Listening Darkly While the World Catches Fire
Happy New Year, MetaCocoMoms. We made it to 2026. Take a breath. No, seriously—take a deep one, hold it, and let it out slow. Because if you’ve been scrolling the news feed since yesterday, you know the “American Fallacy” is working overtime, and we need our wits about us.
Between the “aggressive” holiday festivities and the actual aggression kicking off globally (we’ll get to the Venezuela tea in a minute), the vibe right now is intense. But you know me—I don’t do panic. I do preparation. I do history. And I do receipts.
To kick off this year, I’m not offering a detox tea or a vision board workshop. I’m offering a strategic manual. We are reading Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety by Cara Page and Erica Woodland.
If you are a Black woman trying to navigate this landscape without losing your mind or your joy, this is required reading. If you are an ally looking to understand the assignment? Grab a copy and pull up a chair.
The AFROP Rating: 5/5 Across the Board
For the uninitiated, here is how we grade things at MetaCocoMom:
- A (Active Brains): 5/5 – This isn’t light reading; it’s a mental workout that rewires how you see “care.”
- F (Focused Art): 5/5 – It is Afrofuturist in the truest sense: using the past to build a livable future.
- R (Real Experiences): 5/5 (HEAVY HITTER) – This is the meat and potatoes. It roots our survival in obscured history.
- O (Opportunities): 5/5 – You will immediately apply this to how you move in your community.
- P (Practicalities): 5/5 – The cost is the price of a book; the return on investment is your sanity.
Chapter One: How to “Listen Darkly”
The authors explicitly state that the beginning of this book is an incantation. They are calling in spirits, energy, and knowledge. And who do they summon first? General Harriet Tubman.
We all know Harriet the Conductor. But Chapter One, titled “Listening Darkly,” gives us Harriet the Strategist. The authors use elements—Fire, Sky, Water—to map her life. They remind us that our good sis wasn’t just walking through the woods; she was the only woman to lead a military campaign during the Civil War. The Combahee River Raid didn’t just free people; it bankrupted rice plantations. It hit the pockets. That is the disruption we like to see.
Now, here is my “Public Historian” bonus track for you (because you know I stay in the archives):
The book mentions Harriet’s later years—her fight for a pension and building a home in Auburn, NY. But here is the piece the book doesn’t explicitly name, but that makes my spirit sing: The Empire State Federation of Women’s Clubs.
My research shows that it was Black women’s clubs—our aunties and grandmothers organizing at the local level—who stepped in to fund and maintain Harriet’s home when the government she served wouldn’t. That is the definition of collective care. We have always been our own safety net.
Why You Need This Right Now (The 2026 Reality Check)
Why am I telling you to “Listen Darkly” in January 2026?
Because, honey, look outside.
We just watched the U.S. capture the Venezuelan president and his wife. The Vice President of Venezuela is calling it military aggression. Cuba is mobilizing. Forces in the Middle East are mobilizing. The geopolitical chessboard is being flipped over in real-time.
We are moving from “state-sanctioned” foolishness to what feels like “state-enforced” principles. If you remember your history class (or if you follow my work), your alarm bells should be ringing.
“Listening Darkly” means tuning into the frequencies others ignore. It means listening to the silence, the nature around us, and the intuition in our gut that says, “Something isn’t right, so how do I prepare?”
We need to explore those dark spaces we usually avoid—the hard questions about what we value, what we stand for, and who we are willing to fight for. Because if 2026 is anything like the first week has been, we are going to need more than good vibes. We are going to need the spirit of the Combahee Raid.
Next Step for the MetaCocoMom
Read Chapter 1 this week. Sit with the concept of “Listening Darkly.” Ask yourself: In a world that is screaming, what is the silence trying to tell me?
Let’s disrupt the fallacy together.
Stay sharp, MetaCocoMom
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