Growing Into Kinship: Welcome
What's in a name?
Hi friends,
Welcome to this space! I’m sure there will be some bumps along the way as I (and perhaps some of you) learn a new platform, but I’m excited to be here in the Substack universe and hope you enjoy it too.
I wrote a few brief words of welcome over in the “about” section, because that felt like the right thing to do, but I also wanted to say a little more here. (If you receive my lizcooledgejenkins.com blog emails, what follows might feel familiar.)
I wanted to share some thoughts behind the name I’ve settled on (for now, anyway) for this space: growing into kinship. I’ve been sitting with the idea of growth, and the idea of kinship.
These are some of the things I’ve been thinking about:
Growth
I don’t always go seeking out a “word for the year,” but in the last few years, words have often come to me. And I want to receive them.
This year, on a long walk in December, the word on my mind was “growth.”
As someone who writes and does writing-related things full time—and just released my first book in December, with all the publicity efforts that come with that—I sometimes feel the expectation (whether from others or just from myself) to be an “expert” on things. (If not on everything, then at least on the things I’m writing about.)
I want to push back against this urge to be an “expert.” To need to know all the things. To be “ahead” of everyone, whatever that means, in some strange game of acquiring knowledge (and then showing it off so everyone knows how knowledgeable you are).
This is all a load of nonsense. It will not help us be the people we want to be, build the communities we want to build, create the kind of world we want to live in.
I am not here to show off my expertise (such as it is). But I am here to grow. I’m always seeking to learn, to be open, to be changed. I want to lean into this.
I am not an expert. But I do want to share this journey together.
Kinship
Sometimes, when I write about wanting to be open to growth and change, people remind me that not all change is good. They are wise to do so.
So I want to say: I’m not just looking for any sort of change. I’m looking for change in particular directions.
Kinship is one word that speaks to the kinds of directions I want to grow in—the kinds of directions I want us to grow in. And by “us,” I mean me, you, our friends and families, our communities, our churches (for those who are into that sort of thing), our world.
Shalom is another word that speaks to this. It’s a Hebrew word meaning a holistic kind of peace-making marked by justice and communal flourishing.
Both of these words speak, to me, of a deep kind of interconnectedness. An interconnectedness that those of us shaped by white supremacist patriarchal US society (*raises hand*) were not necessarily taught to see.
I think these words also speak to a kind of tough gentleness that I hope to embody. Seeking communal flourishing calls for kindness, and also for telling it like it is—and listening well when others do the same.
I often see the idea of kin and kinship centered in the work of Indigenous writers, like Patty Krawec and Robin Wall Kimmerer. To them, we are kin not just with other humans but also with plants and animals and all of the interconnected Earth systems that we are a part of. This feels crucial to me, and it’s something I want to lean into in this space.
I think a lot about the climate crisis (here and here, for instance, if you’re interested). I wonder, often, what it might look like to live in ways that embrace mutual care among humans and our non-human kin. I think about what it might look like for white settlers (like me) to learn better ways of being, ways that help heal the colonial mess we’re in.
These are some of my hopes for this space. I hope to post weekly-ish, just some brief thoughts on what I’ve been learning, what I’ve been noticing or experiencing that feels worth reflecting on, who I’ve been reading and what stands out to me from their work.
If you’re here for it, I’d love to hear from you. I’m so excited to journey together. I want to hear what you’re learning and how you’re growing, just as I share what I’m learning and how I’m growing.
Peace and newness to you this week,
Liz