Navigating crisis takes a village. And a break.

And a few fawns, too.

I asked A.I. to draw a community responding to crisis from phone.

I’ve been on my phone a lot, watching videos of incivility and inhumanity, feeling quite hopeless and helpless. I know better. Don’t we all?

This morning, it took a village to help me reframe.

A childhood friend of mine mentioned a good conversation she’d listened to that my adulthood friend, “Heartbreak” author Florence Williams had with Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach and Amanda Doyle on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast. It was about awe. Nature. Finding the big and the beautiful after heartbreak makes the world feel small and ugly.

While staying at another friend’s home in rural Virginia, I listened to the conversation before sunrise while still in bed, remembering in the dark that I’ve done hard things before. We, collectively as a nation, have done hard things before.

Then I went upstairs to look outside and saw this family of deer.

(This video of a family of deer appears on my Instagram with the song, “In Cold Light” by Vanbur.)

The world seemed a little bigger, a little more humane and interconnected — if only for a moment.

Tuning out of our democratic crisis and the toll it’s taking on the health of our relationships and our individual wellbeing doesn’t make it go away. We can not ignore it. But for me, today, taking a different view and a different pace is helping me catch my breath, refill my lungs and fortify my heart.

If you’d like to send a glimpse of what’s fortifying you now — be it a photo, a podcast, how you’re publicly engaged or even resting, I’d love to see and, with your permission, share it with others so that we can learn from each other.

This is the long game. It will take a village and, sometimes, a change of frame.

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A few resources:

My conversation with Florence Williams on the scientific power of awe:

Plus …

Why Rest is Best — An Ed. Magazine conversation with Shawn Ginwright, the Jerome T. Murphy Professor of Practice at Harvard Graduate School of Education

The Nap Ministry — Founded in 2016 by Tricia Hersey

In Tumultuous Times, Think Like a Hostage — By

Jaimie Lusk

, Psychology Today, shared with me by

Paul T Shattuck, MSW, PhD

, who also has a great Substack.

Plus, a dose of social prescribing from author

Julia Hotz

:

“Why sh*t not working—and how can we fix it?”: Announcing the first social prescribing all-hands meeting

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New to Invisible Threads? I’m glad you’re here.

I’m Kate Woodsome, a writer, filmmaker and systems reformer, who’s spent 20 years navigating complex information environments in post-war, authoritarian and declining democracies. I began my career as a journalist reporting in Cuba, post-genocide Cambodia and Hong Kong before managing radio and television programs for Voice of America and Al Jazeera English, amplifying under-reported stories.

At The Washington Post, I founded a film production unit, pioneered a mental health column and reported on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. I’ve also been recognized with the Ben Bradlee Award for Courage in Journalism, an Edward R. Murrow Award and honors from the White House News Press Photographers Association. I left The Post in 2023, no longer willing to normalize the trauma, burnout and moral injury pervasive in the industry.

Now a fellow at Georgetown University, I’m collaborating with trauma experts to empower people to move from struggle to strength. And with The Invisible Threads Project, I’m building an independent space to share stories, teach and bring people together — free from media industry pressures.