Even as the world judders, as long standing structures tremble and crack, as the tide of injustice and looming disaster flows on and on and on, may you find the pockets and circles, the chosen families and temporary autonomous zones in which you feel safe enough to let down your shields and reveal your true face, raw and shining. May you be bold enough. to speak the truths you were taught to hide–as a woman, as a queer person, as a Black or brown person, as anyone at all molded and shaped by the dominating culture that maims all our souls–and may your vulnerability be met with kindness, understanding, and respect. May you dare to believe that each honest word you speak breathes life into a web of liberation and resilience, a web rooting and stretching to hold us all through this great breaking open.

When you reach the end of something–a project that has touched you deep, filled dreams and hours and days; a relationship that has frustrated and nourished you, as most relationships do; a home that has cradled your unfolding; an era of your life or even your life itself–may you hold in one hand sorrow, a bowl filled with emptiness and tears and in the other hand, gratitude, a cornucopia heaped high with thankfulness for all you discovered, received, and enjoyed. May you pause there at the threshold, at the place between this ending and whatever comes next. May you drink deeply of both your grief and your joy, allowing the twin, intertwining streams to run through you, reshaping you, opening and closing doors to worlds within and beyond you. May you honor the change; may you mark and celebrate the passing of days and selves.