Three Things To Convert Despair Into Action
By Safina Center Community Organizing Fellow, Mikaela Loach
Here are the three things I’ve found most useful in converting despair into action:
“What if this is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?”
I say this quote to the man I’ve just met, here at the TIME Earth Awards (where I’ve just been told off for bringing a Palestinian flag onto the red carpet). Andrew is seated next to me, and we’re discussing the state of the world and what we need to do about it in the time between the different awardees’ speeches. “It’s a quote from Valarie Kaur’s work that I find useful in these times. If we choose to see the darkness we are in as a womb rather than a tomb, our actions can move us all towards new life rather than collapsing into death and defeat”, I continue. Andrew, who has been working in climate philanthropy for longer than I’ve been on this Earth, seems genuinely moved by this and turns to repeat the quote to his adult daughter and speedily writes it down on a piece of paper he has in his suit jacket.
It was the wonderful people at Lighthouse Books who introduced me to this quote, and it has fundamentally changed my perspective ever since. It has done so not in a passive way: I still choose to allow it to change my perspective. I choose to practically believe in the notion that this is the darkness of the womb, that it is not time to give up. It’s time to push.
Mikaela at the TIME Earth Awards
2. “What does 'a little bit brave' look like to you?”
An audience member at my It’s Not That Radical book tour stop in Bristol asks me a question I’m asked almost every day: What should I do to help? I look out to a sea of faces and see this question reflected over and over and over again.
“Ask yourself, what does 'a little bit brave’ look like for you?” I responded. I went on to explain that rather than feeling like we can’t do anything because the seemingly most “impactful” actions seem too scary or hard, do what feels “a little bit brave” right now. We don’t need everyone doing the thing that seems the most terrifying to them at the moment: we need a lot of people doing things that feel “a little bit brave”. Maybe that “little bit brave” is attending a meeting for a group in your area for the first time. Maybe it’s offering to facilitate a meeting. Maybe it’s offering to be the notetaker. Maybe it’s taking on one action point at that meeting. Maybe it’s talking to a friend or neighbour about an issue you care about for the first time. “A little bit brave” will look different for all of us. All of those things were once “a little bit brave” for me too (and some days they still are). We don’t need to push ourselves all the way all at once, but we do need to push ourselves a bit now. And then once that “little bit brave” feels comfortable, then we can push ourselves again. If you stick with this, one day the thing that feels impossible or too much to you now might then just be “a little bit brave”.
Mikaela Loach being interviewed by Dominique Palmer in Bristol as part of the It's Not That Radical book tour (in collaboration with the Bristol Cable)
3. See social change and movements as like mycelium
Most of the work that makes the transformational change we see possible (the mushroom) is only possible because of underground, unseen, networks that have grown from losses as much as wins, death as much as life (mycelium). “The Mushroom Is Coming” is the title of the opening essay in both the UK & US paperback editions of It's Not That Radical because this metaphor is so key to all I do. See this video to understand this more.
Photo by Stephanie Sian Smith for Huck Magazine
Remember: hope is an active stance. It’s not something we wait for; it’s something we create.
The final chapter of It's Not That Radical by Mikaela Loach