My heart is heavy dear ones,
There is so much going on right now between the political turmoil, ongoing climate emergency, global pandemic, economic fragility, and racial injustice. With the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and many others there seems to have been a tipping point. Aside from this particular pandemic, none of these issues are new and yet when polarities become increasingly polarized, we must make even more room inside for love, allowing our hearts to be stretched wide enough to hold these tensions and allowing them to push us forward into something new. The time is needed to grieve (click here for a resource I created on navigating grief & sorrow) and to create even more space within so that we might 'see with the eye of our heart' what is needed right now.
My teacher Cynthia Bourgeault says, “Our hearts, minds, and souls are hard-wired for the cosmic responsibility we bear, and all the currents of our being set toward the Whole as surely as all rivers flow toward the sea. We did not make it this way, and we have no choice in the matter. But when we open our hearts to our true citizenship, the freedom, coherence, and community we so yearn for are right there to meet us. And the broken and scattered shards of our world are reunited and illuminated by the Master’s art as we become persons of love.”
Many parts of our Whole - particularly black, indigenous, people of color - have been suffering from systemic racism and it is not okay. Although there has always been an urgent call to do something about this, it seems that the convergence of our circumstances may finally support the changes that need to be made. This requires recognizing and collectively moving into action.
The time is ripe for something new to emerge. There is a quickening and it is not guaranteed but I am committed to this anti-racist work necessary to create new culture that will take on our structural and systemic racism with humility, honesty, and remorse. I know that I will do it imperfectly but I am also committed to building the resiliency and stamina to move beyond my own white fragility and narcissism.
To my BIPOC friends, I am sorry for my ongoing implicit biases and complicity in a system that benefits me. I hope that you are being very kind to yourselves and gently taking care of your beautiful selves during these particularly heavy times, and always.
To my white bodied friends, I am not sure what the best way for everyone to respond is and I know that we will all have different pieces to play. I do know that you, like me, need to continue to press in and look at the ways we are complicit in systemic racism. We need to keep taking a long hard look at how we have ignored a large part of our collective body, our black, indigenous, colored bodies. Here are some resources to help in gaining a deeper understanding of white privilege and fragility, what you can do to be anti-racist, and how to support healing racial trauma in the body. Feel free to reach out to me for more resources and leave our friends of color to be. They have been trying to educate us for centuries and it is actually our responsibility to learn and to be different. Let's move forward with presence and with haste.
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I leave you with this encouraging poem by Maya Angelou from one of our contemplative pauses this week. Continue by Maya Angelou "My wish for you Is that you continue Continue To be who and how you are To astonish a mean world With your acts of kindness Continue To allow humor to lighten the burden Of your tender heart Continue In a society dark with cruelty To let the people hear the grandeur Of God in the peals of your laughter Continue To let your eloquence Elevate the people to heights They had only imagined Continue To remind the people that Each is as good as the other And that no one is beneath Nor above you Continue To remember your own young years And look with favor upon the lost And the least and the lonely Continue To put the mantel of your protection Around the bodies of The young and defenseless Continue To take the hand of the despised And diseased and walk proudly with them In the high street Some might see you and Be encouraged to do likewise Continue To plant a public kiss of concern On the cheek of the sick And the aged and infirm And count that as a Natural action to be expected Continue To let gratitude be the pillow Upon which you kneel to Say your nightly prayer And let faith be the bridge You build to overcome evil And welcome good Continue To ignore no vision Which comes to enlarge your range And increase your spirit Continue To dare to love deeply And risk everything For the good thing Continue To float Happily in the sea of infinite substance Which set aside riches for you Before you had a name Continue And by doing so You and your work Will be able to continue Eternally
Continue"
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