Proem

What Moves Us
Shailja Patel

Some moments
history comes to us and says:
What do you truly want?

We tremble.
Often we run.
From the terrifying possibility
that we could choose
movement.
That we could begin
exactly where we are
in all our screwed-up
imperfection.

Some days we stand
before our world
and the question
vibrates the air around us:
What do you choose?

This day?
This moment?
This
heartstopping
glorious
adventure?

There's strong like patriarchy
strong like institutions
strong like two-billion dollars a day
military occupations
spiked with genocide
anchored in neoliberal greed
buttressed by terror
designed to deliver
200-volt shocks
on contact.

Then there's the strength
of what flows.
Tears, grief, memory.
Blood, energy, breath.
Collective action.

The strength of what moves us
opens our throats
ignites our hips
unleashes our voices
puts the move back into movement
distils the motion from emotion.

Movement
strong as a river,
current of joyful resilience
wave and curl
crash and swirl
patterns that constantly change.

Movers who channel each day
the courage of divers
to plunge again
into this churning water.

Thankful
for what yields results
curious
about what does not.
Building lung capacity
to finally embrace
the wholeness of our struggles
exactly as they are.

Some moments, life asks of us:
What do you hope?

There's hope like a battleground
hope that's all soundbites
hope that rehashes a thousand manifestos.
What we intend, believe, imagine
what we propose and plan and dream
what we say, expect, pretend, how we think
things should look.

Then there's the truth on the ground.

What we show up for
each day
with our fearful, angry,
tired, clumsy selves.
With our complex, precious,
wounded, brilliant selves.

We grapple with the chasms
of all that's gone before.
Negotiate the heartbreak
of decades of betrayal.
Stretch our brains and wills
until we feel it,
to hard analysis
until we get it
unpack systems, structures, models
mine the data, map
the stories
'til we know
what works and what does not.
What truly
moves
us.

Some years, life comes to us and says:
What do you know?
Why we kept at it, for forty, fifty years.
Why we have never regretted it.

That this movement
Still moves us
In our guts, our hips, our hearts

That this laughter
this trust
this earned and tried and tested respect
is a house we have built,
brick by brick
and it will hold.

Some mornings life wakes us up
sets our hearts beating
sets our nerves thrumming
warns us
we're about to leap
into our iciest fear
our largest growth
our most piercing joy.
Some mornings,
We take a huge breath, say
Yes
to it all.

Some evenings, life wraps us round
in the softness of twilight,
asks:
What are you waiting for?

Truth.
Justice.
Reparation.
Healing.
In our lifetimes. In our
lifetimes. In
Our
Lifetimes.

Each day, love comes to us and says:
What will you show up for?
What, in the end, is the truth of your heart?
We answer with our bodies.

We show up
for the struggle.
We show up
for each other.
We show up
just as we are.
Precious, flawed
limited, magnificent
Human.

We show up
for change.
We choose
the power of movement.
We love
by showing up.

The Movements of Movements:An Introduction and an Exploration1

Jai Sen

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

— Arundhati Roy

Movement, motion, is a fundamental facet, fact, of life; of all life processes. Indeed, in some ways it is life itself. It is the most fundamental characteristic of change.

Movement intrinsically involves the flow of energy; of power in the sense of shakti.

Movement links points, in space and in time. Power radiates.

In a sense therefore, all movement is about energy — about energy harnessed, energy expressed, energy experienced, energy directed — and all movement is therefore about power, understood in a generic...