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Sefirat ha'mishpatim, week four: netzach
For week three, I wrote, "You've renewed your commitment, given yourself an anchor for when you feel adrift, and made a plan for moving a stumbling block out of your path. You've acknowledged truths about yourself and about the past and present. And you've built or renewed a relationship that supports your action or is itself an action, a tiny way that you've made the world better than it was." If you stayed on track to do this, that's awesome! I... did not. It was a challenging week. But I have higher hopes for this week.
My stumbling block is work-life balance, and I've definitely made some steps to fix that. My anchor is my family history of activism, which never fails to inspire me. And I didn't manage to reach out to anyone about doing activism together, but maybe I can do that this week.
As previously mentioned, netzach begins a new three-week group that deals with the past, present, and future—except in the reverse order, with the future coming first.
Week Four: Netzach - Endurance, Tenacity, Vision, Victory, Eternity
For those of us used to thinking of linear time as going from past to future, putting the future first can feel a little peculiar. Don't we need to know where we came from and where we are in order to know where we're going? But netzach reminds us that we can have a vision of the future that doesn't necessarily depend on reality. It invites us to imagine grandly, and to energize ourselves with our dreams so we stick it out through the work it takes to build a better world. Nevertheless, we persist.
10/6: 22. Chesed sh'b netzach, compassion within vision: Take a few minutes to write out a vision of what daily life might be like in a beautiful future. Then reread your vision and think about who's left out of it. If you imagined a world without work, is that a world where labor is still done but hidden away? If you imagined a world without illness, is that a world where "undesirable" genes are edited out of the population? Did you fall into the easy trap of only picturing people who look like you? Revise your vision to make your beautiful future truly inclusive. Recommended watching: "The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto," an episode of Artbound.
10/7: 23. Gevurah sh'b netzach, discipline within endurance: Choose an action that's easy for you and commit to taking that action on a schedule—at least once a week, more often if you can manage it. Don't automate it. The goal is to build a habit of activism, not to set-and-forget a recurring donation. If you get in this habit now, building up your activist muscles, you can persist with it long after Election Day. There's always work to be done. (If you're already doing this, great! It's fine to either be satisfied with that or decide to push yourself to do more. You know your capabilities best.)
10/8: 24. Tiferet sh'b netzach, focus within vision: Return to your vision of the future. The idea of making so many sweeping changes can seem overwhelming, and it's hard to know where to start. But the truth is, there's no wrong place to start and no wrong way to act. Pick any element that particularly calls to you, for whatever reason, and take a concrete action to support a person or organization working toward that goal. And if you're generally struggling with feeling pulled in several directions by many urgent needs, remember that it's better for you and better for your activist work to pick just one or two, such as the causes you wrote down in week one, and give them the majority of your attention. Recommended reading: "The Importance of Focus/Creating Your Activism Goals List" from Hillary Rettig's The Lifelong Activist.
10/9: 25. Netzach sh'b netzach, victory within tenacity: Sometimes when I'm struggling through a long hard process, like moving house, I envision myself in the future looking back on what I've accomplished. I try to imagine it as vividly and positively as I can. I write dialogue for myself: "I'm so glad we spent money on those professional movers; they were expensive but totally worth it!" By envisioning what future-me will be glad I did, I can motivate myself to do what's difficult but necessary in the present. Picture yourself on the day after Election Day—or some other point in the relatively near future—and think about what you'll be glad you did. Fill yourself up with that imagined happiness, relief, and pride. Let it fuel you to take one concrete action today, and to plan more for the time between now and that future point.
10/10 (Shabbat): 26. Hod sh'b netzach, presence within endurance: This week especially, we need a day of rest. We're now halfway through the 49-day count and we've pushed ourselves hard. R' Ellen Lippmann taught me to sing "Ella's Song" two ways: We who believe in freedom cannot rest and We who believe in freedom have to rest. We can't let ourselves off the hook when there's so much to be done. But we also need to periodically rest and recharge so we can recommit without resentment. Sit with how much you've done, and with the knowledge of how much more you will do. Free yourself from any obligation to take action today. Rest.
10/11: 27. Yesod sh'b netzach, heritage within tenacity: We are the latest in a long line of people who persevered in their belief that the world could be made better. Who are your activist mentors and heroes? Remind yourself of their stories, the work they did and the successes they won, the challenges they faced and the times they stumbled. If you're able to, share one of those stories with someone else. (I'd love to read them in the comments.) Honor one of those heroes by taking an action they would be proud of. Recommended listening: "Ella's Song" by Sweet Honey in the Rock.
10/12: 28. Shechina sh'b netzach, divine presence within eternity: In all this personal soul-searching and action-taking, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. Today is about the biggest possible picture, the all of everything: time without end, and the spark of life that everyone experiences and no one fully understands. Rather than trying to make either of those concepts simple enough to grasp, I invite you to sit with their ungraspable nature, and to see what comes up for you. If you need some perspective on your activism—to feel empowered to act or relieved of responsibility, to feel connected with everything or to reconnect with yourself—find it here.
