How to care for your dreams 🌱 ☁️
Hey hey,
Without even trying, this newsletter has talked a lot about dreaming: allowing yourself to do it, giving yourself permission to talk about it out loud, and completely accepting that dreams can change as often as they need to. It’s not as simple as just following a passion (we need paychecks and all), but dreams are yours and they're free. They can also be fragile. They need support and care to develop, just like everything else.
This week, The Assembly hosted the second installment of our conversation series Black Women Rising with the two hosts of It's A Look podcast and the two co-founders of the Women Sound Off festival (plug: it's April 5-7in Oakland!). All four of these women shared candidly about co-creating with a best friend, self care while starting a business, and finding the people who believe your dreams.
One of my favorite soundbites came back to seeking the people who can actually help you see the future you are trying to create. Carmena, aka DJ Red Corvette, spoke about the early days of creating the festival. As she put it, "don't talk about starting a festival to people who have never even thrown an event." They may not be able to see the path you see, because you have honed the skills to visualize the dream. If they can't even begin to understand your world, they can too easily and even unintentionally crush it.
As Fredia followed up: "We are all building different futures. Find the people who are going to be in your future."
It's the friends or colleagues who have already bought tickets to the festival you haven't even created yet. It's the people who see you working at the skills that will make it happen. Trust yourself and then seek the people who can see it with you. Not everyone will. Not even everyone who loves you will. Get on board with the people who can truly see themselves in the future world with your thing in it and protect yourself from those who can't get there.
Your future — with your dreams in it — is yours alone. It will and should change because you don’t know future you yet. Future you is not anyone else because past you is not anyone else. Nurture yourself, evolve your future, and look around for your co-conspirators. They're out there dreaming just like you.
And for another perspective (and it’s encouraging, I promise): The Perils of Following Your Passion from Adam Grant’s Work Life podcast.
Hope to see you soon.
xx,
Molly
Permission Granted
…to share what excites you
Very into Act + Acre hair products. I'm admittedly a sucker for a good story, sustainable practices, and chic packaging (aren't we all), but I also have been using and truly loving the cleanse and conditioner.
Helen's Wines, Shrill on Hulu, and replenishing my white tees from For Days.
For #The100DayProject, I'm recommitting to my daily writing. This year's #The100DayProject, led by Assembly member Lindsay Jean Thomson, starts April 2.
Buying art can be intimidating, so I'm feeling the newly launched Spacey. Limited edition quality prints from emerging artists at reasonable prices. Ordered one of these from Deun Ivory.
And finally, I first heard about The Dutch Reach on NPR a few years back and it seems to be having a viral moment right now — so learn about it and get in the habit.
What excites YOU? Something you started, something you bought, something you listened to or read? Reply to this email and share — I'm here for it.