Hey Reader,

A quick reminder to start us off 👇

Tomorrow night, Kimberly Novosel and I will be hosting our first “sweatshirt session!” If you’re feeling a bit exhausted by the world and want a few new practices for self-connection and staying soft, yet fierce, I hope you’ll consider joining us.​

Today's focus is on a concept used in family systems therapy known as the “transitional character.”

This is someone who becomes a change-maker in their family lineage by refusing to pass down intergenerational trauma that was handed to them. Their presence and actions mark a transition as formerly operating cycles of violence or abuse come to an end.

A transitional character is someone who is handed a script, but through their own process of healing and ways of moving in the world, creates the conditions for themselves and future generations to move beyond it.

Prentis Hemphill writes:

In their beautiful book What It Takes to Heal, Hemphill shares we can all be transitional characters in our communities.

A few months back, I shared a framework known as sites of shaping/sites of change that emphasizes six areas of our life:

• individual,
• family/intimate network,
• community,
• institution,
• social norms/historical forces, and
• spirit/landscape.

In each of these areas, not just in our families, we have the opportunity to become transitional characters. Through our own commitment to healing and justice and our active participation with those around us, we are invited to take a long, honest look at the status quo and declare:

What has been does not have to continue to be.

In our workplaces, this might look like challenging "norms" that have harmed employees and former employees over time. In our faith communities, this might mean questioning how power has been used and working to co-create a new way forward. In our broader context, this might take the form of working alongside others to change how our cities and states are approaching the threat of climate change.

But it always begins with our own processing, noticing, and reflecting.

So this week, I invite you to think about the different areas of your life and how you might become, or continue to be, a transitional character within the spaces and communities you move.

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❓ Questions

For the following questions, please use the sites of shaping/sites of change framework.

Pick one site and name a specific space within that site, based on your unique story and context. (For example, I might pick “Institution,” and focus specifically on the Educational System because that’s an institutional space I consistently operate within.)

1. If you were a transitional character in this space, what changes would be possible?
2. What would need to change in you for you to be a transitional character in this space?

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🧰 Resources

• ​What it Takes to Heal, by Prentis Hemphill (book)
• "Recovering our Ability to Feel" w/ Prentis Hemphill (podcast)
• ​W.E.B. Dubois' 4 Questions for Living in the Midst of Catastrophe (IG post)

Hope you are well or well-enough,

Andrew IG: @andrewglang​

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P.S. Our October Inner Work Cohort is coming up and I’m really excited! Given our current context and political realities, I truly believe building practices of resilience and presence is one of the most impactful things we can be doing. I’ll be sending out a special email with more details in the coming days!