At the end of this week, you have taken three concrete actions for social change. You've crafted a vision of the future, and refined it. You've crafted a vision of your own future self and found ways to work toward that future self's sense of accomplishment. You've set up a schedule of actions so you can build a habit of acting. And you've gotten some large-scale perspective to pull you out of navel-gazing and remind you of wonder.
Next week we turn to hod, presence and the present.
My stumbling block is work-life balance, and I've definitely made some steps to fix that. My anchor is my family history of activism, which never fails to inspire me. And I didn't manage to reach out to anyone about doing activism together, but maybe I can do that this week.
As previously mentioned, netzach begins a new three-week group that deals with the past, present, and future—except in the reverse order, with the future coming first.
Week Four: Netzach - Endurance, Tenacity, Vision, Victory, Eternity
For those of us used to thinking of linear time as going from past to future, putting the future first can feel a little peculiar. Don't we need to know where we came from and where we are in order to know where we're going? But netzach reminds us that we can have a vision of the future that doesn't necessarily depend on reality. It invites us to imagine grandly, and to energize ourselves with our dreams so we stick it out through the work it takes to build a better world. Nevertheless, we persist.
10/6: 22. Chesed sh'b netzach, compassion within vision: Take a few minutes to write out a vision of what daily life might be like in a beautiful future. Then reread your vision and think about who's left out of it. If you imagined a world without work, is that a world where labor is still done but hidden away? If you imagined a world without illness, is that a world where "undesirable" genes are edited out of the population? Did you fall into the easy trap of only picturing people who look like you? Revise your vision to make your beautiful future truly inclusive. Recommended watching: "The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto," an episode of Artbound.
10/7: 23. Gevurah sh'b netzach, discipline within endurance: Choose an action that's easy for you and commit to taking that action on a schedule—at least once a week, more often if you can manage it. Don't automate it. The goal is to build a habit of activism, not to set-and-forget a recurring donation. If you get in this habit now, building up your activist muscles, you can persist with it long after Election Day. There's always work to be done. (If you're already doing this, great! It's fine to either be satisfied with that or decide to push yourself to do more. You know your capabilities best.)
10/8: 24. Tiferet sh'b netzach, focus within vision: Return to your vision of the future. The idea of making so many sweeping changes can seem overwhelming, and it's hard to know where to start. But the truth is, there's no wrong place to start and no wrong way to act. Pick any element that particularly calls to you, for whatever reason, and take a concrete action to support a person or organization working toward that goal. And if you're generally struggling with feeling pulled in several directions by many urgent needs, remember that it's better for you and better for your activist work to pick just one or two, such as the causes you wrote down in week one, and give them the majority of your attention. Recommended reading: "The Importance of Focus/Creating Your Activism Goals List" from Hillary Rettig's The Lifelong Activist.
10/9: 25. Netzach sh'b netzach, victory within tenacity: Sometimes when I'm struggling through a long hard process, like moving house, I envision myself in the future looking back on what I've accomplished. I try to imagine it as vividly and positively as I can. I write dialogue for myself: "I'm so glad we spent money on those professional movers; they were expensive but totally worth it!" By envisioning what future-me will be glad I did, I can motivate myself to do what's difficult but necessary in the present. Picture yourself on the day after Election Day—or some other point in the relatively near future—and think about what you'll be glad you did. Fill yourself up with that imagined happiness, relief, and pride. Let it fuel you to take one concrete action today, and to plan more for the time between now and that future point.
10/10 (Shabbat): 26. Hod sh'b netzach, presence within endurance: This week especially, we need a day of rest. We're now halfway through the 49-day count and we've pushed ourselves hard. R' Ellen Lippmann taught me to sing "Ella's Song" two ways: We who believe in freedom cannot rest and We who believe in freedom have to rest. We can't let ourselves off the hook when there's so much to be done. But we also need to periodically rest and recharge so we can recommit without resentment. Sit with how much you've done, and with the knowledge of how much more you will do. Free yourself from any obligation to take action today. Rest.
10/11: 27. Yesod sh'b netzach, heritage within tenacity: We are the latest in a long line of people who persevered in their belief that the world could be made better. Who are your activist mentors and heroes? Remind yourself of their stories, the work they did and the successes they won, the challenges they faced and the times they stumbled. If you're able to, share one of those stories with someone else. (I'd love to read them in the comments.) Honor one of those heroes by taking an action they would be proud of. Recommended listening: "Ella's Song" by Sweet Honey in the Rock.
10/12: 28. Shechina sh'b netzach, divine presence within eternity: In all this personal soul-searching and action-taking, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. Today is about the biggest possible picture, the all of everything: time without end, and the spark of life that everyone experiences and no one fully understands. Rather than trying to make either of those concepts simple enough to grasp, I invite you to sit with their ungraspable nature, and to see what comes up for you. If you need some perspective on your activism—to feel empowered to act or relieved of responsibility, to feel connected with everything or to reconnect with yourself—find it here.
At the end of this week, you have taken three concrete actions for social change. You've crafted a vision of the future, and refined it. You've crafted a vision of your own future self and found ways to work toward that future self's sense of accomplishment. You've set up a schedule of actions so you can build a habit of acting. And you've gotten some large-scale perspective to pull you out of navel-gazing and remind you of wonder.
Next week we turn to hod, presence and the present.
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I really appreciate these posts. <3
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