Be Nimble (2025’s Theme)
(Photo by Sébastien Goldberg on Unsplash)
Last year, I started off by giving a theme. It wasn’t something I had done before, and I had no idea if it would continue. I just knew that 2024 had a theme, and that I needed to share it. Last year’s theme was resourcing. I made a workshop for this theme and quite a bit of content. I talked about it all year with clients. I learned a lot of lessons of my own about resourcing from the school of hard knocks, which is my most enduring teacher.
This year, during my winter rest (one of my many resourcing activities!), I asked the trancestors if resourcing would continue to be the theme in 2025. After all, things are…harder, now, and they will be for some time to come. Resourcing is, of course, still a medicine that we all deeply need. But the answer came swiftly and clearly.
The theme for 2025 is: Be Nimble.
My First Swift Lessons in Nimbleness
I resolved to meditate on this idea, to develop it to share will ya’ll once my break ended. As it happened, no deep meditation was required, as life took no time with demonstrating this theme to me. After a few sweet, gentle weeks of rest and time with loved ones, my beloved city began to burn. One thing about me is that Los Angeles is my home. Not just a place that I live. On a level deeper than blood and bone, this is my place. Though my family and I were safe from the fires themselves, we were not exempt from the terror or the grief of them.
Then, two days after the first fire began, right as Runyon Canyon began to burn and Hollywood started to evacuate, I was taken by a terrible pain. I managed to make it through the night and so did the Hollywood Hills. But the next morning, the pain was back (and worse), and to the emergency room I went.
I wont go into details about my experience with the hospital. Suffice to say it was horrific, complaints are being filed, etc. But sitting in an ER waiting room while the city burned, and later looking out my hospital room window and seeing the massive plumes of black smoke coming over the hills…somewhere in the haze of pain and opioids it wasn’t lost on me that everything about this situation required all of us to be nimble.
Restaurants turning on a dime to feed the firefighters and the displaced. Many folks opening a room or a couch to a displaced friend. Others taking in (sometimes dozens) of displaced animals. Folks sharing water, air purifiers, food, supplies, clothing…all kinds of things with their neighbors. All of us learning very quickly how to assess the safety of our air and water to the best of our ability.
And on the microcosm, friends and family ever so nimbly shifting their schedules to take in our dog while my partner advocated for me in the hospital, bringing him food, giving us both advice, holding space for the fear and the pain, sending me the love and healing that I needed to get through that particular crucible and finally, finally come home. The love and support poured out for Los Angeles and it poured out for me.
And now, as I await information on what and when my next steps will be, medically speaking, I look at my year and see clearly that my lessons in nimbleness are just beginning. My 2025 has been booked solid since mid ’24. And now…well, who knows. I will have to be nimble, and figure it out.
What Does it mean to “Be Nimble”?
The Oxford definition of “nimble” is “quick and light in motion: agile” and “marked by quick, alert, clever conception, comprehension, or resourcefulness” and “responsive, sensitive.” Full disclosure - this is not a natural or easy state for me. In the terms of astrology, I’m a Taurus sun and I have a Capricorn stellium - Earth is my strongest element, and earth energy isn’t particularly “nimble.”
In mundane terms - I am a creature of habit, comfort, and routine. In fact, because I work from home, the entire household of pets moves at my rhythms. My little cat Ishtar gets annoyed at me on weekends because I deviate from my incredibly predictable routines. She will literally yell and chase me around the house bc I’m not settling into my desk at the appointed time. I do more or less the same things over and over because that keeps me feeling good. This has its advantages - I can dig in hard and get stuff done in that magical earth-sign way - but it also means that I am susceptible to, well, stagnancy.
Nimbleness is the opposite of everything that I just laid out. Nimbleness means meeting the situation as it comes, being willing (and able) to shift fast, with little warning. Nimbleness might come more easily to you than it does to me, or you might struggle with it even more than I do. Take a moment to check in with yourself.
How do you react to new situations?
If plans change suddenly, how do you feel in your body?
When you read me talking about nimbleness, did you notice yourself checking out or freezing up?
These are just a few questions that might help you assess where you are currently with nimbleness, and what your relationship is to this type of movement.
Nimbleness and Resourcing
Remember last year’s theme? Resourcing? These two themes are actually deeply and intimately connected. What allows someone to be nimble (beyond their own personal proclivities)? You guessed it—Resourcing! And if you thought I would shut up about resourcing after 2024…well, lol. Turns out, resourcing is foundational to many other important skills, and truly is the backbone of the skill set we all need in these challenging times.
As a refresher, here’s how I defined resourcing in 2024:
“At its most basic, resourcing is finding ways to give our whole selves what we need to function well and not be in deficit. What I need and what you need may be different. What resources me in one way may not resource me in all ways. And not being in deficit may be wildly or radically different from what we're accustomed to, and may require a lot of curiosity and learning about ourselves, a lot of resourcing, and a lot of time and practice.”
Learning how to resource myself, and then deepening that practice and skill set, has been one of the most life changing processes I’ve ever been through. I wanted to help others develop this skill set, so I made a whole class about it. If you missed this class last year, the good news is that you can take it today! The evergreen version is available as a standalone class, or bundled with its counterpart, Love Your Trans Self. (While the live class was trans-specific, anyone can take the evergreen versions.)
When you’re well resourced, even when nimbleness is not your usual state, you’re much more able to access it when needed. Think of it this way - if I have to sprint to catch a bus or a train, I’m gonna do better if I have slept adequately, if I’ve had a solid meal, if I’m wearing sprinting shoes and clothes, and especially if sprinting is something I do with my body on at least a somewhat regular basis.
Similarly, if my life gets suddenly upended because, say, a flurry of executive orders is signed with the express purpose of intimidating and suppressing marginalized voices, I’m going to be able to meet that challenge better if I am resourced. With proper resourcing, I might be able to immediately start organizing with my friends, or find a local resistance group to join. I might be able to coax my body through its flight, fight, or freeze response. I might be able to feel my feelings and then move into action.
Resourcing is a powerful technology, and once you’ve integrated it into your life, you will also be more powerful.
2024 was a great time to learn resourcing, but the next best time is today. Because frankly, things aren’t getting easier. We have to learn to be nimble, so we can respond instead of always endlessly reacting.
How Can I Be Nimble in 2025?
If you’ve taken the time to learn how to resource yourself (even if you’re very early on your resourcing journey), what are your next steps for being nimble? Ideally, you can use your discernment to make common sense precautions and plans without getting too attached to any specific outcome, good or bad. One of the tools I use for this is being with what is, instead of investing in an assumption of what will be. For example, instead of either assuming everything will be “fine,” or assuming that everything is lost/ruined, pay attention to what is happening right now. If there are sensical things to do to prepare (like working on better digital security), do those things! But if you get to spinning out about this or that, take some time to ground back into the here and now.
Being present with what is can look all kinds of ways. You might take a walk outside, or journal, or pet your dog or cat. You might call a friend or eat some good food. You might take five deep breaths. And when you’re ready, you might look around you and assess what is actually happening right then, and if there is any “next best move” for you to take in that moment. Sometimes, as I learned, being present with what is might mean evacuating from a climate catastrophe or booking it to an ER room. That’s the thing about nimbleness—its literally about meeting the moment where its at.
I don’t know what 2025 will hold. I do know it will be a hard year. But I’m not guessing about what it will entail. As much as I might feel like predicting the future will keep me safe, the reality is that I can’t predict what will come, good or challenging. I could be wrong, of course, but I think that this year (and the future) will hold plot twists we can’t even imagine. So instead of investing in this outcome or that, invest in meeting the moment where it is.