Radical Welcome

This morning, I was working on clearing brush on the back 40 getting ready to make a fern forest. I suddenly dropped into a deep awareness of how each piece of my body was working in concert with the others. My back tightened as I pulled the sinews of a thorny vine, my feet pushed against the ground at the precise angle to follow its underground path, and my left hand deftly cut it in the spot that would free it without sending a tendril ricocheting into my eyes (which closed, just in case). My lungs deeply pulled in the fresh spring air, and I felt my heart working to move that oxygen into my muscles.  In that moment, I thought about you.

Like one part of a body, you have a special purpose and skill, whether it’s advocating for consent in intimacy work, for equal pay among designers, for accessible spaces for artists who use wheelchairs, and so much more. Every person reading this is doing important, different work.

Out of necessity, each of you has become an expert in your specialization, learning vocabulary, strategies, relevant information about laws and precedent. You are unique, and valuable, and not interchangeable. An eye can’t do the work of a hand—and it shouldn’t try—but if it knows a bit about what the hand is doing, it can help the hand do its work better. If the brain tried to replace the lungs, it would be a deadly mess, but they (em)power each other.

Each of you has done so much in your specialized area; I’m just a little left ventricle rhythmically calling out that we are all part of one body. If we begin to coordinate and align our efforts, we can collectively tear out thorns and make space for flourishing. Radical Welcome is an invitation. It’s an opportunity to say, “This is how I’m trying to fix our industry. How do you tackle a similar problem? Can my tools apply in your work? How can our efforts align?”

—Aili Huber