Do the work...
This has been quite a week. Have you been listening and reflecting? Are you experiencing waves of emotions? How have you been expressing your feelings and thoughts?
Tragically, it's taken the heart-breaking deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbury to bring us together in calling for action. Because Black Lives Matter!
As the systemic racial injustice has been exposed, we can no longer avoid acknowledging the ongoing discrimination in our own lives and community.
So even within a small studio like ATMOTION, meaningful and on-going reflection must be undertaken. We are listening and educating ourselves, finding our blind spots, We're learning with humility what we need to embody more clearly, where we need to act with more courage. I want our AT studio and practice to be a strong space and a safe place. That's why I'm committing to the long game - to the ongoing work of ending racism and oppression. It's been a week of sending donations and emails, joining rallies and marching. And what can I do next week and all the weeks after? Show up and do the work. With love.
“The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.”
― Bell Hooks, All About Love: New Visions
Here's something I wrote in an earlier blog post - seems appropriate now:
Let's show up. Let's notice whatever it is we are feeling, and let's be steady friends: let's not run away or distract ourselves. Keep it simple, don't try to improve. We can build steadfastness - our willingness to show up and to stay - for ourselves. Just like we stay in there with our dearest friends. This is not selfish or trivial. When we refresh our intention to be present, we not only show up for ourselves, we build the inner strength for steadfast friendship with everyone. When we stay with ourselves through aches or boredom, through inpatient energy or the release of old memories, through pleasurable lightness and flow -- we build our stamina to be here and deal with the now. The decision to be present leads to recognizing the we are whole beings, that we are resilient.
Are you with me?
VOTE. IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE - VOTE,
PLEASE VOTE!
MAKE AMERICA LOVE AGAIN