Author: gracesmuggler

For the last year, I’ve been gathering monthly with the Rosh Chodesh Circle, a communion of women who practice spiritual growth together and are informed by the Jewish Renewal Movement. Lucinda Kurtz, my friend and the facilitator, recently shared with us that this is a Shmita Year. That means this is the seventh year in a cycle of seven years. It’s a Sabbath year. Shmita means, “year of release.”

In the Torah, the seventh day of the week is a Sabbath day of rest and renewal, and likewise, the seventh year serves as a Sabbatical year. Debts are to be forgiven, the agricultural land is to lie fallow, and food storage and harvests are to be open and shared by all. This is a time of redistributing resources.

So often, I find myself believing that work, striving, and stress are needed to care for others. Of course, sometimes, these are part of those commitments. But I’m asking myself new questions: Why have I assumed that my own rest and renewal are for myself alone, and therefore, are perhaps selfish? Maybe personal rest and renewal begets rest and renewal among others. And maybe this is something collective in the first place.

What if we released more of our work, striving, and stress in this Shmita year — this very year of release? What could be possible for ourselves and others? And what if let this be a resetting, paradigm shift?

–Renee Roederer

In a couple different ways, I was really moved by this tweet from @rachelismuhname. She says,

When I struggle with body size,
I remember body size is mostly genetic.

When I hate my body,
I am hating my mom’s body,
My grandmother’s body,
My great grandmothers body.

Two of the three are no longer with us, and I would give anything to hug them again.

Bodies are blessed.

The body we have deserves our love.

The same could be said for
internalized ableism,
internalized misogyny,
internalized racism,
internalized xenophobia.

The body we have deserves our love.

We have a beautifully beloved, peopled body.

–Renee Roederer

We need each other’s questions. When we meet people and they share the questions they have carried within their experiences, we are invited to ask our own questions as well.

When an experience is new in our lives or a set of needs emerges in new ways, in all honesty, there are whole areas questions we don’t even know to ask until we’ve met people who have already asked them.

This is true in so contexts.

I find that this is true in my work in community at the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan. People who are newly diagnosed don’t always know that certain treatments or types of specialists are available until they’ve met other people with epilepsy who have asked those questions before them. Parents don’t always know that their children have particular rights in education or that accommodations that can be initiated until they meet other parents who have had to ask those questions before them. People don’t know always how to get involved in advocacy until they’ve met other advocates and activists who have asked questions before them.

In this context, and in so many contexts,
we need each other’s questions.

–Renee Roederer

Images of winter weather.

-Renee Roederer

Over the weekend, I saw this salient tweet by Drew Brown. It reads:

Talking with a pastor friend in the US and these words fell out of my mouth. “Churches are dangerous when their past is more important to them than their future.”

Dead silence on the other line.

“Wait. Say that again.”

This is so true… When churches cannot prioritize the future, and are instead driven to recapture the past, they cannot be relevant, at best. At worst, however, they begin to prioritize the most damaging instincts of the past, or they drive off the people, visions, and innovations that could move them forward.

This is also true in families.

This is also true in politics.

This is also true in systems of any kind.

There is wisdom here.

–Renee Roederer

Okay, I’m doing it, just like so many others are now. And I’m here to try to get you to do the same. All the cool kids are in on it, and I want you to have as much fun as we are.

Play Wordle.

It’s just one word per day, and it’s a really fun way to start the morning, especially knowing that your friends are playing too and solving for the same word all at the same time.

Enjoy!

–Renee Roederer

There are times in our lives when we need to live a stance like this:

“I’m not done with you, but I’m done with this.”

“I’m not done with you all, but I’m done with what you’re doing right now.”

“I’m not done with this vision, but I’m done with these dynamics.”

“I’m not done with hoping, but I’m done with this thing I never hoped for.”

“I’m not done with me (self love) but I want to be done with this pattern/expression/unconscious behavior/lack of self love.”

It takes strength to hold to both sides of this, and we might need to come back to both sides of this stance multiple times in order to recommit or adjust in the ways we feel are helpful for the situation. We may need others to help us with this too. When we hold to these and live them, we invite transformation. That is certainly true for ourselves, but it can be true within relationships and communities too.

–Renee Roederer

Earlier this month, scientists launched the James Webb Space Telescope into space. This took place a decade later than originally planned and more than 1000% over budget. People have been working on this for a long time, and much has been invested into what it can do.

I loved listening to scientists talk about the James Webb Space Telescope on Vox’s podcast Unexplainable. One of the astronomers shared that through tools, including this telescope, we are “the universe understanding itself.” I love that language and that thought.

Likewise, NASA’s Juno mission around Jupiter has yielded knowledge and beauty. Today, enjoy the clearest images of Jupiter we’ve ever seen. You are the universe, understanding and and admiring itself.

These beautifully real images are some of the closest images of Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. The original image was captured by JunoCam, the camera on NASA’s Juno mission in orbit around Jupiter. This image was taken on Juno’s 22nd close pass by Jupiter on Sept. 12, 2019 with image processing done by Prateek.: NASA’s Juno Space Probe / JunoCam

I recently watched someone speak skillfully to a topic at hand but smartly slide in a phrase of snark that actually referred to another matter entirely. It seemed as though it was about this context, but instead, it was intended to convey to someone present, “I see and acknowledge how you were treated in that previous matter, and that was not okay. You have my support.”

Not everyone could catch it, but I happened to know about both contexts.

That was masterful. That was the beautiful artistry of solidarity.

–Renee Roederer

I’ve never been a big, send-cards-in-the-mail person. I confess that I never do Christmas cards, though many wonderful people send them my way, and I’m grateful for those. And in addition to the holiday time, I’ve received a lot of kind, out-of-the-blue cards during the pandemic. Even more recently, I’ve received some meaningful birthday cards.

Then recently, I’ve become a sender too.

When I was in Texas for Christmas, my chosen family gave me some Bob Ross cards. They have Bob Ross paintings on the front, and cute, little Bob Ross cards quotes inside. I’ve been sending these to community members, saying affirmations and words of appreciation. They’ve meant a lot to people.

This has also been fun to me. And this is a reminder, card or not, that surprise words of connection or affirmation mean a lot — both in the giving and the receiving.

I don’t know if you’re a card person or not, but perhaps we could prioritize sharing some words of affirmation with someone today? This is especially lovely if they’re not expecting it.

–Renee Roederer