Live Undivided

Same ❤️

I am called into this moment, and I don’t know what I’m called to do, but the notion that there is a great need and the world is depending on us is something I feel in my bones.

Citation: Annika Fjelstad, 2026
Quaker educator and activist

It’s possible to build a life that feels aligned for you while staying comfortably inside systems that harm other people. Growth can become a way to feel good without actually changing anything that matters. Liberation asks more of us than that. It asks us to notice where we benefit, where we stay quiet, and what we’re willing to disrupt because of it.

It’s easy to focus on personal growth as if it exists in isolation. But the conditions around us shape what’s available, what’s safe, and what’s sustainable. Individual change matters, but it doesn’t replace the need for broader change. Liberation asks us to pay attention to both.

There are ways of living that are normalized but constrict you. You adapt to them, you normalize them, and eventually you stop noticing the pressure altogether. When something shifts, the first thing you often feel is space—like your body is remembering something it hadn’t had access to in a while. 🌬

Some relationships don’t ask you to leave outright—they ask you to stay by becoming less of yourself. And because nothing is explicitly “wrong,” it can take a long time to name what’s happening. But if you have to fragment yourself to maintain connection, that’s not something to work harder at. It’s something to tell the truth about.

You can be deeply connected to people and still feel a kind of distance that’s hard to explain. Often, that distance comes from holding parts of yourself back to stay in the relationship. Over time, that gap becomes its own form of loneliness. Not because people aren’t there—but because you aren’t fully there.

We’re taught early how to belong by adjusting, softening, or reshaping ourselves to fit what’s around us. It works, in the sense that it creates connection. But it can also create a subtle separation from who you actually are. Real belonging doesn’t ask for that trade.

Coming back to yourself isn’t always dramatic. It often looks like noticing where you’ve been tolerating things that don’t actually fit—and deciding, quietly but firmly, that you’re done. That shift doesn’t announce itself, but it changes everything that follows.

Self-awareness can become its own kind of comfort. You can understand exactly why you do what you do and still keep doing it. That’s not failure—it’s a signal that knowing and living are not the same thing. The work is in closing that gap, slowly and honestly.

Who are the friends—and frenemies—in your changemaking ecosystem? 🌱

I’ve (Nora Murphy Johnson) been collecting responses to a quiz I created to help changemakers discover which roles come naturally and fuel their energy—and which roles might be better to release or seek in collaborators.

We’re already seeing some fascinating early results! ✨ It’s also shedding light on who we need to embrace, even when certain roles challenge or agitate us.

Curious? Click on the link below!

https://open.substack.com/pub/awakealivejournal/p/changemakers-03-changemaking-in-action?r=5cuwst&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Changemakers #03: Changemaking in Action Discovering the Roles, Connections, and Tensions That Drive Social Change