Niyonu, Wake Up!

I sit, on this 2022 Thanksgiving day, with my 94 year old mom in her bedroom and me in the kitchen.  I go into her bedroom thinking, “ok, enough is enough.”   It’s nearly 2pm and she’s having a very unusual flow to her day - she is still laying in bed!  This flow is a continuation from yesterday evening when waking from a nap, she felt sure that we had a performance that we had been preparing for and that it was time to go, NOW!  I assured her that we had no such performance and that she had just been dreaming.  “No,” she proclaimed.  After a couple of minutes of arguing back and forth, her mood changed and she began to look a little confused, “Weren’t we just practicing?”  “Is the performance today or tomorrow?” Caught between worlds .  That’s what it is often with mom these days.  And, that is what this Thanksgiving has felt like.  This is a holiday that represents the brutalities of colonization, the lies of “Let us break bread t...

THE PROBLEM IS (Mostly written on the train, traveling as invited to the Fetzer Institue – Oct., 2008) The problem is, you see me as so different.   Not you at all, thus incomprehensible . Never clear, the mind searches corridors introduced during your original tour—designed as the ultimate distraction for tourists trying to see the natives by staying out of the village life. You were told that you are not a villager and surely, not a native.   Not native to anything?   Anywhere?   Anyone? You’ve forgotten the taste of blood/the smell of urine unfertilized/the slick feel of skin never yet washed or the care in washing it for the last time.   The not-you-ness swells dangerously large filling every orafix.   Thus, you can’t pull in or secret.   No conscious exhale or pause in response to the caw alert – right above your head. Someone else must supply your colorful language, your out-of-control fucking.   Ca...

As most of you know, I'm not one for writing "a piece" in response to every act of terror that we witness throughout our world. I tend to be moved instead to specific action and to increase my work in dispelling lies of superiority and of inferiority - of separation. I tend to focus my energy in efforts to assist in strengthening the justice warriors. In general, it is not so much my way to pontificate. But, every once and a while I must join in writing my utter outrage an d my deepest sorrow. I am so sorry to be living in a world where this man walked into a room and shot people down out of a delusional belief that he and his deserve life more than those he killed. My lungs constrict, unable to perform their function as I watch the one sitting in the seat assumed to be the highest in the land express his sympathy with a wink - a wink that we can all see, whether or not we are a part of his intended posse. My heart explodes with pain to know that Mus...

I’ll get WOKE again, right after the Superbowl I rarely sit down to write posts that are going to draw criticism from my friends but I find myself perplexed on this morning.   As I’ve scrolled through my FB feed, I am wondering about all the people who stepped out to boycott the NFL this year.   I’m not thinking about those folks who could never stand football or sports (plenty of my friends are in that camp).    And, I’m not particularly troubled to understand those who were clear from the get go that nothing – no CTE findings from autopsies and no ‘take the knee’ movement led by Colin Kaepernick – nothing was going to stop them from watching one second of football.   Those folks, I get. The people that I am having trouble understanding this morning are the ones who’ve enjoyed watching NFL games and even had a favorite team and were so moved as to declare, “I’m out this season.”     I’m focused today on those football fa...

Seeds, seeding, seed-thoughts, sinking down to that seed, working the soil that the seed might break open healthy .  I find that I return to seed imagery again and again as I examine my personal and professional life.  Seeds have always fascinated me and ever moreso once I began to learn some facts about their nature.  For me, a most fascinating fact is that the essential elements of the mature tree or plant are contained within the seed from the start.  Another is that, seeds carry within them many of the necessary nutrients they must consume for healthy growth.  I find it amazing to know just how long many seeds can remain dormant (up to 2000 years!) waiting for conditions that are conducive to germination.  The needed shift in conditions to move from dormancy to budding can be internal to the seed itself or germination might require that external environmental conditions change dramatically.  What does this say about the focus of our work in the ...

 [In the previous (Nov. 12) blog post, I talked about the connection I see between justice work and healing work – acknowledging the reality that our society is built upon acts of brutality and actively maintains systems of domination. I promised to next offer practical steps for dismantling oppression and to create and sustain liberation for all.   I hope that you will take one or two of these to begin practicing within your movement or organization.   Please do share what you learn!]   EQUITY WORK IS HEALING WORK (PART 2) Important and critical practices for any group intending equity and justice falls under what I’ve named: Systematic Repair – Living Equity .   These are concrete steps that, through practice, cultivate a culture of truth – a repaired foundation upon which we can institutionalize equity and justice. Systematic Repair Practices 1.      Make sure that your team has as a part of its training...

