Finding Hope and Magic During Challenging Times for the Next Seven Generations
I have struggled with writing most of this year. My mind has been pulled in many directions and the words come and go. It is hard to be present when the news every day is unnerving, unsettling, and upsetting. When everything feels unstable, it’s hard to be grounded. Time and space feel distorted. Anxiety is high and it is so easy to feel overwhelmed.
The first six months of 2025 have been chaotic, crushing, and cruel. But the disruption we all are experiencing happened before the election results, before the pandemic and racial reckoning, before the election before that, and more–we’ve been in a long season of generational change.
So what can I offer in this time knowing that each of us are in different places as we experience an accelerated unraveling of the world as we know it?
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting over the last several months–partly because of the ‘timeplace’ we are in, partly because BISC is in the middle of strategic planning, and partly because I am entering my seventh year at the helm of this organization.
The number seven is significant in many cultures and practices–symbolizing completion, rest, introspection, and truth seeking. In some Indigenous communities, seventh generation thinking is about how the decisions you make today will have a lasting impact for seven generations to come (and you are impacted by decisions of the seven generations that came before).
I’ve been sitting with seventh generations work because of the time I spent last year with Zen master and Native Hawaiian leader, Norma Wong and her book, When No Thing Works which asks us to dream of a world beyond this ‘timeplace’ of collapse. I’ve also been re-reading Octavia Butler’s work, in particular an essay, A Few Rules for Predicting the Future. A scene (promise no spoilers) from Sinners has been on my mind–the one when Sammie plays his song at the juke joint, which for me is a beautiful and haunting visualization of seventh generation work.
Given the weight of everything we are holding right now, future thinking may feel impossible, irresponsible, or irrelevant. We want answers and solutions–NOW. We want to stop the pain and harm to stop–NOW. We want to stop the chaos and destruction– NOW. But it is precisely during these times that we MUST because the decisions we make today will affect our tomorrow.
In the Octavia Butler essay I mentioned, she shares a story about a student who asked her whether she believes in the then future problems she writes about in her books and what was the answer to addressing them. She offers guidance and ways to think about imagining the future and building worlds that don’t yet exist especially during challenging times. Her words are sage advice to all of us as we navigate this ‘timeplace’:
“There’s no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There’s no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers. You can be one of them if you choose to be.”
So we have choices to make—not one–but many. There is no magic bullet coming to stop the accelerated destruction we find ourselves in. There is not one potential answer that is more important than the other. Not one solution will get us to freedomside. And none of this can be done alone.
If the decisions we make today shape the future, now is the time to take giant leaps not knowing where we will fall. Now is the time to dream big just like our ancestors before.
Creating the world we deserve will require us to be in deep partnership and collaboration that is rooted in trust. It will require us to push aside ego and allow others to lead. It will require us to get clearer on what our shared vision of what the world we want looks like seven generations from now.
If the future is now, what is the world we want to create together?
For me, I am clear that I am building a world worthy of my daughter. Where she feels safe and belongs. A world that shows her unconditional love and is filled with abundant joy. That’s a world that we all deserve.
In an incredibly difficult year, ballot measures showed us what is possible when people come together and take action.
We can raise the minimum wage, protect marriage equality, we can provide paid sick leave, we can stand up for public education, we can secure reproductive freedom, we can defend direct democracy, and so much more.
Even in the places where we didn’t cross the finish line–where we faced significant misinformation and interference by state actors–we also managed to invest in leaders, strengthen civic engagement infrastructure, share impactful stories, and build power.
Those opposed to our progress know what we are capable of when we come together–when we dream enough for those seven generations to come and give people the agency to make change in their own lives.
They are pulling out all the stops to undermine the will of the people by blocking implementation of voter-approved initiatives or outright overturning what the people decided in 2024. State leaders have been fighting authoritarianism for years, and we must look to, learn from, and collaborate with these leaders to not only fight facism but deliver on an unfulfilled promise to create a democracy for we the people.
As I enter my seventh year at the helm of BISC, I am spending a lot of time thinking about how to create the conditions for an equitable and just world where all of us thrive–the world my daughter and all of us deserve. A world that I will unlikely see in my lifetime but I know my descendants will benefit from.
While the news continues to break my heart, every day I see people making choices to be a part of the thousands of answers. Their actions are helping me find the hope I need right now. Actions like the people standing up to ICE across the country to protect their immigrant neighbors, or the decision by Harvard and other universities to offer free tuition to students whose families make less than $200,000, or my local craft store offering free headshots to federal workers who lost their jobs. Each of these acts, big and small, are demonstrations of the care needed that will push us towards the world we all deserve.
And when you need help finding some hope and magic, I offer this incantation that I shared at BISC’s Road Ahead conference to help ground you and light a fire inside:
- Within me there is magic.
- The world we deserve is possible.
- I choose to be part of the thousand answers.
- With the people in my community by my side.
Together, we can create the conditions for a safe, joy-filled world where we all feel loved and feel true belonging.