Hey, I’m Andrew Lang
Parent
Educator
Jolly Facilitator
Gentle Changemaker
Curious about my work and approach to change-making?
Here’s a bit about me in three stories:
Story 1: The Tension of a Conflicted Inner and Outer Life
Working on sawant campaign + leading meditation + community circles at night. The tension. The ick. The questions.
Story 2: Feeling the Need to Do More, Bigger, Better
Teaching and left formal electoral politics behind. Try to focus on teaching. Trump’s election and feeling the tension of holding students in the midst of it. The torri/ katalina story. Not knowing what to do with the tension, but trying to do my best and keep my life moving forward.
Wanting to make an impact, but not knowing how. Being afraid of where to step. The tension of feeling like I needed to do more.
Story 3: Our Bodies Let Us Know
The big blow up with Cait. Ride of rage. Emphasis on my body’s tension. Trying to hold it all together, wanting to make an impact, but not knowing how. First time really recognizing how I hold tension in my body. Becoming reacquainted with a soft squish.
Story 4: In the Face of Fascism, Gentle Change
In his book, the quaking of America, Resmaa Menakem writes…(something about the need of this current moment).
Following the big blowup, Resmaa’s words were a huge guide in helping me understand how to metabolize my body tension into action. No longer feeling like I needed to do more, go big or go home, solve everything — but instead working imperfectly to be an active, engaged participant in my community. Embodying a posture of healing.
Building on what I had learned working in Seattle, asset based community development, Mindfulness in schools, I read and studied internal family systems, somatic awareness through Stroy Institute, and begin to practice what I now called gentle change. A process of holding ourselves and the outcome gently well being fierce in our commitment to change in our communities. Beginning to see activism, not as a giant project or a marker of identity, but an every day approach of showing up with soft eyes, a posture of open focus, and curious readiness to be present to what is needed.
It’s an everyday challenge for me — the desire for comfort is super strong. I’ve learned I’m most able to stay leaned in winners I have a group of folks leaning on each other as we all work to move.
If you’d like to experience more of this Gentle Change approach…
The easiest, lowest risk way to feel for if this approach is helpful for you is to subscribe to the Gentle Change Newsletter.
If it doesn’t feel supportive after an issue or two, it’s easy to unsubscribe!
And if it does, that’s a great first step 🙂
Other Random Tidbits About Me…
My most re-read books include The Phantom Tollbooth, My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem, Wild Mercy by Mirabai Starr, and Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer.
My perfect Saturday involves meandering through a city without any destination or purpose.
I live with my partner, two young kiddos, two doggos, and a robot vacuum named Best Friend – that sometimes works.
I am definitely a morning person.
