Welcome to The Fulcrum, where I think out loud about work, community, and what it actually looks like to care about the world without losing yourself in the process. The balance is dynamic, and I'm figuring it out in real time. Glad you're here for it.
Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.
Table of Contents
What's on my mind: Permission to Adjust
A couple of weeks ago, I ran a Fulcrum session for the first time, and I my heart is still so full from the experience. It was small, seven of us in the back of Cruzitas Deli and Cafe in Southeast LA. If you know Cruzitas, you know why it mattered that it happened there. It has long been a staple for organizers, artists, musicians, and people who care about community and making this place a little better. No slides, no stage, just some printed pages and a conversation that went wherever it wanted to go.
I walked in with a plan to guide everyone through the framework, but people naturally started talking about the trade-offs they are actually living right now, resulting in a beautiful group dialogue.
I had opened with a simple question: of four barriers to contributing, which one is pulling on you hardest right now? Not enough, meaning I do not have the money, time, or influence. Too much, meaning the problem is so big that what I do will not matter. Not yet, meaning I will give more once I am stable. Already given, meaning I burned out and have nothing left. What surprised me is that almost nobody could pick just one. Most people were sitting in two of them at once, and a couple felt all four pressing at the same time.
The room held so many different lives. A high school senior doing lash extensions to support herself, saving for a future she has not reached yet, hoping to help others once she does. A teacher who spoke up about being overworked got buried in administrative tasks anyway, and is now taking a real pay cut at a smaller school for the chance at a saner life. A musician doing advocacy alongside his music, worn down by all the moving parts and the stakeholders he has to answer to. The business owner holds her whole community and her family at the same time. Different situations, and yet the same knot underneath all of them. Permission.
I felt it in myself as I sat there. I am in a season where my time is flexible, but my money is limited, and I am still learning to give what fits that season instead of what I wish I could give. "What would it take," I caught myself thinking, "to feel that permission without a health crisis or twenty years of proof behind me?" You are allowed to give what fits the season you are in, and to trust that your turn comes back around.
My framework provided people with the language, but I keep thinking about how much this conversation was one that people are ready to have, and how much I want to keep this dialogue and community reflection.
So I am going to try a virtual version! Same idea, but smaller, online, and open to anyone curious about where they land and what a contribution can look like from there. No prep, nothing to bring, just an hour to think it through alongside a few other people. If that is something you want in on, reply to this email, and I will send you the details.
Grateful to Cruzitas for holding space for this first one.
One thing to sit with
I am keeping the actual exercise for the room, because the good part really does happen out loud, with other people. But here is the piece you can carry with you now: before you decide what you can give, get honest about the season you are truly in, not the one you think you should be in. Most of the permission I watched people find that night came from that one honest look.
Tabs, Texts, and Takes
The Democracy Stories Lab is now open for applications. They are looking for creators and small teams who work in comedy, art, civic tech, gaming, community organizing, or lifestyle content, if you have something new to say about what democracy means and a creative way to say it.
Need coaching? My colleague is providing free sessions. Reply to this email for the intro. If you or someone you know is in a season of transition, growth, or “I know I want something different, but I can’t name it yet,” Brittany would love to connect and explore if working together would be a good fit! Coaching can help make sense of what’s shifting, clarify what you actually want next, and move forward with intention.
Can I just say how much I love this Instagram page? Kara shares personal finance while being in community. One of her latest posts here.
For my map-loving friends… Check out the percentage of the population covered by health insurance. Does anyone know where I can find a more up-to-date map?
Environmental reflections by my MBA colleague, Supreya, after attending Confronting Climate Change. Her questions struck me: “Are we getting smarter about how we build to optimize for a more sustainable world, or are financial and resource constraints simply forcing us to live smaller?”
Rex (Recommendations)
“Are you actively practicing generosity and vulnerability in order to make the connections between you and others clear, open, available, durable? Generosity here means giving of what you have without strings or expectations attached. Vulnerability means showing your needs.”
Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
In writing about permission to rest, to step back, I remember a book I read during a break I had to take due to health, and it found me at the right time! Its core idea: "small is good, small is all." Big change is small patterns repeated, so the way you hold one room is the whole world in miniature. The book gave me permission to give what fit the season I was in, and to trust that small, tended well, adds up.
Quotes & Qs
Man, sometimes it takes a long time to sound like yourself.
Miles Davis
I tried to give 110% this week. Turns out I have about 60%, and the other 50% was a billing error.