I'm busy editing the second Patrons' episode of The Green Bean Podcast, in which I tried recording outside on Dartmoor! 🎥🌳⛅🐏🐎
Didn't know we had a Patreon? I just set it up, and have been overwhelmed by the response so far. If you'd like to spend a bit more time with me (and Jack...I know you're all about Jack really, I understand) then see the link in my profile. We're recording a bonus episode in between each official one on YouTube.
Edited to add: the podcast as you know it will not change at all. I'm committed to making episodes as regularly as I can and available for free, so please don't feel pressure to support if it doesn't work for you financially. This is just a way to help me keep podcasting sustainable and fun, and I'm grateful to everyone who supports whether that be through Patreon, or simply watching and leaving a nice comment. That anyone even watches the podcast still astounds me! 😂
It's an FO! I finished my Persephone Mittens by @violaemily and just in time for the best snow I have ever seen in the UK! ❄ Delicious green yarn is from @thelittlegreysheep bought from @yarndale back in 2014 #persephonemittens #pomprojects #knitsaboutwinter
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Note: I have edited the following after a conversation which helped me understand that my words were offensive and upsetting. If you feel that way too, please let me know.
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Also, seen as it's a picture of my face, let me share some thoughts about visibility. Without the discussions in the the knitting community in the last few weeks, I wouldn't have given this image a second thought. Never again will I be able to sit back and not think about that, and I am SO GLAD. It's thanks to hardworking, generous and brave people of colour in this community that I have started the journey to thinking differently, understanding the ways in which I am blind. That I have lived a life of never considering that my words might be judged, ignored, dismissed, diminished or denied because of the colour of our skin. The privilege I inhabit, that in sharing my own vulnerabilites, struggles, illnesses, Difficult Things, that I have not also had to fight for those struggles to be seen, heard, believed? There is no resolution to this post, just these thoughts, just more thinking, learning, leaning in to hear the voices around us who have previously not felt heard. I hope you are listening too.
Brace yourselves, it's going to be a long one. .
I set my stall out long ago as someone who is not afraid to talk about Difficult Things. If you're here, you're probably OK with hearing about mental illness, with a side of sexual abuse. So I hope you're OK with racism and privilege too. The past few weeks have challenged me in how I speak about what matters. There have been deep discussions throughout the knitting community here about racism and white privilege and I have been shaken by them. Yet my emotions are nothing compared to the stories that have been shared by BIPOC in this community, which have broken my heart. And I am just reading them, not living them. I want to effect change, and I want to be part of the work to make this community, and the world at large a safer, more inclusive and compassionate place for EVERYONE. .
I am about to post new podcast episode, but I have made a long thought over decision not to enter this discussion at this time; that right now, there, is not the right place for me to speak up. I am terrified that I will be judged for my silence, for sitting back in the privilege of my cisgender, able-bodied whiteness. And I am worried that if I say something, I will just be acting from that fear and not from my heart. I am also aware that taking my time, and having this choice to make, is part of my privilege too. .
I have heard a call to action and I am listening hard and listening long. I do not believe that silence always means indifference, like I do not believe talking about it always means doing the work. I also do not believe, for me, that words on social media are the best way forward. I have a better language in comics and I intend to use it. I believe in taking time, learning, listening, and then acting based on how I want to create meaningful change. I believe, like individual recovery, it's not a decision to change but a long slow journey towards healing - oneself and one's community - made by a million tiny decisions every day, and every day, and every day. .
Please do not mistake my silence for indifference. I am listening. .
This quote is from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin.
