Writing to you from my family's home in Mill Valley, CA, in front of one of my step father's fun paintings.

Greetings friends! 

The last few weeks have been rich, as my family and I continue to process the transitions that loss brings, and I dive into my coaching, consulting, and activism work.  I am feeling the grief of the one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine and Russia, climate crises in our country and around the world, the violence of racism, and so much more. But I continue to come back to my practice of active hope and engagement, encapsulated so well by Joanna Macy:

“If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.”

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Here’s a few upcoming offerings I am leading: 

• Community Gift Circle (virtual) this Tuesday March 7 at 6:30pm PST

Gift circles are one of my favorite community-building activities to facilitate! 

Here’s an article I wrote years ago on the topic. 

• Community Artivist Read Book Club on March 14 (new people are still welcome to join in Oakland or online!)

• Workshop about Jews, Money, and Wealth on March 16th at 6pm PST (for those in Berkeley, this is a great introduction to an organization I'm grateful to be active in, Resource Generation).
   

• Thrive Street Choir Song Circle on March 21st at 5:45pm PST (for those in Berkeley)

Events I’m endorsing from others!

• March 5: Thrive East Bay event about alternative economies

• March 7: Song Circle with amazing song elder Laurence Cole

• March 19: Equinox Forest Bath led by a friend of mine

In other news:

• I’ve really been enjoying my Drum Doula Coaching work, and was thrilled when one of my clients posted this endorsement:

“Difficulty with keeping rhythm and drumming has been a mild point of shame for a lot of my life -- something I just thought I couldn't do well. But as I have been stepping more into storytelling, a dream grew of being able to drum along with the story to increase the potency and dynamism of this bardic art.  So I started working with drum coach Eva Orbuch a few months ago. Eva has gently, skillfully doula-ed my drumming capabilities in a pretty short time to arrive at a place where I feel my capacity grow in leaps -- a few weeks ago I drummed along with a storytelling for the first time ever! It was a dream come true. I am *definitely* at beginning level, but I can taste now how possible it is to grow a completely new skill. I feel so blessed to have stretched this edge in the company of someone who can hold all the pieces -- tender and nuts-and-boltsy,  of what it is to learn to drum. And I gotta say, there is something extraordinarily regulating and balancing about drumming -- I *always* feel better after just a few minutes of rhythm practice. If you feel the drum call, you can look her up here: https://www.evaorbuch.com/ And here's a beautiful documentary she's working on about badass women drummers and the potency of reclaiming drumming as women: https://www.shedrumsproject.com/.”

• This week, I had a powerful day in Sacramento lobbying with domestic workers and employers from around California, under the CA Domestic Workers Coalition. We are supporting Senate Bill 686, which would end the historical racist exclusion of domestic workers from Cal/OSHA (health and safety standards). I was happy to represent Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network, sharing my views about the need to equally value my life and the lives of people my family hires. Click here to support the campaign or reach out to me if you want to get involved. Below is a photo!  

Thank you for reading and staying in touch!

With love,

Eva