24 Comments

Thank you for this beautiful and sincere essay; it gives me hope that I am not so alone in my thoughts.

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Thank you for reading my friend, and please know you're most certainly not alone in your thoughts!

P.S. I'm currently scratching my head because apparently, I wasn’t subscribed to your Substack even though I'm regularly reading your posts. I had no idea. A mind boggling mystery that I've now corrected.

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Thank you for subscribing; for some odd reason, I rarely as of late get notifications of any new subscribers or followers.

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May 2Liked by Ramona McCloskey

Thanks for exposing the many guises of oppression that we experience.

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May 2Liked by Ramona McCloskey

Thank you - you expressed something I was grappling with, raw and real. I really appreciated reading this.

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I'm glad it resonated with you in this way. We have some horrendous baggage to process here. I've been trying to put this into words for weeks now. Thank you so much for reading!

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This is so incredibly raw and powerful Ramona

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Thank you so much, I'm glad you think so.

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May 2Liked by Ramona McCloskey

Just incredibly raw truth, so much unraveling to be done but in an act of hope and defiance. Beautifully written.

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Thank you so much! Yes, it's absolutely written in an act of hope and defiance - it's the choice between that or a downfall of us all as the fodder for the system.

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So much to unravel in this fiercely vulnerable piece, Ramona 🔥 I hear and feel everyone of your powerful words, but I particularly liked the distinction you make at the end between grief and its tame, acceptable twin, sorrow. It makes so much sense. Keep keening 🔥

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Thank you so much. I feel that grief, together with anger, is among the strongest human feelings. These are feelings that have a massive potential to be loud and spark deep changes. It's no coincidence that these two feelings are the ones most commonly suppressed, erased and/or shamed... All in order to be tame and acceptable, as you said.

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May 4Liked by Ramona McCloskey

Know that we hear your keening... that it is honored, that it is a sacred rage, that it is truth. I'm a generation or so ahead of you and grew up in a different place and culture, but even so, much of what you share rings true for me as well. As my Indigenous friends say, your existence is resistance. You've already burned through a thousand pasts and started your healing journey. I so much appreciate how you've woven it with resistance to imperialism and capitalism, for it is not separate. Thank you. We see you, we hear you.

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Thank you so much Maia, and I'm glad to know you recognise the interconnected nature of it all. Realising what all is woven together is a painful process in a world that is sterilised and compartmentalised, but that's exactly how it works, by teaching us to separate everything in our lives. Hence so many saying things like "I have no interest in politics/politics has nothing to do with me," unable to see thay politics is every step we make.

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May 4·edited May 4Liked by Ramona McCloskey

To use the vernacular of the times, this exploration is fire (double meaning intended). Thank you for your vulnerability. I relate to so much.

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I suspected you would! Love and solidarity to you throughout your own healing journey, Josh. We're all here to unpack and unravel these deep, long threads together.

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I loved every word of this Ramona. Such a beautiful, intelligent and brave essay. And so so relatable. I'm so grateful to have found you and your writing on here. Keening alongside you x

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Happy to connect here Kelly, and thank you! We keen together and make our scream louder xx

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This was beautiful and powerful Romana. Resonated so much with every thread you unravelled for us here

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Thank you very much for reading, Belinda! I'm glad it resonated with you, but at the same time a bit heartbroken that so many people found themselves in these lines.

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Very true. It is always comforting, though, to know we're not alone and heartening to also know how many are seeing the conditioning with clearer eyes than ever before. As hard as things are at the moment, it does also feel like there is more and more space to challenge our own conditioning and validation in knowing others are right there with us on a similar journey.

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Most certainly! I don't think I'm exaggerating if I say that I'm now seeing something I've never seen in my entire life. An awakening, if you want. The size and scope of it is unlike anything I've witnessed before, people are now talking about topics that used to be almost a taboo and digging deep into their own conditioning, and these changes go across very different age groups and social backgrounds. So in my eyes, there's a lot of hope.

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May 16Liked by Ramona McCloskey

Absolutely beautiful as always. And like reading my own thoughts. Different experiences, but so much the same. So many of us are unraveling these threads and I'm so thankful to have met you and others as we do. And we can burn and illuminate them together. Here to all the hope for ending these generations of trauma and abuse and oppression, and building a new world for your children.

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May 19Liked by Ramona McCloskey

Ramona you write with so much power and honesty. I love that you don’t chew your words when you breathe criticism for the power structure and systems as they exist and aren’t afraid to challenge them. More power to you sister! 💜

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