Quick Treats For Solidarity & Support

An antidote to inbox tedium for parents up to their ankles in chaos

Image: “Raising Luminaries Quick Treats” with a hand holding blue ice cream in a cone, all covered with multicolor pastel sprinkles of joy!

Hey friends!

The plumbing gods have it in for me, and I know this because we have some gross liquid explosion every time my care person leaves me to parent for a week alone. This time, our kitchen sink drain exploded (that’s a thing!? Yep, that’s a thing), sending sewage all over the kitchen.

So this newsletter is a little late because I spent the last four days scrubbing sewage out of various kitchen crannies. I mention this because at least one of the Quick Treats below is important today and another one has only a few days left.

So, thank you for your patience while I dealt with this minor soggypocalypse.

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December 2024 Quick Treats

Instead of demanding action, these treats are for you - with no expectations, no obligations, and no guilt if you’re not up for it right now

1. Good News

2. Cool Things That Exist Now

3. Oh Hey We Found The Helpers

4. A Goofy Thing Just For You To Enjoy

5. Helpful Stuff To Keep In Your Pocket For Later

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gingerbread cookies with megaphones occupying a construction site to prevent deforestation

1. Good News in Climate Justice

The League of Conservation Voters published a November roundup of good news on climate justice since the US election, detailing the 28 states that elected climate champions to Congress, state wins in climate legislation, federal action for clean air, water, and environmental health, and climate wins for Indigenous communities.

Looks like these roundups are something they plan to continue. Consider following their campaigns for climate justice legislation and policy change.

Also, right before sending this, I found out the Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective is restoring Bayou Bienvenue with recycled glass, and that sounds SO COOL.

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2. Cool Things That Exist Now: Chronically Cute

Sliding scale enamel pins in cute pastels with stars and hearts. Scales include disassociation, happiness, overstimulation, exhaustion, fucks given, anxiety, patience, existential dread, pain, hunger, migraine, pronouns, speaking, and spoons

Our friend Lena H. from the Luminary Braintrust was showing off her awesome compression gloves and sliding pin that she got from Bibipins, a Disabled, Black & Queer-owned small business that shares creative pins and accessories for chronically ill folks looking for pockets of joy even (especially) when we feel terrible.

Grab a sliding pin that helps your friends communicate their spoon level. Or a galaxy sparkle compression gloves for your favorite achy tingly-limbed cousin. They also sell bunny binders, hip hip braces (see what I did there?!), and a few other trinkets that would make great stocking stuffers.

Today, December 7th is the cutoff for guaranteed holiday shipping - but you can also grab a gift card if urgency makes you panic too much to shop responsibly.

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3. Oh Hey, We Found The Helpers… Ending Labor Exploitation of Disabled Workers

[Video: Mia Ives-Rublee, director of the Disability Justice Initiative Center for American Progress, walks her dog along a sidewalk as she explains how section 14c of the Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to exploit disabled workers paying as little as 25 cents an hour, with instructions on how you can add your voice to shut that nonsense down. Mia drives a motorized wheelchair trike with a low back and is giving cute soft butch vibes with a half-sleeve tattoo, short hair, flannel shirt. I perceive her as East Asian American. Click through for text]

@seemiarollCheck out @Center for American Progress toolkit on submitting a comment on the new US Dept. of Labor's proposed rule on eliminating 14(c). Because Disabled workers deserve #FairWages. Find our toolkit in my bio. You have until January 17, 2025. #disability #14c #1in4

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Shocked? Appalled? Make your voice heard, and finally, ELIMINATE section 14c exploiting disabled workers.

Mia shares an excellent clear-language toolkit for making a public comment to effect change. But to be honest, I found the toolkit intimidating and overwhelming, particularly for folks making a public comment for the first time.

Good enough is better than nothing - so if you are about this issue but that toolkit is too intimidating, I made a short template comment, which you can submit in about 1 minute.

Public comments are due Jan 17th.

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4. A Goofy Thing For You To Just Enjoy

[Video: 24 silent, soothing seconds of an enormous puffy golden retriever using its giant soft pink tongue to gently groom a small chubby gray kitten. The kitten is LOV-ING-IT, but also, some of the licks and pulls are so strong the kitten gets physically flattened and lifted up as it starts to resemble Zachery Ty Bryan from the old show ‘Home Improvement’ - you know the look I’m talking about. With the fat cheeks, and the spiky mullet? Speaking of which, the youngest kid in that show is 40 now, and if that doesn’t make you feel old, well then I don’t know what would.]

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5. Helpful Stuff For When You Need It: A Starter Guide for Great Villains

Preview of the Raising Luminaires How to Become Dangerous workbook, a Winter incubator Bonus

The upcoming administration is getting nervous about you, and all the badass work you’re doing to dismantle the kyriarchy.

Let your enemies quake in their boots - for they shall fear you and everything you stand for! MwwaAhahaHaHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Normally, you’d have to join the Winter Incubator to get access to silly bonus exercises like ‘How To Become Dangerous: A Guide To Disrupting Inertia Spirals.’ But I’m feeling mischievous, hoping this inspires you to make trouble for your local book banners, multi-billionaire CEOs, and extortive landlords.

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Discussion questions from Chapter 1 of the Winter Incubator, titled “Martyrs & Other Insufferable Aunts’ “Where did you learn that over-extension is care?” “How is care-out’ baked into your identities? ‘How has martyrdom kept you complicit?’ image of a lonely hand reaching out from under a dark and cloudy sea of water]

Coming up next: Meeting New People Is Scary!

We’re just starting with all the holiday and family events, and already I just can’t people anymore. So drained.

But I’m somehow also feeling lonely? WHAT DO I DO?!

J/k I actually know how to fix this. I need to connect with people who are eager and happy to help me refuel to offset all the draining jerks.

We all need friends who will help us recharge. And it’s tough to find people who will hold space for us as we process your shit (including literal ones). Friends who won’t get defensive or make you feel guilty with whataboutism, who won’t offer unsolicited advice or judge us for not solving things their way.

We all need recharging communities where we don’t have to be the helper, the fixer, and the one who has to hold everything together.

Not everyone has access to neurodivergent & disability-friendly communities who care deeply about smashing the kyriarchy. Not all of us have people who will help us deal with our own baggage before we make it everyone else’s problem.

It’s really hard to build these kinds of spaces. That’s why we are growing the Winter Incubator super-slowly, welcoming only a few new members each year to ensure we can meet everyone where they are, with no one thrown into chaos or abandoned.

If you’re tired of carrying all this alone or need a community where you are not the default helper - we’d love to weave you into the tapestry of our community collective.

Register by December 11th if you’d like us to flex our gathering dates around your schedule

“My activism feels 70% authentic and 30% performative. I’m not telling people I’m a good person. I’m trying to show it. I’m really excited about this incubator - it allows me courageous space to peel back that 30%” Anonymous quote from our 2021 winter incubator discussions

Let others work around *you* for a change

Register for the Raising Luminaries Winter Incubator by December 11th so we can flex our gathering dates around your schedule.

Space is limited. 4 spots left.