Hi Friend,

"What are you working on in the next few months?" asked a former ReMembering student of mine this past week.

Well, I said, it's May 2026.

So: I'm working on the stories that I and others can be telling around the 250th anniversary of the United States. Especially around the Indigenous influence on the formation of the U.S. - from values such as freedom to its governing structures, and what that might mean for American identity.

That was shorthand that, because she had participated in the ReMembering course, she understood some of the background to that statement, which included what I didn't say...

That I'm a descendant of one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Oliver Wolcott, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and so this particular moment of time is part of my family story, as well as the story of the nation to which I belong.

That a big part of my journey has been learning to tell very different stories than the ones that I was taught about my own family, including the ways that we influenced the formation of democracy ... including from whom we learned the practices of self-governance.

I didn't grow up knowing (my grandparents themselves didn't know) that Oliver Wolcott was a key member of the official delegation that went from Philadelphia to Albany in the summer of 1776 to thank members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy for their encouragement and their teachings about the practical formation of democracy. (Or that we have documents of what they said that are in the Library of Congress.)

I never would have learned that critical piece of history - my own and my nations and our collective history - had I not gone on my own journey of ReMembering; had I not asked questions that I was not taught to ask (even though I grew up in a very liberal community); had I not tried to see my country and my family from different angles and different perspectives. All of which led me to the importance of Origin Stories.

In listening to that different origin story, so much opens up. Such as the fact that democracy is not just something from the West. Which I think also shifts our understanding of what it means to be "American." And that from these origins, so much more is possible for democracy and our country than is generally part of our imagination.

Different origin stories can open up different imaginaries and futures.

Within my response to her question is something else: that my sense of purpose (including my concrete work actions for the next few weeks) is defined in part by time.

Multiple dimensions of time.

The long, complex line of ancestors - my ancestors and Krissy's ancestors and the ancestors within this land that I live on.

The time of this moment (the 250th anniversary of the United States) is defined in part by a lot of people whom I do not know and do not influence, and who really don't care about me at all.

The time that sloshes and moves and can be both backwards and forwards. Ancestors and future generations and different peoples with different perspectives, not just on some two dimensional sheet of paper but with that living breathing walking axis of time that is anything but linear. (And there are some concrete dates and hard facts that are also linear.)

The many and varied ways that time is embedded and embodied in place - in buildings and bodies and generations of birds and animals and plants and humans; in relationships - loves and fights and intentions good and bad.

The time it takes to read and talk and listen and dialogue and reconsider and think and not put out certain stories.

The time that is not defined by all the current noise, but instead is shaped by a multi-generational perspective that the work we are doing now is not necessarily about this year and is not going to be finished in my life time.

I refuse to be caught up in inappropriate deadlines.

The time of the Year of the FireHorse - there is just so much going on, so fast, and sooo much noise.

So far, I've been asked to participate in two different events (one online and one in person in Tennessee) on 'alternatives to 250' (which is to say, alternatives to the way that the dominant culture is telling this history) at the end of June (of course they overlap!). So this week, I've been on calls with the organizers, imagining, talking about what's possible in sharing stories that most people don't know; about different styles of story telling... fire and brimestone preaching? Circle sharing? Analysis combined with embodied? ritualistic experiences? Dialogue? I could have fun with any of them! (fyi - both organizations are actively figuring out their own logistics, so I can't share any details yet.)

In the meantime, we are starting the next cohort of our Origin Stories course, which is exciting, and it is cool to see people wanting to join!

We start Thursday, May 28, 2026 - 12 pm to 1:15 pm ET. We go through the end of July. It's mostly every week (for the first 6 classes in May and June) and then we switch to every other week in July, to give more time for your own writing/storytelling process.

The course works in such a way that you bring whatever stories you want to work on. Including not knowing what you want to work on.

I'll be actively sharing some of my process as I refine how and what I'm saying and collaborating with others in thinking about how we want to frame this particular Origin Story of the U.S. and modern forms of democracy. Which might not be the Origin Story you want to be working on.

If you do want to be working on origins of America storytelling, please let me know sooner rather than later.

The course works really well with people bringing different kinds of stories into conversation with one another.

And you might not want to be working on a particular Origin Story at all, but you are wanting to be part of a super cool group of thoughtful, deep people who are asking big questions and willing to be courageous enough to work with the stories we have inherited and engage in new ones.

If so, please do join us!

And: I do not plan to have another cohort in 2026. In the Fall, I will be offering the ReMembering Course and Krissy and I plan to co-teach a (new) "preparing to die" course.

Regardless of your choice to join us for this course, I wonder how your purpose is shaped by time: by the times we are living in (at the beginning of the era of Climate Chaos; in the midst of a backlash against all things progressive; in the midst of the changing of the seasons and an awareness of your ancestors (spiritual, cultural, biological, lancestors, plantcestors...)

Maybe how you shape your time and how you hear your sense of purpose is being shaped by similar forces as is mine. Maybe not. However place-time is landing you on this new moon in May, I hope you take some time get grounded, and to play with whatever energies are arising. Even some of the big ones.

So many blessings - Sara Jolena