WIP
by Kristina Daniele
I’m in pain.
Mental. Physical.
The result’s the same.
Retreating into silence.
Resting my brain.
Taking deep breaths.
Trying to reframe.
Writing in my journal.
Listening to myself.
Trying to get centered
But drifting to the left.
I’m in pain.
Mental. Physical.
Emotionally, it’s the same.
Stimming to reset
Moving to get rest.
Blocking out the world,
And listening to myself.
Trying to get centered
But drifting to the left.
I'm a work in progress.
I'm not finished yet.
Nothing in this culture wants us to have rest. Wants us to have ease. Wants us to have careCare work makes all other work possible. Putting care—not just care work, but care—at the center of our economy, our politics, is to orient ourselves around our interdependence. Care is. The softness was stolen. Our dreamspace has been stolen. Our space to just be has been stolen.
We urgently need a society that's better at letting people get the rest they need.
We're burning out, we're getting sick and staying disabledThe label "disabled" means so much to me. It means I have community. It means I have rights. It means I can be proud. It means I can affirm myself.
And the planet can't take our frenetic pace either.
Everyone, everything needs rest.
Too many people with powerThe 20th Century political scientist Karl Deutsch said, “Power is the ability not to have to learn.”I quote this statement often, because I think it’s one of the most important want us to forget it.
A group of disabled queerBeing queer means constantly questioning what's considered "normal" and why that norm gets privileged over other ways of being. It means criticizing who sets these norms and recognizing the privilege Black folks talk and laugh at a sleepover, relaxing across two large beds. Everyone is dressed in colorful t-shirts and wearing a variety of sleep scarves, bonnets, and durags. On the left, two friends sit on one bed and paint each other’s nails. On the right, four people lounge on a bed: one person braids another’s hair while the third friend wearing a C-PAP maskMasking is exhausting. Utterly utterly draining. I’ve had people say to me many times over the years “But WHY are you so tired? What have you been doing?” and I’ve laughs, and the fourth person looks up from their book. In the center, a bedside lamp illuminates the room in warm light while pill bottles adorn an end table.
A Black trans person with idiopathic hypersomnia sleeps contentedly on a bed of warm blue and purple clouds. They’re wearing an eye mask and their dark curly hair is wrapped in a colourful sleep scarf. A small purple bat plushie is nestled beside them. Behind the sleeping person is a window, bathing the room in warm afternoon light.
A fat Filipino person with a continual glucose monitor on their arm and insulin pump on their stomach lies on the chest of a transmasculine Black person, who has a bandage on their stomach post testosterone injection. The two are shirtless, wearing matching yellow and pink underwear, and looking content in sleep. A cream colored fluffy cat snuggles at the right edgeFor me this space of radical openness is a margin a profound edge. Locating oneself there is difficult yet necessary. It is not a “safe” place. One is always at of the bed and a smartphone reads 3:42 on the left.
Further readingThere are three types of reading: eye reading, ear reading, and finger reading.The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child's Confidence and Love of Learning Most schools and,
#ActuallyAutistic parent and retired tech worker. Equity literate education, respectfully connected parenting, passion-based learning, indie ed-tech, neurodiversity, social model of disability, design for real life, inclusion, open web, open source. he/they
View more posts
There are three types of reading: eye reading, ear reading, and finger reading.The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child's Confidence and Love of Learning Most schools and,