle alongside and sink further, or we can wait out the hurricane. As a parent loves the child mid-tantrum. We also have the power to make things worse. Be wary. 
How to say truthful things with grace? From last month's Good vs Evil Listening Circle (see below for summary), we discovered the need for safety, for community/kinship, and for flexibility. We ask, "What do you need to tell the truth?"  
We acknowledge that what we need is also what we need to give: trust in compassion. Truth isn't always pretty or nice, especially in matters of the heart. When we hurt, we tell truths differently. We chose to not struggle in the quicksand because it takes us down too. We ask ourselves, "Am I causing avoidable harm?" We "practice being alive" and do it together. We tell truths to those we trust to give us an objective, calm response - even if we are not. We trust others responses to validate or invalidate our truth, as we too are flexible to welcome other truths as valid. 
Oh, but how! After we left our circle, I checked in on those who were planning to attend but were unable. One parent responded that their child missed their nap and was, um, very unpleasant. I replied, "No worries, Fam first!" Then, I paused. This is exactly what we played around with in circle: parents' love for the child transcends only angry reaction, and implores patience and compassion. To hold each other when we take turn in need. In this way, we are all children. Let us treat each other as loved children. 
Next month, we explore another theme that arose: Professionalism. A increasingly uncomfortable word, we look to redefine what that means. Stay in tune!
​

In awe of the growing distance between political parties, belief systems, and ways of viewing the world, we face the daunting task of naming Good and Evil. How does one judge without losing our compassion? We re-examine our default positions on "good" and "evil", and how those judgements interact with our advocacy, own belief systems. To fight evil, we must 1) know intimately it's nature, and 2) not use the same "evil" tools to counter. But how? Join us as we figure it out.
February 2, 2021 Reflections on Learning (by Julia)
Good vs. Evil...where to begin but the beginning. These characters, Good and Evil, are not only woven into humanity, but we embody the battle: we hold the ebb and flow in our veins. The eternal question that motivates philosophers, politicians, religion: what is good and what is evil? While not all cultures and belief systems are unanimous even in how to ask this question (isn’t it all ego/opinion anyways?), the presence of creation and destruction persist. 
We focus on the moment we decide: is this good or evil? We use words like “conscience”, “right/wrong”, “intuition”, “gut feeling”. The concept of cognitive dissonance seems apparent in the course of anyone’s equity experience: The struggle to convince that harm even exists, the tendency to debate even in the presence of mounting evidence is too common. “They” deny harmful and traumatic truths. But why? How could humans be so blind to what is evil? As an example: Violence against children is pure evil. Yet populations default to truth, to believe that politicians and law enforcement(?) have our best interests in mind. People lie to themselves; and children cry themselves to sleep alone, in cages as a result. Yet, we default to truth even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary: cognitive dissonance.
But who's confused? What mounting evidence have I been presented and yet I persist? After decades of diversity workshops, equity seminars and conferences, very little has changed for the marginalized person. Yes, we have institutions now who state a commitment to equitable change, but we continue to experience harm and with impunity. The approach of changing hearts and minds, of persuading those who cause harm to voluntarily stop has not worked: cognitive dissonance. 
Understanding that I too am experiencing a form of cognitive dissonance in the face of mounting evidence, it is time to change my mind and adjust my strategy when it comes to equity work. It’s time to value our intuition, our conscience, as equal to our rationality: I need to trust my gut. To understand this new directive, we asked:
“In the presence of mounting evidence, what do we need to trust our intuition?” 
In response, we found common ground:
Safety: A kind (good) person doesn’t want to cause trouble, or hurt others’ feelings. And, the rational expectation of push-back is fact. Combined, we forego justice for the comfort of others. We “don’t...” when harm is present even when our gut is telling us, screaming at us, to act. We also fear humiliation as weaponized accountability for making a wrong move, a too common retribution from those we should consider allies. 
Community/Kinship: For us to feel more safe exploring the cause of discomfort, we need trusted people to confirm or deny our gut feeling. “Hey, I got this feeling, I’ve got this need, is it true? Is it a worthy need?” One gut is a lot, but it’s not enough. We need to say it together for it to become true. Feeding the gut feeling. Feeding the stomach we believe money thrives in communities where trust exists. And, without it, money becomes, in one too many ways, the root of all evil. 
Flexibility: A lack of safety in expressing a gut feeling is attributed to inflexibility: if we say something contrary or act according to our gut, the environment is unwelcoming to change. We need to slow down, or even stop “moving forward”. And, we call a state of emergency. To say, "Enough!" Accountability is the sibling of flexibility: to acknowledge must now mean a commitment to action. 
Presumption of innocence: The burden of proof is squarely placed on the person harmed: Harassers are presumed innocent. To trust our intuition in this environment also means to document, document, document. We widen our “default” to include guilt, without losing our humanity: If our intuition says, “Don’t trust”, we must respect that voice and of those we trust with this hard truth. 

In closing and going last to answer this question of what is needed to trust our gut, The Equity Consortium introduced the genesis of a new service: The Equity Investigator (f.k.a. Adjudicator). The Investigator, invited not by organization but by person, is tasked with simply determining either the presence or absence of unresolved harm based on discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation. The Investigator conducts a brief investigation including interviews and conducting an anonymized Peer Review Case Study.  After hearing this, the closing round expressed relief, an ability to sleep better knowing there shall be someone to call for help, after generations. Sleep. Better. We grow confident as we face forward into the unknown. We may be scared of the power of listening to our gut, but we persist and in tandem. For more info, contact julia@theequityconsortium.com, or stay tuned!
To the participants, we extend our gratitude in participating in the creation of The Equity Consortium. We institutionalize equity, and our services grow where your light shines. Next month Listening Circle: Truth and Grace.