Olivia Reece Loucks

waking from my ig hibernation to share something I’m excited for this week. if you’re in LA, I would love to have you there. turning toward: council for community as practice tuesday march 11 — from 7 to 10pm @tea__at__shiloh sliding scale available 🛖 in the weeks since the fires, I’ve been moved by this resilient place. care is so alive in this city — while toxins coat the air + water, friends remain displaced, and sweeping executive orders compound harm on our neighbors and communities. my life has found its familiar pace again — still, I’m unsettled by the compulsory return to ‘normal.’ knowing that this is in many ways the beginning, but this is how our culture teaches us to cope. in the spaces between, I still long for another way: one that knows how to ritualize loss, heal at the scale of a collective. I’ve been thinking about community — the way it swells to meet moments like these. community as what holds us, grows us; who we are accountable to. both our medicine and our edge. while the gravity of our time pulls us to live and act in separate — community is our oldest memory. I’ve wondered what might be different if we were willing to wade in deeper — toward community as this edge, our practice ground. might it bring us more connection, grow our capacity to metabolize grief? might it resource us to take more centered, just action toward the world we want to live in? when we believe that community, like culture, is shaped by those who practice it — we learn that by time and trust, commitment and care, we can practice a new way into being. Council is one way I’ve experienced this to be true. with roots in the oldest forms of group process (in particular, protected by the governance + circle-of-life ways of Native and First Nations peoples of this land across time) — Council believes that when we share our stories, we share our resource, strengthening the fibers between and among us. @treekyneeky and I are trying something new in this format. with some nerves, excitement, humility — I hope you’ll join us. more info at link in bio ~ thank you @juliaakong for the photos of our circle 💐

tldr; @schuyisthelimit is the light of my life 🌻 on the fifth anniversary of her accident, please consider contributing to @schuybackon2feet — the special needs trust (SNT) that will ensure her access to essential resources for years to come. thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to those of you who have already made a contribution. in just 5 days, we’re over 40% of the way to our goal! if you are interested or have questions about how you can support, please reach out or check the link in my bio. thank you & sending love your way 🫂 ••• schuy and I met in college, her first winter back from a semester in spain. we braved the cold to meet for tea — and I remember thinking I’d come face to face with sunshine. it was there that I learned of schuyler’s gift for communities — the way she builds them intentionally, yet effortlessly wherever she goes; the way she made me feel a part of her orbit within an hour of knowing her. by that time, she’d already lived / worked / traveled across five continents, and was nurturing a community that was powerfully global in nature. the year after she graduated, schuyler was on a yale fellowship in peru that — on february 19, 2016 — was abruptly cut short. while rafting on a trip to colombia, she was struck by a boulder that left her in critical condition. a helicopter ride and a series of miracles landed her back in the US, where she underwent five emergency surgeries that saved her life. in the five years since, I’ve watched in awe as schuy and her mother meridith have worked tirelessly to heal and rebuild. schuy has relearned to speak, feed herself — and can now stand and transfer to and from her wheelchair largely on her own. as she takes strides in relearning to walk, she’s also leading several bookclubs, entering the job market, and finding ways to use her voice for change. five years ago, schuyler’s people came together to fund the surgeries and care that gave her a fighting chance. your contribution now would mean as much as ever in empowering schuyler to build the best life imaginable. on behalf schuy, and all those in her orbit — thank you 💛

in this heavy, reflective year — I’m grateful for the new (job, city, friends!), foundational (time alone, outside, with people I love), and the ways joy showed up to keep us going. this day was one of them 🤍

film from a sunday in may

soothing stones // election week therapy

a rainy saturday on greene ave & bella is painting something nice

anniversaries are hard. my childhood friend sarah passed away six years and one week ago, yet each early february is as disorienting as the first — taking time to relive the loss, and trying to manifest Who She Would Be if given the chance. winter in new york is calm, but mundane. finding ‘the right way’ to grieve around rituals of ordinary life can feel clumsy. this year, these words were a nice reminder: I am living, and I remember you. that’s beautiful, and that’s enough. thank you @statuskuo13 for the share, @liv_abuls for the photo 🤍

mou | june, 1969 | porto ercole, italy carrying this energy into the new year — more presence, more often. here: a woman we lost early in the decade, but who continued to guide me all the way through 😌

fresh year

mother earth is at her best up there. machhapuchhre base camp, nepal

i’ve been learning from this person for the better part of 15 years (dang)! grateful for this week with you, @diirtypurdy

six days, sixty miles — up, down & around these peaks. annapurna base camp