When Politics Becomes Personal

Sanctuary Dispatch | Reflections from the Wild Path

The Soft Rebellion

There used to be this old adage:

“Don’t talk politics with family or friends.”

It was framed as wisdom. A way to keep the peace.

But what happens when the political becomes personal?

When the conversation isn’t about policy—it’s about rights, survival, dignity?

We’re not debating budgets here.

We’re talking about people being stripped of healthcare.

Children losing access to food.

Women being denied bodily autonomy.

Marginalized communities being hunted, legislated against, erased.

That’s not “just politics.” That’s humanity.

And still, I’ve seen people I know—people who used to follow along, like my posts, drop the occasional comment—quietly disappear the moment I started using more direct language.

The moment I stopped softening the truth.

But here’s what:

My message has never changed.

It has always been about love.

About care.

About collective healing.

About holding both compassion and accountability.

About standing up for others while also learning how to stand up for yourself.

That’s always been the undercurrent of everything I offer, since day one.

What has changed is how I’m saying it.

I’m no longer dressing it up in palatable language.

I’m no longer whispering it so as not to offend.

I’ve found my fight voice. My no-holds-barred voice.

And yes—it has a political edge.

Because these are political times.

And I’m not going to mute myself just because it makes someone uncomfortable.

The truth is, some of the people who used to linger around the edges of my work probably never really agreed with what I was offering.

Maybe they liked the aesthetics. Maybe it felt good to nod along.

But now?

Now that the message has become crystal clear—now that it’s impossible to miss the mirror being held up—they’ve turned away.

Not because I’ve changed, but because they can’t reconcile the truth of what I stand for with the choices they’ve made.

And instead of facing the dissonance, they disappear.

This is the heartbreaking, messy, gut-wrenching part of awakening in a fractured world:

Realizing how many people are okay with harm, as long as it doesn’t affect them.

How many are silent in the face of cruelty.

How many value comfort over justice.

But I will not make myself smaller to protect someone else from their shame.

If the way I speak now feels “too political,”

Maybe it’s not that I’ve become radical—Maybe it’s that the times have.

We are no longer talking about differing opinions.

We are talking about people being tortured, targeted, erased.

That’s not politics.

That’s survival.

And I will keep speaking for as long as I have breath.

Not to be divisive.

But to be clear.

Because if your version of peace requires me to stay silent while people suffer,

Then your peace is not sacred.

It’s oppression with a prettier name.

This is the soft rebellion.

And this is your invitation.

Sanctuary Dispatch

Friday Reflections from the Wild Path

This is where the personal meets the political, and care becomes a form of resistance.

Each dispatch is part of The Soft Rebellion—a movement rooted in clear seeing, collective care, and the courage to act.

These reflections rise from the ground we stand on, and ripple through The Soft Rebellion: Local Chapter in Metro Northwest Massachusetts.

✨ Learn more and apply to join the local chapter:

www.spreadingthecheer.com/the-soft-rebellion