As we enter the dog days of summer, the 60 day mark of national uprisings, and the pandemic whose end we should be approaching but isn't, you might be feeling like you're living in a time warp, or an anxiety spiral, or a hellscape. I feel all of those things at different times. The work I'm trying to support feels simultaneously too much and not enough. The electoral campaigns are all ramping up, which means that along with the local and national fights for policy, we're going to start hearing about vice presidential picks and how wearing a mask is a matter of your beliefs even more than we have been.
And we'll have to really force ourselves to pull away, when it's appropriate, and really deeply engage, when that's appropriate. Knowing when to tell the difference has been the single hardest development of my organizing life. When I show up on the ground, whether using my car to support marchers, on my feet to march, or in the background as jail support, I try to be all in: to focus on this moment, the demands from organizers, and being completely in the space, whatever it brings.
And I've also muted most of my Telegram threads, because otherwise my phone would buzz all day and night. I'm reading books and going swimming and going away, and while I'm doing all of those things, I have to remind myself that this, too, serves the movement. I am not one thousand people, I am only one. Together, though, we are many thousands. And together, when we have taken care of our bodies and minds, we are more powerful than anyone who tries to break us.
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As we enter the final weeks of our time in Seattle, we're making the most of summer and the relative proximity of national parks, big mountains, rushing rivers, and the pacific ocean. Here's where we're headed.
Olympic National Park
We're here right now, as you read this! We came for T's birthday a few years ago, and we're back to explore the Hoh Rainforest, visit the Pacific Ocean, and hopefully spot a sea otter. If you've been here, you know how incredible this part of the country is. If you haven't been here yet, start planning your tripe, ideally for next summer, with me, when I'm back in town!
North Cascades National Park
I hope we can make it back to the "American Alps" before we go, both to visit my dear friend Kelly and to revisit my tour guide days at the Skagit Hydroelectric project. But if we don't make it back there this season, I have a whole lot of memories of this place already, including being evacuated in the midst of a forest fire, so it's not leaving my consciousness anytime soon.
Yakima River Float
Last year we had the pleasure of floating two rivers, once in Leavenworth and once in Yakima, and we're heading back to Yakima this year to float with T's cousins. If you've been tubing with me lately or if you've been in my general proximity, you know that floating on a tube is my happy place. So thrilled to be able to join this (small!) flotilla.
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 Looking to stay cool in Seattle? Join me on a tube in Lake Washington! The water is cool, the drinks are frosty, the company is, if I dare say, unparalleled, and I promise it'll quell your anxiety, your fury, your fear, and everything else that's been so hard about these days and weeks. At least for a few minutes, this can be a respite.
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As you read this: I'm waking up in a tent! Again!
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