Dear ones,

Because my daughter now lives abroad, and because my studies keep calling me back to Latvia, I have been given a privileged vantage point this year. When I am away from the United States, I get to listen. I hear how everyday people — at kitchen tables, in cafés, on trains — speak about what they are witnessing in the United States. Even what reaches me online shifts, as my algorithm adjusts to the region I am in. I am seeing my home country through other people's eyes.

One week before the election, I want to share a few of these voices back with you. And I want to gently, firmly remind each of us of our responsibility to vote.

First, a confession. I have struggled to stay present and conscious to all that I witness, read about, and experience each day. The weight of it is real, and the body knows it before the mind can name it. Perhaps you know this feeling too. Some days, staying awake to it all feels like more than one nervous system can hold.

And still, there are moments when we must act. Voting is one of them.

As you prepare to cast your ballot, I invite you to sit with what has transpired over these last eighteen-plus months — a period that by every definition I know has been a rise in fascism. A historic abuse of executive power. The crippling of the legislative branch, the body meant to check that power.

I also invite you to carry with you the survivors of Epstein's network, who came to Washington, D.C. in 2025 and stood shoulder to shoulder to protest the failure to hold that network accountable. Their courage asks something of us. It asks us not to look away.

So please, join me in voting on Tuesday, November 3. And join me in the longer work that continues after the polls close: accurately naming what we are witnessing and experiencing, without softening it.

It is also time for us to begin voting for the issues we want to see addressed, rather than for politicians who represent the two-party system. Our loyalty belongs to the needs of our communities, not to a party's brand.

Here are two of the voices I've been listening to:

• A report from a French-German news source on the rise of fascism in the United States — a view from across the Atlantic: watch here

• The story of the traveling Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, a public archive of the Epstein files now touring the country: watch here and trumpepsteinreadingroom.com

Tend yourselves this week. Rest where you can. And then let's show up.

With care,

Maija

🌿 Matriarch Makeover

Maija Danilova West is a governance practitioner, peacemaker, and the author of Matriarch Makeover: A 30-Day Invitation. Her forthcoming book, From the Triangle to the Circle: Matriarchal Governance Design, is addressed to practitioners of law, peacemaking, and governance who are earnestly seeking a way to practice that is more life-affirming.

Original content by Maija, copy edited by Claude.

Last updated: October 27, 2026