Dearest ,

I took some time off work this past week after teaching my last class of the year.

I immediately stole away to the mountains for two days and spent my days hiking through the forest.

On one walk, I saw the remains of a bushfire all along the path. Our trail was marked by the charred husks of trees and blackened flora. Yet amidst the wreckage and ruin, healthy branches conspired to reach toward the sun and new blooms burst from the soil. All around me was the evidence that life prevails.

I look back over the last two years at what I’ve survived, what all of us have survived, and it’s difficult to imagine how we could heal.

I long to be like the forest after the fire.

We have reckoned with police brutality, racialized hate, right-wing nationalism, all while navigating a once-in-a-century global pandemic.

Like many academics, I grappled with what it meant to be a scholar and sought to redirect my intellectualism towards justice, solidarity, and love. And yet I struggled to feel secure in this purpose as my anti-racist critiques started attracting unwanted attention. My courage was tested as the prospects of losing my job and my livelihood emerged more than once over the pandemic.

This time last year, I planted the seed for Disorient, launching my website on a full moon to the 66 family and friends who had signed up for this newsletter.

I wasn’t quite sure how I’d do it, but I was determined to use the website as a container for my scholar-activism outside of academia.

I knew I couldn’t do it on my own so I took a leap of faith last December and joined Kelly Diels’ community to receive the coaching I needed to build my mentorship program, Wayfinders.

As I improvised the kind of scholar-activism I desired to live, Disorient grew to house over 45 articles on intersectional feminist thought, education, and activism. More than 4,000 visitors come to my website every month. And more than 900 of you read Moon Rites and support the work I do by generously sharing your stories and signal boosting the resources I create.

, to thank you for traveling along with me all this way, I’m giving away a signed copy of my book, Redeeming Leadership: An Anti-Racist Feminist Intervention. The copy was printed in July this year and includes a special preface from me and a foreword by Prof. Stella Nkomo.

The tarot card I drew for us this new moon is the King of Pentacles. This royal portends prosperity and abundance. You have worked hard and your flourishing and growth are richly deserved. This is a time to find comfort in stability and security, to relax and reap the rewards of the life you have cultivated. The King of Pentacles is above all, a caring and generous figure. They remind us that one of the greatest joys in wealth is the privilege to share it with others. Where we can, this is the time to financially and emotionally support others.

With light,
Helena