From the Introduction: In the shapeshifting dojo of my deepest relationships, I have come to understand how thinking that is oppositional to my survival, thinking I have come to disagree with--overtly--as I have developed my own politic, has still shaped me and is rooted in me. Only loving corrections have helped me become intentional about who and how I want to be and grow. When I don't believe someone cares about my life, much less my work, I close myself to their critiques. I don't want to risk the total erasure of my heart, and strangers are really reckless these days. I have known days where I thought myself worse than useless, based on a fickle trend of uninformed hateration. I am more known than some and less known than others, and everyone I have met, at any level of visibility, when we talk about this, there is a familiarity with that sense of fear, of wanting to show some true parts of ourselves to the world and not wanting to be torn apart. As a result, we are developing skin so thick it's hard to discern when receiving loving feedback and necessary corrections. But when I know someone loves me and wants to see me thrive, I seek out their feedback. Even if it's hard to hear, I know it comes from someone who wants to help me see all of myself and know myself. In my somatics scholarship, I learned that feedback from others should not be received as the truth but as a truth, which was liberating for me. I used to let each morsel of feedback decenter me until I became quite lost from who I was and how I felt about things. Now I take feedback in as something currently true to someone who loves me. I let it simmer and distill and keep what is useful to me, what I can work with and grow in. Each of these essays is meant to be experienced in this way - not as the truth from on high, but as something true to me in the moment of writing it, uttered with love and a desire to deepen. Each piece of writing is me dropping into the most loving stance I know to address patterns I see in communities I love and live for. These patterns challenge me, sometimes explicitly oppress me, and sometimes deny key aspects of my existence. To find the courage and will to write each of these pieces, I had to decide not to give up on us. I asked myself: what does it mean to intentionally decide to stay in relationship with humanity as a whole, to not count anyone out based on identity? What if I didn't take it all personally? What if I saw the patterns that most offend me as instigation for my own growth in boundaries and self-adoration? What if I wanted to maximize my potential to be in right relationship with everyone I meet? These essays are not written in a vacuum - this is a continuation of Emergent Strategy, We Will Not Cancel Us , and Holding Change . If we learn the lessons of emergent strategy, we understand that change is constant. Part of our human work is to apply our capacity to reason towards changing together in ways that support life. If we grasp that we cannot actually cancel other living beings from the world, then how do we find dignified ways of being in communities that face, address, and evolve beyond harmful patterns? Suppose we accept that each of us has some responsibility for holding the massive changes needed for our survival. How do we hold each other close enough to learn our hardest lessons without giving up belonging? Nature, including our human development, is a beautiful teacher when it comes to loving corrections. Adaptations are the way the natural world keeps life moving towards life. That which does not serve life becomes obsolete, and that which we need emerges. Mountains walk slowly--stone by stone, changing under the pressure of raindrops and wind. But not all the adaptations are loving. In our greed and cluelessness, humans have made so many species disappear because we did not value them. We did not understand, in time, how to cohabitate and how this world is meant to be shared, even with those species we don't necessarily understand. In the same way, we have lost so many precious and unique species and places on this planet, and we are losing valuable cultural gifts and distinctions, losing our capacity to understand which differences are good and healthy for us, and which are dangerous to tolerate. This book is for those of us willing to be in the murmuration of human life on earth with each other, willing to change together, to move towards life together. It's for those who want to be solution-oriented but who can still be sucked into deconstruction and judgment that is destructive to others, instead of working to counter the toxic concepts that go viral amongst us. This book primarily looks at dominant cultures engaged in practices that isolate them from the whole, and each essay is an invitation back into belonging. In a way, the audience for each piece is different, so take what you need and pass the rest on to whoever needs it. I learned the lessons from these essays through living vigorously, and I will continue to learn; that is my promise. I am working hard not to be afraid to speak a truth when I see and feel it, so some of the content in these pages may be uncomfortable to read - it was uncomfortable to feel and write. But the social and environmental justice movements of my dreams, those big enough to invite the world into the future, will have made these loving corrections. I foresee a movement with a wide stance, a strong connection to ancestral wisdom, and a fortified sense of self that inspires all who see and touch and join it and love at the center. To get there, we need to imagine dignity in every possible identity and stop confusing identity for community. Building and sustaining communities that can survive and create more possibilities together--this is movement work. We are tasked with challenging the regressive policies and beliefs that separate us, reminding our species that we belong to this earth and each other. We need to do the work of honestly engaging in community as students of belonging. Throughout this reading experience, please keep asking yourself, "how can I grow?" and "do I know anyone who needs this medicine?" and "can I add to this medicine?" Let go of what isn't yours to carry and focus on being strong in carrying your particular life and lessons. With love amb PS. One note -- in many of the pieces in this book, I speak of "right relationship." In Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, I shared this quote: "The mountains, streams, valleys, oceans, deserts, and all things are related to our thoughts and actions. All things are in relationship with each other."--Jasmine Wallace, a Tsalagi (Cherokee) medicine woman. Ideally, it is enough to recognize the relationship of all things and understand that everything is connected. Still, in this period of human history, we are aware of all kinds of toxic and dangerous relationships, so when I say "right relationship," it is a shorthand for relationships that are authentic, organic, healthy, present, healing, nourishing, well-boundaried, interdependent and just. Excerpted from Loving Corrections by adrienne maree brown All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
