Where would we be as societies, cultures, families, and business organizations if we could all tap into what our bodies need? That’s what I like to imagine most…and to me, that is forgiveness. Body work, massages, taking walks, and meditating are apologies to the body. They re-regulate our nervous systems that get shaken and traumatized just on our way to work (think about it on your next commute when someone cuts you off or yells at you on the train).

The work of imagination is to let it fucking RUN, baby! Run, run, and don’t stop. There are already enough restrictions, borders, and policing in this world; your dream life, your inner world should be the first place we practice abolishing those inherited and restrictive habits (arguably, generational curses). Such freedom, acceptance, and lawlessness can be terrifying since it’s often the opposite of what we’ve experienced. In fact, such a pure form of imagination often directly contradicts what we were told was “safe.”

We’re at a critical point here. We have been for about 2 years. To be overworked and underpaid in such a time of collective grief keeps our heads down, able only to focus on what’s directly in front of us–bills, food, work, kids, etc. Now last month, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Survival at this point in time is radical. And if that’s true, then hope and imagination must be utterly transcendental at this point.

We’ve all spent more mental energy tracking what activities we’ve done, who we’ve been in contact with, and if that tickle in our throats is just allergies or something more lethal. The anxiety of it all adds to the fatigue and sleep is no longer restful or restorative, but rather just a break from the Covid-calculations. This is the longest some of us have been inconvenienced by our bodies and the health care system. But disabled folks have been here before and there is wisdom, medicine, and righteous anger in their(/our) stories of survival.