A new circle is coming - can you help me name it?

I'd love your thoughts ❤️

As I shared on Instagram the other night, I’m keen to add in an extra monthly circle as part of my paid membership here on Substack. I want this circle to be a space that allows us to share and process what it is to be a human in the world right now, grappling with the very specific experience of getting on with our regular lives - going to work, preparing a snack for a child, paying our bills - while our phones serve us up a never-ending horror show of news about current realities or likely scenarios in the years ahead.

The aim of these circles is twofold, allowing a space to:

• come together with others who are also feeling all the things and asking all the questions, helping us feel less alone - because often there aren’t spaces to discuss the big stuff within “normal” life

• process, express and grieve as well as celebrate, inspire and explore options for hope/courage going forward

I have two options in my mind for a name for these circles. Firstly I thought they could have a “does what it says on the tin” name and simply call them Polycrisis Support Circles. The use of the word polycrisis makes it clear that the circles will be located within a wider global context, providing us with a space to support each other as we witness (or are directly affected by) events in the world around us.

Then I thought of a more poetic but less clear name, inspired by a Maggie Smith poem: Good Bones Support Circles. Here’s an excerpt from Maggie’s perfect poem, Good Bones, to explain the context:

“… The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.”

I like this name, I like that it’s inspired by this wonderful poem and I think it might stick in people’s memory. BUT it obviously needs the context of Maggie’s poem to explain it, without which people might have no idea what it is/think it’s an osteoporosis support group?!

So I’d love your input, especially if you might plan to join us at these circles (but also if you’re not). You can vote here for your favourite option, or suggest something yourself in the comments - all suggestions welcome!

Thank you, I’m excited to collaborate with you both in the naming and the co-creation of these circles,

Chloe xx