I was talking to a friend and colleague last night.   He shared a bit about how his facilitation teams were beginning to run into conflict as they worked together.   Tensions were building, demanding attention. The issues that were rising to the surface were issues of power associated with race, class and gender.   His facilitation teams work as a part of a program designed to develop strong community leaders who are committed to building equity and justice.   It has run for over 10 years and has never seen this level of dissention.   His question was, how have we gone all of this time without ever making conversations about oppression and power a deliberate part of our work?   How have past leaders of this program managed to smooth all of this over?   Thinking about a recent Training for Trainers that I’d facilitated, I began to respond, “The stuff just hits the fan in this work.   I’ve yet to le...

Avoiding the ruts of injustice within and without              A warning that I find myself offering with greater frequency these days is “watch out to avoid the deeply cut grooves.”   These are the depressions that have been worn into the road by a repeated pattern of travel. These are the familiar ways that establish and maintain systems of power.   Whether it be power with, power against, power under or over, individuals and organizations who have committed to be just, equitable and inclusive are committing to shifting power patterns. Equity and justice are about power.   We who claim a commitment to building justice and equity are in the business of shifting power, period!   It is for us to move beyond the deeply cut grooves, find our way out of the ruts. We tend to have very little practice in recognizing or naming power dynamics therefore, those who make a claim of creating equity and...

Dear ones, as promised I share another portion of my transcription of what I heard from Sister Ruby Sales during a radio interview with Dr. Wilmer Leon. (I'm excited to report that since I first posted a section of this interview, I have had the great honor of speaking with Sister Sales and she has agreed to lead a January Deeper Change Forum and follow-up workshop in the New Haven area on January 25 & 26, 2018! More info soon at www.ceio.org/deeper-change).  So grateful for this wisdom: --> "...any movement in the 21 st century that seeks to do systemic and core changes must be spiritual in nature.   I didn’t say religious.   I said “spiritual in nature” – that must deal with the inner and outer souls of white America – what they believe and think inside of themselves and how they live in the world.   It must be able to heal the chasm between what they think and how they live in life.    --> And so that, no ...

Dear ones, I came right home and transcribed as much of this interview as I could. I'll share bits and pieces as I can: “We live in a world where we are being overwhelmed by the spiritual malformation of a people who place materialism as the highest good and who are addicted and possessed by an insatiable hunger for materialism and power that has not been able to be satisfied by invasions, by stealing land, by genocide by cultural appropriation by killing the earth and all of the natural resources in the earth.” Ruby Sales (Interview I heard on a radio program with Dr. Wilmer Leon)

I know sometimes it seems (even to me) that I need to get off of the topic of "Seeing through Illusions."  In 2007 my lecture was published entitled, "Letting Go of Illusion, Engaging Truth: Healing!"  I've given a few speeches with "illusion" in the title.  I composed and led my singing group, Tribe 1,  to record my song, "I Can See Thru Illusion."  I wrote that song because in fact, I know that we can see through illusions.  In fact, we MUST see through illusion if we are to reach anything close to wellness - anything close to justice - anything close to right-relationship within our society. This essay below that I found today on the On Being site, written by Miguel Clark Mallet does a fabulous job of describing the impact of living under illusion.  If it had ended there (though describing "there" is quite a feat in its own right), I would not be sharing it.  It is the place that he gets to in his last paragraph.  It's w...

I continue to be ever so blessed to facilitate 5-day Intensives called Beyond Diversity 101 (BD101) .  This July's cohort came with its own flavor.  It is always that way.  If feels like a miracle of Creation - how each one of us, each group, each family or tribe has its own flavor, its own fragrance, its own vibration.  I wrote this piece following the particularities that I sensed from this precious and fierce group.  Grateful for the honor of working with you.  Ase IT’S HEARTWORK! So, you were the ones that showed this time In and out of flow, you kept your gaze turned inward In toward this group be-coming tribe, be-coming community How I would have loved for us to hold this gaze even longer To test the fabric of our holding…Stretching and stretching   to its furthest points ~ Breaking our hearts over and over again You were the ones who showed up this time, who showed time that it does not determine  the beloved communi...

But Why Must We Have These Tears? This morning, I’m noticing that “tear” and “tear” are spelled exactly the same.   I cried tears (salty liquid secreted from eye glands) in 2008 as I watched the Obama family enter the stage after victory.   This morning I cried tears (salty liquid secreted from these same eye glands) as I woke at 4:30 to face the reality that I had tried to smother with my pillow at midnight, ‘oh, just let me have a few hours of sleep’ – defeat.   In both momentous occasions, my tears carried emotions tied to possibility – joyful and fearful possibility. But why must we have these tears? And then, there is tear (to rip apart by force). Yes, this is what I feel this morning as I hold my stomach tight with crossed arms.   But, for months, I have been saying that these are times when the veils are being more than lifted, they are being torn away – from Sandra Bland to Brexit, from Kaepernick to the buffalo at Standing Rock.   Bu...