Joy in Contribution: Reflections on Professional Growth, Generational Lessons, and Joyful Justice
By Lynny Brown, Co-Director of the Northwest Environmental Justice Center
Read: Austin Channing Brown writes about Joy As Resistance and joy that my dignity demands. “The poet Toi Derricotte revolutionized Black feminism with one line in a poem, “joy is an act of resistance.”
Over the last decade, the biggest change in my professional life has been learning to listen and tune into the wisdom of intuition and my body’s feedback. I’ve come to trust when partnerships feel good and am curious to understand what’s happening when they don’t. This approach is worlds away from where I started—struggling with imposter syndrome and being misinformed to a rigid idea of professionalism that didn’t look or feel like me.
Photo: Jessica Hua, Rikeem Sholes, and Nic Raingsey hiking up granite above Ingalls Lake. In the background is what we now refer to as Mt. Stuart, the single greatest mass of exposed granite in the United States, according to Fred Beckey. Indigenous people have long traversed these sacred lands before settlers arrived in Washington. PDX Climbers of Color has been a place for me to find joy in community, learning and sharing skills, and keeping each other safe while communing with nature.
As I collaborated with others through my work at Willamette Partnership, I found myself in spaces that felt good. Not “good” in an easy or agreeable way, but rather where my playful and authentic self could thrive. In those spaces, I produced some of my best work. When I could show up as myself, I was free from ego and self-doubt, and creativity flowed. I’m deeply grateful to mentors and colleagues in Oregon Water Futures and Portland Climbers of Color who helped me understand this; and to the writings of adrienne maree brown and Black activists who shaped the concept of “revolutionary joy.”
Joy has become my lantern in the night to help me find my way through partnerships and projects. It’s something I strive to infuse into our technical assistance at the Northwest Environmental Justice Center (NWEJC), where we work with communities facing at times life-and-death environmental health issues. adrienne maree brown writes, “What we practice at a small scale can reverberate to the largest scale.” I love this quote for two reasons: One – we practice joy as an action for change and two – it helps me envision the big stuff through manageable steps. I have conflicting views of what one hundred years from now could look like – either full of environmental destruction or a vision of people working together for natural and social systems to actively heal. Perhaps it will be both, but the second vision requires living in balance, demanding justice, and moving with joy now.
What is Joy? Reflections Across Four Generations
“But my love for you, my child
Is as permanent as sky
Breathe forever
Beneath the canopy of my life
While you wait through winters
Coals illuminate your night
Salmonberries will return
And you are always in my eye
I love you.”
– My Canopy, Phil Elverum
My grandmother, Khun Yai, wasn’t a particularly joyful person, at least as far as I knew her. Life dealt her a hard hand, in charge of caring for two young children alone. She ultimately left them with a wealthy family in her village to work as a seamstress in the capital, in exchange for my mother providing childcare to their kids. My mom was a kid herself. As I’ve now entered matrescense, I can’t imagine the weight of her choice and sacrifice.
Read: New Yorker’s review of Lucy Jones’ book, “Matrescence,” and the Transformation of Motherhood.
In her own way, Khun Yai tried to prepare me for life by describing the world as a dangerous place. Her concern wasn’t joy – it was safety. During her time with us in the U.S., I remember her stories about kidnappers lurking around every corner. When I visited her in Thailand, there were warnings of spirits and giant lizards that would snatch me if I wandered outside after dark. Although her worldview made me a little wary around her, there was always one thing I looked forward to—her food. Spicy, salty, and sour, her dishes were incredible. The moments I remember her most at peace were when she watched me eat, proudly presenting sticky rice, papaya salad, grilled pork, and sour soup. Over food, I saw a glimpse of her unburdened joy.
My sweet mom and I watching sunrise.
Despite Khun Yai’s fear-mongering, my mother grew into a person bursting with joy. She’s the kind of person who will get my dog to chase her around the yard, squealing with delight. When I was seven months pregnant, she eagerly woke up at dawn with me to hike to an epic vista and watch the sun rise between peaks. Like many immigrant parents, she’s worked hard for a long time. She says she finds joy in her work, to which she dedicates long hours and weekends (not my vision of joy in contribution, by the way, but I’m happy for her). Her joy is grounded in resilience, and it inspires me to seek that approach in my own life.
Now, as a mother, I feel the deep spirituality of parenthood, a force that connects me to the generations before. Oraya arrived just as Khun Yai was leaving, and I imagine their souls swirled together during the brief hours between worlds. Parenthood has demanded a return to the body and attuning to my daughter’s needs. How I raise Oraya honors Khun Yai in all the ways I wished I could have during her life. I want Oraya to experience a different world than my grandmother. What will joy in contribution look like to her?
Joyful Justice: Cultivating Power and Connection
Listen: adrienne maree brown On Being with Krista Tippett: “On looking at the harsh complexity of this world full in the face while dancing with joy as life force and fuel and on keeping clear eyes on the reasons for ecological despair while giving oneself over to a loving apprenticeship with the natural world as teacher and guide.”
I deeply agree with adrienne maree brown that what we do on the small scale reverberates out. If we want a joyous world, we need to bring joy into a daily practice.
Watch: The Othering and Belonging Institutes Introduction to Bridging and Breaking: “We recognize othering as the biggest issue of our time, and belonging as the solution to addressing othering in all its forms.”
At the NWEJC, one of our core values is Joyful Justice. Joyful justice is not about ignoring the root causes of environmental justice. Colonization, environmental degradation, and racialized policies have irreparably harmed and continue to harm communities today.
When I say joyful justice, I mean we find power in joy. It fuels our efforts to expand justice movements. It nourishes our resilience and that of leaders committed to the cause of justice.
The first in-person quarterly partner meeting for the NWEJC where state organizers, cohort leaders, and technical assistance providers across the region came together to work and play.
Our region already has the leadership, knowledge, and people to build healthy environments for their communities. At the NWEJC, we’re honored to stand with frontline communities on issues of climate resilience, social mobility, and economic opportunity.
Joy is a practice. Joy is a gift that can be given and received. Willamette Partnership has been a place where I can cultivate joy, so that I have enough in my cup at the end of the day to serve my daughter and be with community. Joy helps me bridge across difference despite the policies that try to separate, marginalize, and other us.
One of my friends and mentors, Humaira, always says she can donate three things: time, money, or knowledge. I invite you to join us in whatever way you would like so we can build a more joyful, just world together.
