The Dynamics of Liberation...

Dearest Lamplight Community,

You may notice some breathtaking new artwork above, which will be joining us for all future posts! This painting, by Wing Lam Chan, is a brilliant rendering of what Lamplight hopes to embody and be. I use the word ‘hope’ intentionally—changes are coming to better support this community. Please stay tuned!

For now, in the spirit of artistry, creativity, and spirituality, I’m revisiting Shawn A.G. Pendenque’s story from Issue 2.

In it, he writes:

Read Shawn’s Story (page 6) 🤍

Alongside a stunning poem/rap, artist statement, and vocal accompaniments in the issue (above), Shawn shares with us some personal messages for the Lamplight community:

Why is Shawn’s story so important? Now?

Because thinking of community care as an artistic practice can help us see how intentional, thoughtful, and creative we need to be—both in offering care and receiving it. Spirituality moves similarly, like a stream beneath all art, meeting the stream of Shawn’s experience with Jesus to form a thriving river. Whatever spirituality means for you, allow it to take that flowing, liquid shape of universal love and healing, guiding your offering and receiving of care across all people and land. In this way, we all have a hand in remaining Unsinkable.

I so hope you re-read Shawn’s story & enjoy our new issue. More below.

With ever-expanding care & gratitude,

Mikaela

I’m deeply honoured & excited to share with you our newest issue of Lamplight. 🤍

So much care was poured into each contribution & I couldn’t be more grateful for the time, vulnerability, and thoughtfulness woven throughout.

This issue is rooted in reflection. One might think that a contradictory juxtaposition, but it isn’t here. And that’s what makes these stories so resonant—individually & beside one another. I’m profoundly thankful.

After I lost my therapist to suicide in 2020, I wanted to do something as someone outside the mental health care field—without the associated ’titles’ & ‘letters’ at the end of my name. Lamplight is that something; a space for mental health care providers to redefine what it means to care for others & themselves. In this issue, they certainly have.

Across contributions spanning law, poetry, peer support, psychotherapy, coaching, and adjacent forms of caregiving, this issue looks into the past to expand our definition of mental health care. Hindsight is 20/20—we always look back with perspective, whether critical, compassionate, or both. But Lamplight’s third issue asks us to hold this relationship with tenderness. How do we revise and annotate our approaches to offering informed care, allowing this process to share space with our lived experience—without shame? How do we navigate and hold multiple truths: that 1) care and empathy are essential as everyone continues to meet fractured care systems, and 2) that care providers must be in relationship with their fluctuating capacity to give?

Read Issue 3 Here 🤍