The revolution begins with the self

Hi Everyone,

Last week, I was walking and thinking about my favorite quote from Toni Cade Bambara:

The revolution begins with the self within the self.

In a time of real challenges to democracy and to the moral compass of what it means to treat humans with dignity and rights, I find myself sitting with questions. What place does agency have in all of this, if at all? Can you do both? Fight for justice in the broader systems of oppression while simultaneously ensuring you work on self-management and self-knowledge in preparation for the broader revolution?

I believe the revolution begins with the self because if you don't know yourself, how can you know what fight you're in or want to be in. And how can you know what values will serve as your compass as you navigate this world? The inner work isn't a retreat from the fight. It's the foundation of it. You can't build what you can't first imagine. And you can't imagine clearly from a place of self-abandonment. That belief is what made 2025 the year I finally stopped fighting my own nature.

My theme for 2025 was: if it's not a hell yes, then it's a no.

Which meant a lot of letting go, realigning, and setting new directions. I turned 40, and maybe that's what prompted my year of prioritizing. But I think it also just marks the end of a cycle for me.

Over the years I've felt real shame about going from a three times a week newsletter to one time a month to an occasional newsletter. I wanted to be a good writer, and I thought that meant writing prolifically. But in the spirit of hell yes or no, I realized something: I've been writing on this website under various names and formats since February 2009 and I don't want to reach 2029 still fighting this feeling.

So I let go.

I don't want to write a newsletter on a schedule. I want to focus on writing my next book and making my art. So I made the hard yet courageously needed decision to let this newsletter become a mailing list. It will be a place where I show up when I have something to say. That might be quarterly. It might be annually. It might even return to multiple times a month. But letting go of the schedule felt freeing because it was one less obligation competing with the work that matters to me in this moment.

What I want to do next is go heads down and pursue my dream of being a storyteller.

So this next phase is dedicated to exactly that.

My theme for 2026 is presence. I want to be a calming presence when I walk into a space and continue to leave places and people better than I found them. I want to experience presence by not multitasking or being distracted.

In 2025:

• I continued working with An, who has been supporting my creative practice and serving as a genuine sounding board. Our sessions are somewhere I can talk through the progress I'm making toward my book, work through blockages, and think out loud. It's been quite therapeutic.
• I worked with Jackie, an executive coach. I initially reached out about professional needs, but we quickly went deeper into what I'm actually trying to achieve in this next stage of my life. More on what emerged from that work soon.
• I focused on my emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental health. That's an ongoing commitment to not prioritizing work over my whole self. And not just 9-to-5 work. The work I do building my vision counts too.
• I turned 40. And from 2024 leading up to the birthday, I celebrated by just being with friends and family. Traveling. Experiencing the total solar eclipse. Going to a spa. It was fun and I felt genuinely loved and celebrated.
• I started a YouTube channel. I made visual assets to accompany my playlists. And I started the Geography of Sinners series, a deep dive into how geography shows up in Ryan Coogler's film through concepts of economic production, race, and ancestral memory. By October 2026, I will have produced six pieces of content shared through video, essay, images, and curriculum. My first piece was a YouTube video on economic production. I'm fully in the fandom, I feel like I personally campaigned for that movie to get all those Oscar nominations. Related, I went to my first New York Comic Con. I dressed up as Loki from TVA and it was fun to let my nerd side come out a little more.
• I started working more earnestly on my next book and I'm looking forward to using 2026 for research and outlining.

As we start 2026:

• I took a bookbinding class. Going full nerd and really leaning into my interest of the full cycle of writing, from idea to object.
• I'm going deeper into my art collecting practice.
• I'm continuing to create the Geography of Sinners content. My most recent Instagram post broke down what Delta Slim can teach us about business. The response from others, reminded me of why this series exists.
• I've built out my business model, operating plan, and brand architecture, and I'm excited to share it with you as the pieces come to life. You can get a first glimpse by reading my new about page.
• I'm continuing to build out the Intellectual Will journal ecosystem (which by the way is currently on sale!) and have started beta testing a youth program with a friend's 15-year-old daughter. This is a long-term beta test, think freshman year to senior year. We're two months in and I already see promise.

Overall, I am leaning into what it means to be a worldbuilder. What it means to build with impact in mind. With legacy in mind. I've always resonated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the way a world is assembled piece by piece, each fragment feeling complete on its own while belonging to something much larger.

That's what I'm building. A universe. An ecosystem. A world.

The pieces I'm putting out now are the MVP. My ultimate goal is a community-owned mix-use building that houses a worker-owned storytelling production company. But baby steps. A world has to start with one place, one idea, one thought and I'm learning to honor that.

I feel a sense of excitement. And I'm grateful you found my space on the Internet and kept engaging with it. Whether I'm here three times a week, once a month, or even sometimes once a year, you stayed. That means something. The Collective is forming. More to come.

Welcome to the Collective.

*** Dr. Lisa-Marie