About Energy Outward
Contact ∞ Support ∞ Gratitude ∞ Dedication ∞ Disclaimer
Bio
Hi! My name is Haakon Williams (it's pronounced "Hoken"). Welcome to the digital home of my essay series Energy Outward!
I'm a descendant of Norwegian, Irish, and Samí people, and grew up in the land of Pomo and Wappo people – rural north California, home of oak, serpentinite, and invasive golden grasses. After getting undergraduate degrees in environmental studies and philosophy at UC Santa Cruz, I've worked primarily for environmental non-profits helping generate media coverage and legislative action on contaminated sites, climate change, and regulatory capture. I am, among other things, a bioregionalist, anarchist, pansexual man, yogi, backpacker, DJ, friend, lover, brother, son, and a bit of a hooligan who has anxiety and gut issues and a distaste for labels.
I spent the early part of my life buried deep in my head, thinking, ruining my eyesight reading, grappling earnestly with the horrific problems of our world and how to live a life that rises to the challenge of this historic moment. After a rave in 2016, I had a mystical experience in which I felt my mind and body in divine union, distinct yet interconnected expressions of the same underlying energy. I’ve spent the years since that night letting its many lessons seep into my bones, and now am finally shifting my energy outward, releasing the fruits of those inward years. These writings are one version of the story I'm here to tell. It has taken me the better part of a lifetime to be able to tell it. Thank you for being here to listen.
Contact
I can be reached by email at Haakon@EnergyOutward.com.
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Support
If you feel like supporting this writing, I’m grateful. I write for creative expression, and in the hope that it will benefit others. I don’t intend to monetize these writings, and feel fortunate to be able to offer them in the spirit of the gift, free of the distorting burden of providing me an income.
The support I would most appreciate is your collaboration in developing and integrating these ideas. Give your input in the comment section. Reach out to me to initiate a dialogue or project. Contribute your original artwork. Share the essays with others. Channel your energy outward, into your body, into community, into groups building decentralized power.
Gratitude
These essays have emerged from my whole being; any attempt at gratitude that doesn't name the whole universe would be incomplete. These acknowledgements focus on those whose support has been especially helpful in the development of these essays.
The teachers in my life have been many; not least among them are the schoolteachers. My high school music teacher, Mr. Tom Aiken, exerted unparalleled influence on my life's trajectory with his galvanizing teachings about mediocrity and getting out of your comfort zone.
My love for the craft of writing owes a great deal to my grade school English teachers Mr. Abordo, Mr. Carpenter, Ms. Sonneville, and especially Mr. Pabst for the early exposure to rigor.
The value of discipline and practice was greatly reinforced for me by Vicki Jay, a private piano teacher. To her and Mr. Aiken, whom I feel I disappointed by neglecting practice, I hope this writing makes up for it.
Deep thanks are due to Julie Kimball and Kofi Busia, Hatha yoga teachers par excellence in whose classes I had many foundational insights.
Some of these ideas were developed in the undergraduate and graduate seminars of the marvelous philosopher Jon Ellis, whose institutional encouragement of non-institutional thinking I greatly appreciate.
Thank you to Skye Leone for asking me the right questions at the right time with the right force. And thanks, of course, to my dear Audrey for being a constant partner, for your wise feedback – and for coining the phrase "Energy Outward"!
I received especially enthusiastic, full-hearted encouragement from a few elders including my Aunt Beth and Bill Dickinson; such approval was immensely validating in the arduous, multi-year process of this writing. I thank my spiritual role models, particularly Julie Esterly and Beth Freewomon, not only for their guidance but for their help getting in touch with my own.
I have a newfound appreciation for the importance of containers, and so feel grateful to my landlord of more than five years, Chris Krohn, for the affordable rent that enabled the juicy creative period from which much of this writing was birthed. Similarly, thank you Allison and Joey for the generous, extensive use of your home in Salinas where I found creative breathing room. I am also grateful for the little cabin by Lake Almanor where, by the good graces of my Auntie Lorrie and Uncle Chris, I spent a week in creative solitude, and to Deborah Christie for her house by Araña Gulch where I did the same.
The development of this essay series in the early months of 2023 was quickened by the financial support of a few key people; you know who you are.
I am grateful to my parents. I have been deeply inspired by my mother's entrepreneurial spirit and boldness in living in a critical stance toward dominant narratives. I have been deeply influenced by my father's respect for masterly writing and nerdly admiration for the countercultural mystique. Together, they raised me well, kept me healthy and balanced, exposed me to a variety of enriching activities, made sure I got outside, and encouraged me to find my own way rather than conform to their expectations.
Finally, I thank the Community, near and far, named and unnamed, human and beyond: all of my sustenance, and every one of the ideas in these essays, comes from you.
I acknowledge that much of what I have to be grateful for has come to me through an unjust legacy of dispossession. The gifts of my life are thus tarnished; nonetheless, they are gifts. I give them away in the faith that they will be replenished and in the hope of expanding the circle of nourishment and thus nullifying my privilege.
Dedication
For my friends. These are words I have long wanted to say to you.
For the parts of society, and the parts of me, that should be reading Gary Snyder but aren’t.
For all the people who see these things too – and for all the people who don’t.
Disclaimer
Any other claims notwithstanding, all the writing on this website is poetry. The descriptions of events and activities herein are not necessarily endorsements, and may or may not be factually true. Use your own judgement.