Personal Principles

I work, from these principles, to live a values-centered life.

I love myself. 

I show this love by taking care of my body and my spirit. I show this love by practicing rituals of care. I show this love by putting my values into actions so I can live my intentions. I show this love by holding space for my most resilient self to thrive, and my most vulnerable self to be seen. I show this love by encouraging those around me to love themselves in these ways.

Guiding Principles

I am an anti-racist. I believe in co-liberation. I approach this work with rigor.

• I continue to educate myself about the ways the intersections of my identity both oppress and are oppressed.
• I practice awareness of how my oppressor identities impact those around me.
• I recognize I am implicitly racist, because of systemic racism and the myriad of privileges of whiteness.
• I use my white privilege as a leveraging point in white spaces AND in accomplice spaces.
• I seek to heal from my internalized white supremacy and racism.
• I seek to build friendships, communities, loves and intimacies that will hold me accountable to my values.
• I hold my white friends accountable by supporting them in unpacking their white privilege.
• I do not shirk from being told I cause harm but embrace where I can learn from my missteps and errors.
• I am compassionate with myself.  I use this compassion to move forward my healing.
• I pay reparations regularly to black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) organizations, and advocate for other white folks to do the same via media platforms and interpersonal relationships.
  • I WANT to continue to explore how I can pay reparations based on how my business grows, and how I can support others in doing so collectively.

I value my own healing.

• I seek out healthy, consensual support for processing my trauma.
• I recognize my resilience.
• I name and honor my vulnerability.
• I let my feelings be hurt, and still hold myself accountable to my values/actions.
• I set and hold clear boundaries.

I value family, both chosen and blood family. 

• I work to create time for my partner, my friends and my chosen family. I hold this time as sacred, and center it above capitalist pursuits.
• I work to heal the complex relationships with my blood family by building new relationships where old harmful patterns once lived, and by forgiving old harms.
• I practice forgiveness, compassion and expressing love/gratitude in my relationships.

I value equitable reciprocity in relationships.

• I work to practice equitable reciprocity in my relationships by both resource sharing and asking clearly for what I need.
• I respect people’s boundaries.
• I clearly set and hold my own boundaries.
• I forgive myself and others.

I value living in shared spaces.

• I share space with my partner.
• I envision sharing both land and space with others in small dwellings.
• I share land stewardship with others.
• I share this land with QTBIPOC folks seeking retreat and time/space on land.

I am a lifelong learner, a curious teacher, a social and insect scientist.  

• I live into these values of learning and “nerding” by seeking out new information on my passions regularly and sharing them with others in both my professional and personal realm.
• I practice beekeeping as a lifelong learning tool.
• I believe beekeeping is a tool for transformative justice if practiced with mindfulness and care.
  • I write about, teach and talk about these ideas with curious folks.

I value community building that is intersectional across race, class, ability and gender expression and centers queer experience.

• I live this value by building community (friendships, loves, intimacies) across these intersections of identity.
• I live into this value by centering queerness in my work and in my community, building efforts by being an out advocate for queer justice across race, class, ability and gender expression.
• I call for queer community I am a part of to continue to work towards collective healing by practicing transformative justice.
• I offer my listening skills to conflicts that arise in the community.

I value both closeness/intimacy and autonomy, I respect others’ divergent needs for both.

• I clearly state when I need “me” or “solo” or “recharge” time.

I value mobility and capacity to travel and reconnect to “home” bioregions.

• I create time for travel.
  • I do this by weaving work/learning/travel time together.
• I spend time in South Florida and the South, because of their importance to my place-based history and present.
• I imagine ways my communities can connect, collaborate and share resources, culture and values constructively.

I want to be a conduit for connectivity.