Comments on: lovers in a dangerous time

By: Creating a Culture of Belonging: Riffs on Time, Place, and Co-creating Space (cross-posted on Feministe) « La Lubu

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:22:16 +0000

[...] inspired by bell hooks and her book Belonging: A Culture of Place and Little Light’s amazing post on vulnerability. In fact, I’ll just say now that one of the reasons I don’t post more [...]

By: Alas, a blog » Blog Archive » Link Farm and Open Thread, Brain Scanning Dead Fish Edition

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:44:14 +0000

[...] Great post by Little Light: “Let’s let vulnerability be radical. Let’s embrace it.” [...]

By: Isabel

Isabel — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:17:37 +0000

hello, i am another person here just to let you know that i think you are completely fucking amazing and your writing regularly brings me to exactly the best kind of tears and this is beautiful and is getting linked and will likely get reread a lot.

By: stacey m

stacey m — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:59:20 +0000

thanks for this, love. sharing it everywhere.

By: Raksha

Raksha — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:47:06 +0000

dasha – Thank you for your kind words. I’m very glad you’re making it through your tough times. And you’re right, I do need to keep trying. And I am! We’ve finally scraped enough $ together for the next doctor visit (up next: a neurologist!). I’m hoping that with some kind of concrete diagnosis, I can finally get Disability long enough to get me back to school to learn some languages. Verbal translation doesn’t require me to move any of my extremities! It’s just slow going because we’re so damn poor.

Little Light – Just so you know, this blog post has already helped make a concrete, real world improvement (small though it may be). Part of my problem is isolation. I’m literally stranded in the middle of nowhere (it’s a half hour drive to the dubious civilization of a <400 person town). I haven't had a face-to-face conversation with someone who's not a relative or a health care worker in over two years. So I talked to some friends out of state and told them everything I've been going through and they ended up pooling their money for a plane ticket for me to come visit them! For the first time in a very long time, I'm actually excited about something!

By: Marissa

Marissa — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:07:59 +0000

There’s so much power in saying “I’m hurting”. Maybe not for people who feel fine, but for those of us who are also struggling. For me, I get so tired of being the only woman in the room, of having to fight against patriarchal standards that are old and painful. Thank you so much for commiserating with us. I didn’t even realize how much I needed to hear that from someone else until you said it. (Stupidly, when I’m flying on autopilot, I think everyone else has it under control and there’s something wrong with me that these things are affecting me so much.)

I’m going to take some time now to breathe and forgive myself for hurting. My thoughts and compassion are with you Little Light. Muchas gracias for your vulnerability.

By: rapecentric

rapecentric — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:11:53 +0000

thank you for this. im bad at linking things but i pulled a little of this ( i hope its ok) and linked you in my blog. cant wait to read more!!!

By: Tlönista

Tlönista — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:35:38 +0000

Little Light,

Everything you write is amazing. It makes me cry and it makes me see the world in different ways.

Have you noticed who suffers when we build a movement premised on never admitting that we can hurt each other, on never admitting that we’re tired and limited and human and just aren’t up for it today? Who stops making blog posts, who stops showing up to meetings and town halls and community projects, stops putting their work out there and speaking openly and honestly?

From my limited experience, it’s the most brilliant writers, the most revolutionary thinkers, the people with the most potential…they get burned out. And it isn’t good to be this way and we’ll never get anywhere if it keeps being this way. Thank you for this post.

By: HR Recruiter

HR Recruiter — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:33:42 +0000

I love this blog. I can relate. Thank you for sharing it with us.

By: dasha

dasha — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:35:36 +0000

Raksha your story is similar but much more difficult than mine; I can say that I know that paralyzing hopelessness you’ve been living with. You’re depressed (and rightly so!) and you know you need support–that is why you reached out to share your story.

I hope, hope, hope you keep trying to find your way out of this illness. You sound like a good person, with much to teach the world, who has a life full of pleasures (small and great) awaiting them. When you make progress in fighting depression, you will feel revitalized again, and then you will be able to take small steps to change your circumstances. The best thing you can do is to keep reaching out to people who understand and care about you.

In the last month, I’ve been able to recover from a very deep depression–and I promise you, if you keep making small changes for the better, you will begin to feel empowered and hopeful once again. For me, getting well meant going to community-provided counseling, I hope you choose to pursue what you think you need. Keep ferreting out the good in life, that inspires and comforts you. It will get better.