I had an experience this summer that was a turning point for me. The previous 6 months had been really difficult with my husband‘s diagnosis of cancer and the beginning of his treatment. It was a hard place to be. I was doing my best to show up for him and our daughter, but I was scared. I went out for a jog one day (jogging was an essential self-care practice during this time), and for the first time in many months I felt like I was running towards something instead of away from something. For the first time since his diagnosis, I had a vision of something inspiring to work towards that took me out of my fear and worry and into a place of hope and action.

This thing that I was moving towards was a piece of my growth as an artist and activist. It was a deeper understanding of my role in the wider world. It was a remembering of my part in the tapestry of life and an understanding that by fulfilling this role, I could also be of service to my family.

It was a knowing, if you will, of what I am here to do. And that is to use art, and help others use art, to lift people up and move them into action.

The fear that I was experiencing around my husband’s health—a year and a half into a global pandemic no less—is exactly the problem so many people have. We are scared. We are exhausted. We’ve all gone through so much. The pictures that we see in the media are of melting polar ice caps, disappearing species, wars, political unrest, hurricanes, and forest fires. We are constantly bombarded with so many hard realities and possibilities that we begin to shut down. We run from them. Or we simply close our eyes and say to ourselves: “I’m just one person and the problems are too big.” or “There is nothing I can do about it anyways, so why bother.”

And yes, the problems ARE big. But they are not insurmountable.

Here’s the real problem: We are essentially asking people to transform their entire way of relating to the earth and we haven’t given them a vision of a future that is more attractive than the one they currently have.

We as Artists and Change Makers have the solution.

We as Artists and Change Makers have the solution. We have exactly what I needed 6 months ago when I felt like I wanted nothing more than to run away from the hard things in life. We have vision. And we can bring visions to reality, visions that are exciting and life-affirming and beautiful, even when things are hard. We can give them something to run towards.

By leading our communities through collaborative art projects around the challenging issues that are directly impacting them, we can rocket them out of apathy and into action.

These projects, and the visions and actions that come from them, must be community specific. They must come from the people who live, work, and play there. They will look different in the inner city, where people look up and can barely see the sky for the buildings. They will look different in rural areas with food deserts, where healthy food is an hour’s drive away. They will look different in coal mining country. We don’t need to convince coal miners that their work is dangerous; that they might end up with black lung. They know that. We need to show them that another way of living is possible. That there are opportunities to feed their families that don’t rely on coal and that are part of the solution.

Visioning and making art together, with other people, can be incredibly healing. Art is an excellent tool for processing through the difficult realities of our time. And for helping us to see possibilities we hadn’t seen before. It allows people to experience what it’s like to take action, and to do so with a group of people. That is exactly the type of experience we need to create a future where we All can thrive.

And that, my friends, is the gift we can give to our families, our communities, our world. The gift of inspiration. The gift of a way to process through some of these hard realities. The gift of community and connection. The gift of action.

Our communities need us, the Artists and Change Makers, to help them see new possibilities amidst all of the fear. They need us to help them create a vision to work towards. A vision that is life-affirming and hopeful.

They need us. And we need them. Together we can transform our homes and our communities into places of hopeful action.

What is inspiring you to take action today?