Let's Support Each Other!

3/11/25

Writing to survive the trump administration. Episode 47: Let’s Support Each Other!

I spent two full days over the weekend training to work on a support line – I won’t give any details because there are strict confidentiality policies surrounding it. But it was A LOT to process. They put us into different pairs for a lot of the training, to practice active listening with each other, which also involved being brave to share deeply from our own perspectives when we were playing the “caller.” I found myself being very vulnerable and honest, and every single other person I worked with was, too.  One of my partners remarked that this should be required training for our country’s leaders – I both agree and can’t quite imagine how that would even look. So many of our “leaders” right now seem to have no capacity for honesty or self-reflection or active listening or emotional depth. But if we could require these skills of all our leaders, our country would be a very different place.

Let’s: listen to our own needs; listen to the needs of the people around us; offer ourselves loving support so that we can also offer loving support to the people in our circles, as we gradually expand the reach of those circles. It’s not a weakness, but rather a sign of strength and emotional awareness to ask for help. And it takes courage to listen nonjudgmentally to ourselves and others as we work to provide the space we all need to heal.