Letter from SHIFT - February 2025

Dear SHIFT community & Journal readers,

While the coldest weeks of the year are still upon us, the darkest days have passed.  Today marks the midpoint of the transition between the winter solstice and the fall equinox, a subtle tipping point bringing longer days and the promise of spring hidden under layers of cold. A fitting moment to nourish one another with love letters.  In this collection, you'll read odes to grandmothers, letters to imagined future movement builders, and poems about remembering home.

As many of you know, my time at SHIFT has come to a close. Along with rich memories, warm connections and deep inspiration from so many of you, I'm reflecting on the stubbornness of the inner growth lessons that working in consistent relationship over many years has offered me.  Every single day at SHIFT, we have the honour of witnessing dozens of love languages to social transformation. At our recent skillshare on community-led alternatives to calling the police, we heard from young people confronted by the unimaginable scale of violence they witness, fierce in their desire to act and organise in line with their values.  In dialogue, those with decades of experience shared the choices they made to negotiate these same tensions.

The simple dichotomy of "inexperienced, idealistic radical vs. disillusioned realist" dissolves into a moment of intergenerational connection.  Profound respect, humility and listening created a space where each person's offering of themselves and how they are struggling towards a different world amidst the crushing violence of this one can be received. The session closed with a deep sense of the need for solidarity, that these efforts are worthwhile, and even fragile, tentative expressions of hope.

Letters, in all of their diverse manifestations, keep bringing love back into the centre. They remind us of the deep joyfulness of moving towards truth together. Connect us with love that is anchored in justice, power, resistance and creativity, love that is anchored in the inner knowing of our own and others’ self-worth. Learning that is anchored in humility.  The love that knows, we will experience devastating setbacks and moments of disorientation where we lose sight of the path ahead, but we know who to turn to when we lose our way.  We know to turn to each other. 

With so much love,

Stephanie