Wanting to share a win today with the CB community. I'm sobbing right now (in a good way) over something that is really small but is landing in a really big way. I was feeling a little down today, my tween activated at the moment. Then my husband sent me a a local event he saw posted for Lunar New Year this weekend that he thought we should attend. And the tears hit because 1- my sweet husband is thinking of me and trying to celebrate with me, and 2- for the first time my first thought wasn't "is it ok if I'm there?" I can't find the words right now to describe how huge that 2nd thing is for me. It's evidence that the work I've been doing to connect with my ancestors and identity is truly integrating. I just can't stop crying. 😂😭 So so so grateful for this work and this community and everything it's growing within me. 🥹

---Polycentric: “Poly” = many “Centric” = centers of power, authority, or meaning Polycentric systems distribute power across multiple nodes rather than concentrating it in a single authority. Think: - Local communities - Worker cooperatives - Mutual aid networks - Municipal governance - Online affinity groups No single center dominates; legitimacy and coordination emerge from interaction among many centers. This stands in contrast to fascistic structures, which are monocentric — centralized authority, hierarchy, obedience, uniformity. ---Solidarity: Solidarity isn’t just kindness or agreement. It’s: - Shared commitment - Mutual obligation - Collective risk-taking - Alignment across difference It implies action, not just feeling. ---Put Together: Polycentric Solidarity It describes a distributed network of communities that retain autonomy yet actively coordinate in mutual support. It weakens authoritarian tendencies by: - Preventing concentration of power - Encouraging horizontal relationships - Making capture of “the center” impossible (because there isn’t just one) - Building resilience through redundancy It strengthens community by: - Allowing pluralism (difference without fragmentation) - Encouraging deliberation across nodes - Supporting local agency while maintaining shared commitments Why It’s Powerful Conceptually Polycentric solidarity avoids two traps: 1. Centralized collectivism (which can slide into authoritarianism) 2. Fragmented individualism (which erodes cohesion) It’s a middle architecture: Autonomy + Interdependence Local power + Shared alignment Diversity + Coordination It reflects Elinor Ostrom’s governance thinking, network theory, and deliberative democratic ideals — without relying on a single institutional authority. If you want to sit with it philosophically: Polycentric solidarity assumes that: - Human systems are complex, not linear. - Power must be diffused to remain humane. - Collective strength emerges from negotiated relationships, not imposed unity.

My 11 year old got her FIRST ever failing mark in school on a major assessment today. She told me right away and my FA stayed online the whole time. I usually would have spiraled and both of us would have had a hard go while my teenager would be thinking about how it was the end of the world. This time I was honestly just relieved she was able to tell me and I could tell that she wasn’t so anxious or fearful of my reaction just happy to feel “safe” being honest and WOW real tears right now realizing as I’m writing what a pivotal moment it is for my child to feel safe enough to bring me a failing grade. That I could model that it is NORMAL and ok to fail sometimes and there’s a lesson in it. For her “slow down”. She cried because she’s a strait A student and everything comes with ease for her and I comforted her and honestly all my littles stayed calm while doing it. The point of this post is to share my absolute pride knowing that the work I’m doing is so real and I’m seeing it unfold in front of me. My daughter knows that her worth isn’t contingent on how she performs and that nothing she does can make me love her more or less. ✨😊🥰

Follow up from our Tue CB conversation. What are some boundaries you can set for your current life that protects you?

Gabor Maté in his book Scattered Minds: the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder talks about how environmental factors like collective trauma can impact our wiring. I agree with his theory and explain how and why in this minitalk where I got dysregulated while snowplowing. The key is to create a lot of kindness/empathy around your distress and to regulate to complete the task, which builds the confidence. Avoidance perpetuates the cycle of harm bc it feeds into the old belief. For you, notice what comes up in you and feel free to comment here on how it lands. Use your discretion and care if you share about your own history. See you all Tue from 9:45-11am EST for Cycle Breakers.