The title of this post comes from the dedication in newly released book Revolutionary Mothering: a book which “places marginalized mothers of color at the center of a world of necessary transformation…Revolutionary Mothering is a movement-shifting anthology committed to birthing new worlds, full of faith and hope for what we can raise up together.”
Here are some of my favourite droplets of wisdom from the book:
“Love is lifeforce. I believe that the creative spirit is nothing less than love made manifest. I see love as the essential nature of all that supports life. Love is opposed to the death of the dream. Love is opposed to the delimiting of possibilities of experience.”
“Children are the ways that the world begins again and again. If you fasten upon that concept of their promise, you will have trouble finding anything more awesome, and also anything more extraordinarily exhilarating, than the opportunity or/and the obligation to nurture a child into his or her own freedom.”
“Like many of you, I learned about governance at home. From the constant reprise that I had to share with not only my younger sister, but any child or adult who was living with us at the time to the silent observation that my mother relied upon a network of women to care for her children and keep them safe from harm, it was clear to me from a very young age that governance was a communal affair, requiring multiple forms of leadership that ranged from hierarchical and collective and included consensus building strategies, shared infrastructure, and an economic system that supported the base needs of all equally and allowed for each to contribute according to their means and ability. ”
“when 3 feet of sunshine missing two front teeth
asked me why do we need revolution
all i had was a grenade in my mouth.
i held him for a while and watched him draw
clouds and trees and ladybugs and a house
filled with everybody he loves
when was the last time we put to image
what we thought the world should be…”
“To me, motherhood is a state of helpless yearning. The world shows itself in full color the first night you become a parent. You begin to yearn for the impossible: guarantees of safety and justice. And recognizing that impossibility often made me tearful. But I didn’t want to spend my life crying over impossibilities. I suddenly had this crazy urge to clean up the world for my son. I needed to organize.”
resistance words 