Your Hope Action Plan
Or... What The Fuck Now?
Yesterday morning, I woke up sobbing. I cried on the phone to my mom. I cried while my boyfriend held me as he said goodbye to go to work. I cried on my post-election support call at work. And then I cried at a coffee shop with some friends. The grief I feel is layered. I’m grieving for our country. I’m grieving for myself and others who no longer feel safe in the places we love. I’m grieving for Eleanor, that we could not prove that a better world was around the corner. I wanted to show her that there was something to hold on for, and I feel like we’ve let her and so many others down.
But I have never been one to sit still for long. Even before the election results came in, regardless of who won, I knew that we would have work to do. There was always going to be a battle for justice & equity & change. We would always have a duty to care for one another. The urgency feels heightened now, but the need has always been there.
In conversations with friends yesterday, I threw out the idea of wanting a Hope Action Plan. I started writing down all the things I wanted to do - the places I wanted to volunteer, the communities I wanted to join, the skills I wanted to grow, the people I wanted to yell at. And I got so overwhelmed.
It’s easy to feel moved by this moment, but to find ways to sustain that energy, to embed community care and advocacy into your routines, to look up from the next step in front of you and see the journey ahead of you — that’s the real challenge.
When I worked at The Impact Guild in college, I got to learn about the Changemaker Storyguide, a reflective journal for finding your purpose in life. It walked through an (admittedly Westernized) interpretation of ikigai to help you find the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.
That framework has been clanging around my head for the past week, as I spin through this cycle of terrified, energized, overwhelmed. So I started to write my own version to meet this moment:
What I care about
Reproductive justice; LGBTQ+ rights; resilient, interconnected & accessible communities
What I’m good at
Storytelling (you’re reading this, aren’t you?); Building relationships and ecosystems; Cooking!
What I can do
Cook meals for and volunteer at Nashville Launch Pad, the LGBTQ+ affirming shelter
Show up through advocacy and donations for TN Advocates for Planned Parenthood, to help with the fight closest to home
Continue to talk about public transit, walkability & community-building in Nashville, so that we can make the most of the transit funding coming out way
Help others find ways to plug in in a way that speaks to their strengths and interests
It will take time to figure out where and how exactly to direct my energy (and how to balance it with taking care of myself), but this feels like a good start. A list of things I can put on my calendar and build into my life.
I know a lot of people in my life are feeling this urge to do something. I don’t want to let this energy die down unharnessed. If you want a space to talk to others who feel this way, to make plans and hold each other accountable, I’m hosting a virtual WTF Now? Night on Tuesday, November 12th at 7pm CT. If you want to be added to the Google Calendar invite, send me an email (carsonbolding@gmail.com).
(All inspiration credit for the name WTF Now? Night goes to my friend Sydney, who wrote the first Now The Fuck What? list.)
This work is better together. We will need each other at every turn. Let’s do this.