There has been a lot on my mind this week, and so this video is a bit longer than usual. I promised Leah that I would do a regular Saturday post, and so far I’ve been able to do it. We’ll see… I was about to say that we’ll see how long this lasts, and I am choosing to reshape that thought. I am committing to posting whatever is on my heart. I’m not committing to a post of a specific length, or promising to only show certain emotions. I will show up as myself, with care and consideration for you too, every Saturday.
This week my heart was focused on how to continue to be the truth of being enough, even in the middle of painful and challenging circumstances. Thankfully, early on Saturday/Sabbath morning, my Father, our Father reminded me that because He is all, He will be everything, and He will hold me while I find my footing in hard places. And so I share from that place in my heart bits of my story, a little of the story of melanated (containing higher concentrations of the skin pigment melanin) Afrocentric people as we hold to the hope of the dream of unity, on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, and I look at some hard parts of the ancient story of Esther, orphaned Jew who became Queen of Persia and also of Joseph, son of Jacob.
What I do not say in the video, but will say here, is that as my best friend, Tina, who is Caucasian, and I, were reflecting on the black dog incident, she said that while she wondered if she had heard what she thought she heard that Caucasian man say, she saw several emotions flash across my face so quickly that she wasn’t sure if she had indeed seen them. And further, she thought, as I confirmed what she saw, that someone who did not know me, as she does, would never have seen that microsecond internal battle.
I speak to that because this a weight that melanated people, who do not live in denial, carry as a part of daily life – specifically those of us who do not live in denial that racism exists. This pause to process robs us of energy and focus that could be used in the wonderful business of building our global community of love. Unfortunately, those of us who live in denial of racism and its impact lose the benefit of building the superpower to do intense battle in microseconds, which includes making a plan and a promise to tend to the emotions which we cannot address in the moment. So although it is a weight, it is a weight that we shed, which allows us to continue to thrive. Denial means that this invisible weight continues to expand and robs the denier of space and time to heal. The poison of unprocessed and unacknowledged hate robs you of gentleness, love, and joy, my friend. And so I share with you Carl Jung’s words which I hold close to my heart, and which are now an unconscious part of my consciousness, “What you resist will persist”.
There is great power in acknowledging the truth of things as they are, for it is in so doing that one can know how to be well equipped to clear the stumbling blocks on the path of love. Because my friend, there are obstacles on that path, and even so, you are still enough.
Resource Links:
Where Do We Go From Here (Chaos or Community) by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr –
How To Be Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi – https://www.amazon.ca/How-Be-Antiracist-Ibram-Kendi/dp/0525509283/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?crid=PKX21IXV007C&keywords=anti+racism&qid=1642361532&sprefix=anti+racism%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-10
Joseph’s story – Genesis chapters 37 – 47 in the Bible https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+37&version=NLT
Esther’s Story – the book of Esther in the Bible https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther%201&version=NLT
https://www.thejc.com/judaism/features/did-esther-meet-a-tragic-end-1.497726
https://jewsforjesus.org/publications/inherit/five-things-about-esther-that-nobody-talks-about
Nurturing Kindred 