Juneteenth

Many of us are waking up to the fact that we need to roll up our sleeves and do the necessary work of learning and unlearning. While some progress has been made in these last few weeks, I hope it’s just the beginning of our personal growth journey and the dismantling of an unjust and abominable system founded hundreds of years ago.

I believe we also need to consciously put ourselves in other people’s shoes as we walk this path. I love this art and message by Morgan Harper Nichols and also found Spring Washam’s words in reflection of Juneteenth to be exceedingly powerful and thought provoking:

“I am discovering the great power in this simple statement of truth. Black lives matter. Every time I say these words, I am breaking open something deep within my own heart. The program of white supremacy depends upon my belief in my own inferiority that somehow, I don’t matter. It depends on me hating myself and devaluing myself because of my brown skin. It depends on you hating me too. This is deep stuff… if you haven’t said these three words, I really encourage you to say them and then sit in the great mystery of what it reveals. Try to listen with the heart. It’s deep medicine because we are breaking a powerful program that has been operating for 400 years.”

I’ll be meditating on Spring’s words for many days and reading my new library book ‘Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation’ by Jasmine Syedullah, Lama Rod Owens, and angel Kyodo Williams.