Are you sure you want to be seen as political?

I know. We’ve all noticed it. People everywhere are becoming more and more divided. I’m not telling you anything new. The division is born out of fear, out of inequality, and yes, out of the games people in power play - all wrapped up and sold to us as “politics.”

In our work, we spend time with children and young people, professionals, parents, carers. They all come with their own backgrounds and stories, their own experiences, their own worldviews - and they are valid in their own right when you see the whole context. Some children try out the opinions they’ve picked up at home or online. And we work with that.

We work with views that don’t match ours. We listen. We ask questions. We try to open up new paths of possibility, for them and for us. Not by shouting “this is what’s right,” but by inviting curiosity and showing curiosity. By remembering that most of our opinions are shaped by where we’ve been, what we’ve lived through, how safe we’ve felt.

We use creativity to explore empathy and diversity. We try to stay curious about the human in front of us, even when they say something that makes us want to roll our eyes or crawl out of the room. We enwrap them in kindness. We do this in our direct work with children and young people, because we want them to feel safe and know they belong. We want them to grow up kind and curious, not just good at repeating what adults tell them. We want them to think for themselves. To ask questions. To be critical thinkers - including about us.

Well, here is what I think:

Education is political.

Working in communities is political.

Therapeutic work is political.

Running a non-profit is political.

Being trauma-informed is political.

Saying that every child’s nervous system and safety matters is political.

Creating space where people can heal is political.

Building up the most vulnerable so they find the strength inside themselves - that’s political. Creating belonging - political.

Compassion - political.

Thinking for yourself - political.

Reading books, educating yourself, asking questions, letting people in, noticing that we are all connected through our pain and our joy - every single bit of that is political.

I will never turn away from pain. I will turn towards it. I will sit alongside it. Nothing is too messy, too uncomfortable, too dark, too ugly. Only together can we come out stronger.

And yes - that’s political.

And no - I’m not worried about being seen that way.