Day Seventy-Seven: Clarity
I have been thinking about breathing. The coronavirus makes it hard to breathe. They say it feels like drowning. A cop putting his knee on your neck for eight minutes also makes it hard to breathe. The photos and videos of the murder of George Floyd are devastating. Our country is drowning, the water rising in every direction.
To state the obvious, breath is life. But it is more than that. Meditation, yoga, and giving birth have taught me how focusing on the breath is a powerful way to become calm, to become strong, to become more fully awake and aware. People need to have the freedom to breathe so they can live in strength and peace. Too many people of color have had their breath, their lives stolen from them at the hands of scared white people, and I am among the many who are so, so tired of this status quo. Black lives matter, and we as a country need to start building a world that reflects that.
As I was cleaning yesterday, sweeping under furniture that hadn't been swept under in a long time, I swept up an Angel Card that had been separated from its pack. A minute later I swept up a poetry prompt card from a game called Paint Chip Poetry. They are pictured below.
To state the obvious, breath is life. But it is more than that. Meditation, yoga, and giving birth have taught me how focusing on the breath is a powerful way to become calm, to become strong, to become more fully awake and aware. People need to have the freedom to breathe so they can live in strength and peace. Too many people of color have had their breath, their lives stolen from them at the hands of scared white people, and I am among the many who are so, so tired of this status quo. Black lives matter, and we as a country need to start building a world that reflects that.
As I was cleaning yesterday, sweeping under furniture that hadn't been swept under in a long time, I swept up an Angel Card that had been separated from its pack. A minute later I swept up a poetry prompt card from a game called Paint Chip Poetry. They are pictured below.
If that isn't a clear message from the universe about both the pandemic and racial injustice, I don't know what is. Fannie Lou Hamer said, "Nobody's free until everybody's free," and right now, nobody's free. We are drowning together. To stop a deadly virus and to break down systemic racism - both complicated, difficult, insidious challenges - we need to come together, to stop pretending problems don't exist and start working to make things right. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” I hope and pray that we will remember this in time to prevent us from perishing together as fools in the rising water.
Lastly, I would like to acknowledge that I am a white woman and only lending my voice to the discussion to voice my support for racial justice and equality. If you're looking to learn more about these issues, please find people of color in the movement to read, to listen to, to learn from. It's time we white folks took a step back and started listening.
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