marihuertas

I write. Occasionally, I'm eloquent.

[marihuertas]

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[marihuertas]

VOTE

Originally posted on Instagram on Nov. 6, 2022

Ten years ago, I was in President Obama's Chicago HQ listening to the election results as each state was called, one by one. The air was wildly electric, and I was wired to witness the marathon efforts – including anxiety, conviction, and ferocious dedication – of thousands of campaign workers coming to a verdict that unfolded first slowly, then in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it rush. I was moved by the poll workers, striving for a fair election. And to see the reactions of voters themselves when the night was called – they were joyous, unbound. I've never forgotten it.

I believe in voting. I believe in people having the power to vote and the right to vote – not only unencumbered, because that is the bare minimum, but fully empowered and supported and aided in ways that help especially the marginalized, the rightfully fearful, the longtime repressed make their voice and choice heard.

Our nation's system of government is not perfect. It never has been. It was created by wealthy white men who enslaved others for their benefit and sought to consolidate power to maintain their way of life. They could have done better, but they didn't.

Imperfection begs the question of who is going to do the work of making it better. The answer is, and always has been: All of us.

VOTE.

(in loving memory of JP)

[poetsandwriters]

Remember what you’re fighting for: It is very easy to become hyper-focused on what we’re fighting against… But nothing is a better and more important motivator than what we are fighting for.

Ijeoma Oluo (The Guardian, 2017)

[shacklefunk-deactivated20220623]

yknow theres a lot of pressure to be successful, particularly on artsy kids whose professions are seen as useless unless theyre famous, but life is fucking hard and sometimes things dont turn out

but i think thats not bad. my dad has wanted to be a musician forever, and hes rly pretty good. but then he joined the military to get away from an abusive family, and then he got married, and then he got divorced, and a lot of horrible shit HAPPENED. he has ptsd and severe anxiety and he could never really get back on the horse. and he never made it as a musician, and now hes 53

but i grew up in a house full of instruments, and he can play all of them, and some of my earliest memories are of him playing guitar on the front porch and me thinking there wasnt a better musician in the world. so. even if you dont get to the stars, exactly, what you do isnt worthless. its not a waste of time if life is difficult and you cant make it, or if you arent famous, or if your work doesn’t influence thousands of people. it will influence someone

there are a million ways to be happy and a million ways to be a successful artist. we create what we do to enhance the human experience and relate to each other and improve ourselves. theres something to be said for just doing that,,,for the sake of doing it, yknow

[marihuertas]

Platinum truth.

[salamispots]

[marihuertas]

We can still make magic. ✨

[robertogreco]

The whole globe is shook up, so what are you going to do when things are falling apart? You’re either going to become more fundamentalist and try to hold things together, or you’re going to forsake the old ambitions and goals and live life as an experiment, making it up as you go along.

Pema Chödrön (via Thomas Steele-Maley)

Let's experiment. ❤️

[marihuertas]

A plan to modernize the Democratic Party.

I’m in.

[marihuertas]

Michelle Obama: A Candid Conversation With America’s Champion and Mother in Chief

On the eve of her departure from the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama has never been a more inspiring figure—America’s conscience, role model, and mother in chief.

Michelle Obama was everything we needed and continue to need as a nation, and I’m going to miss her terribly.

[marihuertas]

I think the idea that women can have it all is an impossible notion. Any mother who works has moments of guilt because they are not with their baby all the time. Every time I walk out of the door, it kills me—every time. I miss her. More than I ever miss anyone, more than I knew I could miss anyone. But I feel so strongly what I do, I’m so passionate about it. I hope one day that my daughter feels proud of me and my work. And she looks and thinks: 'She is doing what she is supposed to do.'

Lisa Ling, Today’s Parent, 2014 

[marihuertas]

In April, I met a mom in Newton, Iowa, who held her four-and-a-half-month-old in her arms. She said to me, ‘I’m counting on you to know what it’s like to be a working mother. Please help us working mothers and fathers have more time with our babies.’ I’m not going to let her down. I’ll never forget what it was like to be a mom at work. It wasn’t easy. And I was lucky: I had financial security, a supportive employer, and affordable childcare. Too many families don’t. I’ve met so many parents stuck in impossible situations, at their wits’ ends trying to make it all work. It just shouldn’t be this hard to work and have a family.

Hillary Clinton addresses working mothers, Fortune, September 2016

[robertogreco]

I am inclined to believe that the heart and final guarantee of democracy is in free gatherings of neighbors on the street corner to discuss back and forth what is read in uncensored news of the day, and in gatherings of friends in the living rooms of houses and apartments to converse freely with one another. Intolerance, abuse, calling of names because of differences of opinion about religion or politics or business, as well as because of differences of race, color, wealth or degree of culture are treason to the democratic way of life.

John Dewey, “Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us” [.pdf] (1939) (via Randall Szott)

[hypnophant-deactivated20210715]

Causes and effects assume history marches forward, but history is not an army. It is a crab scuttling sideways, a drip of soft water wearing away stone, an earthquake breaking centuries of tension. Sometimes one person inspires a movement, or her words do decades later; sometimes a few passionate people change the world; sometimes they start a mass movement and millions do; sometimes those millions are stirred by the same outrage or the same ideal and change comes upon us like a change of weather. All that these transformations have in common is that they begin in the imagination, in hope.

Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark (via hypnophant)

[marihuertas]

[poetsandwriters]

We’re all rushing along towards the end, but it turns out the middle has been the prize all along.

Ramona Ausubel (Lithub, 2016)

[marihuertas]

One of the best small, prefab houses I’ve seen. I appreciate that the architect takes differently-abled people’s perspectives and needs into account, and I love the idea of reintroducing the open porch for the community. Add a big, beautiful garden and a small studio on that lot, and I’d be all set.

[marihuertas]

Free.

[marihuertas]

A week and a half ago, I found a monarch caterpillar in a bouquet of wildflowers I had bought at the farmer's market. We transplanted her to a milkweed plant, and the next night, she spun her chrysalis and disappeared inside it, leaving her caterpillar husk in the dirt.

This morning, she became a butterfly. We moved her milkweed plant carefully to our deck outside so she could fly away when ready and were lucky to capture her first flight. A magical experience end to end.