Permission to Pivot: The Transition From 3 Offers Back to 1

For the Worldbuilders Ep. 60

A black and white film photograph of David Hammons creating his “body prints”. The photograph is titled “David Hammons, Slauson Studio” (1974) by Bruce Talamon. Source: Studio Museum of Harlem

Dear Worldbuilder,

I’m writing this from a courtyard in New Mexico with the life and work of Georgia O’Keeffe still fresh in my mind after a visit to her museum in Santa Fe. I’m thinking about all the ways she practiced and embodied interspecies communion. I’m thinking about the wayward darkness that swayed inside her — the depression and anxiety that some of us are all too familiar with. I’m thinking about how the mountains, the flowers, the trees, the barns were all monuments of presence, grounding her in the now even if her mind was elsewhere.

And because I’m black and because I’m woman and because I’m queer with an alphabet soup of neurodivergence and complex trauma, I’m thinking about how much time, money and resources it took for her to stay whole. The art supplies, the fabric for the garments, the time it took to sew them, the solitude, the silence, the long summers and autumns at Lake George, the trips to Antigua and respites in Bermuda.

I’m writing this from a courtyard in New Mexico and thinking about where our our access to resources begin and where our mental health struggles end. Today I’m clearer now more than yesterday, worlds need resources and our bodies need permission to pivot toward realities we can collectively bear. Not just in service to our art practices, but in service to our collective survival.

“As therapists, it feels deeply unethical to witness the murder of yet another innocent Black, Muslim man by the name of, Khalifah (Marcellus) Williams and reduce our response to simply encouraging “self-care” or focusing on one’s “locus of control”. These individualistic frameworks will never work when confronting systemic oppression, racism, and state-sanctioned violence”.

— Pat, Radical Somatic Therapist, @pat.radical.therapist

I’m writing this from a courtyard in New Mexico and I’m not craving the life of a white woman named O’Keeffe with access to generational wealth, I’m craving the dissolution of systemic oppression, racism, and state-sanctioned violence. I don’t want her freedom if it doesn’t guarantee the same freedoms for all of us.

Standing next to my fellow museum goers, they see flowering beauty and all I can see are flames. I give myself permission to turn to the heat.

Inside this Episode We…

🧂 Welcome all the clarifying insights eclipse season is sprinkling on our life and practices

🧠 Explore how sneaky scarcity mindset can be, even with the abundance of wisdom, tools and skills we’ve learned inside our journey of transformation

🔎 Get curious about how withholding permission to pivot is another form of postponing joy

🪞 Dive into the story of what “practicing what your preach” and “doing the homework you teach” is currently looking like inside my practice

I’m sitting in a courtyard in New Mexico and thinking about all the ways interlocking systems of oppression will never give us permission to choose ourselves, to choose eachother. We must take it. Sonya Renee Taylor reminds us every story rooted in scarcity is a lie. How might we create and collect permission slips for pivoting towards the heat of our desire and each other?

Tune into the 60th episode “Permission to Pivot: The Transition From 3 Offers Back to 1” on the podcast For the Worldbuilders via Spotify or Apple Podcast.

🌐 Worldbuilding Workshop Registration

Inside this episode we deep dive into all the lessons I’ve learned after 3 Seed A World Retreat cohorts and why starting fall 2024, Seeda School will direct all it’s focus to supporting one core offering: The Treehouse, an annual membership with a full year of creative dispatch and offer support through monthly workshops, open studios and quarterly retreats. Download the Fall 2024 Treehouse Syllabus to learn more.

Did the summer reveal a new longing? Is eclipse season inviting you to give yourself permission to pivot toward new landscapes and possibilities? Join us in the upcoming 2-PART Worldbuilding Workshop where you'll learn more about your creative practice and how you might resource the pivots you’re being called to explore.

If you’ve been wanting to experiment with releasing an income generating offer to financially sustain your creative practice and it’s impact, join us for free starting October 8th at 12PM EST.

Share this flyer with a friend or study buddy you’d love to workshop and retreat with inside the Treehouse! 👇🏾