Connecting Through These Times
A Conversation with Sarah Walker Ting on their Podcast: Being to Being
I’m thrilled to share this conversation I was so honored to have with on her podcast Being to Being, where we sat under my favorite Acacia tree in San Francisco and explored, in Sarah’s words, “how we can affirm our humanity, extend our care, recognize our power, and connect in community through this time.”
Here you’ll find our full conversation, plus a written excerpt from our conversation transcribed below (edited for clarity). Take a beat to subscribe to Sarah’s budding podcast and support their work!
Lastly, if you find yourself reading along each week and getting something from the work I put into this space, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. It really truly helps this work become my livelihood. In whatever ways you show up, I’m so glad you’re here!
Sara (Folkweaver):
Well, I'll start by saying that this acacia tree is super special to me and my family because both my kiddos grew up under this tree. The forest school we started when my eldest was about three was birthed under this tree, so we've seen it through so many years of seasons and life, kids growing up. So it's really special to gather together under here. I'm so glad to share it with you. I live about five minutes away so this is the place I come when I need to get some perspective—climb up the boulders in Glen Canyon for it. It’s good to be here with you.
Sarah (Being to Being)
Likewise. It feels like we've already carved a little pocket of space and time. We were just talking about how our relationship to time means so much for how free we feel and sometimes that's because we really literally don't have our own control over our own time we don't have the ability to carve out a little block of time in the day to just sit under a tree. Sometimes there's also just being so used to not making time too, like being connected to so many different things that we forget we need some time and space to just be.
Sara (Folkweaver)
There's so much happening when it comes to thinking about our relationship to time living in capitalism like capitalism breaks down our time into productive chunks right and so sitting under a tree is kind of radical because you're not you're not doing anything—you're just existing! And I think that's really countercultural to capitalism.
A few people who control a lot of our time— who gets to have freedom in their time? Who gets to create freedom in their time? Who gets to even come up for air and think about time?
When you're inundated you don't have even have time to ask those questions about who gets to control your time—let alone how to subvert and challenge that, right?
I think about that a lot from the construct of being a mother specifically. In this construct—in the nuclear family structure—who decides how I spend my time, and how do I reclaim parts of my time for my own creative practice? How do I do that in a way that doesn't disconnect me from my kids, or from my community, or from society? Where you're still connected to all of the ways that you're responsible, and connected to other people in community.
Sarah (Being to Being)
These aren't two extremes where you have to swing from being irresponsible and disconnected to have that time—though that feels like the bargain that you create. It's like, “oh we can't be in community and have time for ourselves and to reconnect to something maybe more inward.” But actually I found for me, having come from a lot of community work and having so many responsibilities to community, it wasn't sustainable to do that even, so it wasn't even responsible to community to not carve out that time!
Sara (Folkweaver)
Yes and when you're doing justice work or community-oriented work there's this sense of urgency which comes from white supremacy and capitalism that that seeps into those community and organizing and justice spaces that's really pretty harmful We are allowed to go slow and we are allowed to rest and we're allowed to take some time and that rest can happen in relationship. It doesn't have to be so disconnecting. So does creativity—both of those things can still happen in relationship right?
So what does it look like to be in rest in relationship? what does it look like to not feel like you're in a zero sum game between rest and connection?
Sarah (Being to Being)
I think that's such a beautiful question, Especially in a time when there's so much need to mobilize for community, or provide for each other. How are there also to provide rest with each other? Or provide nourishment, in ways that aren’t, “I give and you receive,” but in a way that it’s nourishing everyone. That's why I wanted to do this podcast here you know under trees and in a space that's inherently nourishing, because I know it will be nourishing for us just to be here, and it will be nourishing for whoever is watching as well—even if we don't say anything that's very interesting!
Literally for someone who's watching on a bus on your way to work— just by watching nature is nourishing, watching people who are connecting is nourishing. It’s a pretty simple act, but I know I’ve taken the bus in Oakland so many times and that time could deplete you and or it could nourish you depending on what like we provide each other in those moments.
Sara (Folkweaver)
100%. What does it actually look look like to witness a conversation like we’re having right now? If I see you and you see me? At the end of this we're going to be different. We’re going to be shaped differently together, right? We're creating a circle together, where we get to shape each other, and that has ripples into our day and ripples into the people that we interact with today. We're also shaped by and shaping the environment together [watch the video for the full conversation]
If you find yourself reading along each week and getting something from the work I put into this space, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. It really truly helps this work become my livelihood. In whatever ways you show up, I’m so glad you’re here!
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