June 28, 2025

Planting the Seeds of Your Legacy

Been thinking a lot about the kinds of legacy people leave behind.

For instance, though I'm not reading as many physical magazines as I once did and consuming even less of this type of content over the Internet, YES! Magazine was one periodical I did regularly enjoy.

As they shutter this publication after 30 years of seeding goodness into the world, I wanted to take a moment to honor the closing thoughts of Sarah van Gelder offered in this final entry: 'The World is Burning: Does the YES! Approach Still Matter?' (https://howwerise.substack.com/p/the-world-is-burningdoes-the-yes)

Slightly paraphrased excerpt:

When news arrived on May 7, 2025, that YES! would be closing, I felt shock and sadness at the end of an organization I led as founding editor and at the loss to the progressive media world.

But the outpouring of social media comments …. got me wondering: Are there parts of YES! that can have continued life?

Understanding our current moment required understanding how we got here.

Each of us inherited an unbroken chain of ancestral love and support, but also a legacy of trauma—slavery, massacres, land theft, colonialism, and shattered communities.

And we inherited a dominant economic system and culture that treats humans and the natural world as resources to be exploited.

This history set in motion the huge disparities of wealth and power between those descended from Europeans and those from elsewhere, those descended from the ownership classes and working and landless classes, and between women and men, and it undermined our relationship with the natural world.

From the beginning, YES! prioritized excluded voices and stories, especially highlighting leadership by women, people of color, and Indigenous people.

We sought practices that addressed historic harms while showing what reparation looks like and how a world based on justice might function.

In our early days, our staff was predominantly made up of white women, and we had much to learn about racial justice. Guided by our board, contributors, and an increasingly diverse staff, we prioritized voices of people of color and people from diverse cultures. We built strong relationships with Native writers, and some of us became active allies of the Suquamish Tribe—whose ancestral land we shared—and that relationship continues today.

This approach helped us break out of the dysfunctional dominant-culture worldview, and bring in fresh approaches and solutions across cultures and from the margins of society.

Our theory of change focused on encouraging ordinary people’s active engagement.

We put readers at the center as people who are—or could become—leaders, visionaries, and creatives.

We treated them as people with agency and dignity, avoiding condescension or jargon that few could access.

We encouraged the hard work of personal transformation by drawing on wisdom traditions and research about the science of human development.

But we kept in mind a truth that was often missing from the self-help genre: our liberation as individuals is tied to the liberation of all life.

In our coverage, we recognized that people learn differently—some through stories, others through abstract reasoning, art, music, or how-to guides. Some want immediate action steps while others want to understand how their work fits into a multigenerational change process.

We celebrated all forms of contribution and all styles of learning and engagement.

At the same time, we put a high value on humility, always respecting our readers and looking for grace in our own shortcomings and seeking opportunities to learn and grow.

Over the three decades of YES!, each of us who were involved would have our own stories. For me, highlights included our coverage of social movements that challenged corporate capitalism and lifting up cooperative and sustainable economic alternatives.

I was transformed by the weeks I spent at Standing Rock reporting on the work of water protectors from dozens of tribes and by what I learned editing issues of the magazine on the prison-industrial complex and restorative justice alternatives.

Traveling the country on the journey that resulted in The Revolution Where You Live (Berrett-Koehler), I was awed by people creating beautiful alternatives in rust-belt cities, Indian reservations, coal country, and other areas abandoned by corporate capitalism.

The best part was meeting extraordinary people—some famous, many more who, without fanfare, brought their passion, smarts, and hard work to making change in their communities and workplaces.

These people gave me confidence that a better world is possible.

I write at a time when vulnerable communities are being surveilled and harassed, basic services are slashed, and our global climate emergency is undeniable.

While mainstream political institutions fail to meet the moment, people everywhere are organizing, resisting, and reimagining.

Thanks to the efforts of the current staff and board, the entire digital archive of YES! will now live on through Truthout (https://truthout.org/) a like-minded independent news organization that will serve as the new steward of our digital content—ensuring ongoing access to nearly three decades of visionary journalism.

This is what you call seeding a legacy that produces healthy fruit. :)

There's the original work that touched people's minds, hearts, and bodies, accompanied by the versions of it set down in forms that can continue to touch people's minds, hearts, and bodies long after the individuals who initially planted these positive seeds have moved on.

When I, Mama Molten and Molten Mama (spiritual/creative pen names) consider my own legacy, I am grateful for all the joy shared helping individuals and small groups transform.

And I am also super glad I set down a good portion of my work in books that can be accessed by those who never even personally cross my path this lifetime, now...and well on into The Future.

What were YOU birthing 30 years ago?

And what have you been birthing, since then?

Always love hearing reader thoughts...!