How Can We Breathe Again?
Our human family is living through a time of upheaval internally and externally-- the climate crisis, pandemic, and now an international uprising for justice and equity.
It may feel like we can’t face the truth, but we have to.
How do we lean into our hearts at a time like this? How do we slow down, through the constant barrage of media, and find our center so we can tune-in to the consciousness of our part in the systemic change that needs to happen? How do we care for ourselves, those we're committed to serving, and our global family with integrity?
Acknowledge. Listen. Learn. Grieve. Reparations.
Restorative Justice. Behavior Change. Systemic Change.
The One Light Team has been taking this time to ask ourselves that question as we journey deeper together and wholeheartedly invite each and every one of you, our beloved supporters and believers in "One World, One Family, One Light" to come along with us. We stand in solidarity with all who are oppressed around the world. That is the very reason for this organization's existence. We believe that we cannot move forward as a collective until all life is valued. We believe that each and every one of us has a gift to offer at this critical moment in humanity's story, to join in building a world without racism, injustice, and inequity.
Photo from Ya-Native.com
As we collectively grieve the losses and horrific murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many more, including the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women and men-- whose names we don't even know-- and condemn the systems that got us to this point, we must continue to deepen our understanding of the word “us” to acknowledge this is not “someone else's" tragedy - this is humanity's tragedy. Racism is hate, yes, but also priviledge, access, ignorance, apathy, and so much more. It is woven so deeply into the fabric of our social construct that we need to follow all the myriad threads within ourselves and our systems to even begin to comprehend and undo it to create something new. Every one of us needs to acknowledge our personal responsibility and personal power to do the hard work of undoing those threads.
HOW DO WE DO THAT?
ACKNOWLEDGE
As an organization, we acknowledge that despite our diverse past, we are currently majority white women and this comes with layers of veils and blind spots that we must investigate and transform. Thus we see our work as a continuous journey to educate ourselves, individually and collaboratively, question our assumptions and judgments, and listen to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) voices within and outside of our team to hold ourselves accountable when making decisions. We bring this awareness and accounting to all aspects of our lives.
LISTEN
We are eternally grateful for the kinship we have been mutually cultivating with our Hopi family for over a year now, represented by our Advisory Board of Hopi Elders. Preserving and sharing their wisdom, voices, and profound insights on how humans can live in harmony with all life is key to humanity's future. They are true teachers. We must recognize we are all the product of colonization, and the decolonization of land, food, language, education, and all systems is our collective responsibility. This is the great unlearning so that we can create a regenerative society for future generations. We are committed to continuing to create platforms for these all too often silenced or ignored voices.
LEARN
Did you know that “the racial group most likely to be killed by law enforcement is Native Americans, followed by African Americans, Latinos, Whites and Asian Americans,” and Native Americans also have "the highest poverty and suicide rates in the country”, according to the
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. We also grieve for these horrific losses, past and present, of indigenous lives amidst a backdrop of historical cultural genocide of our country's First Peoples. It is time for acknowledgement, reparations and healing. This requires each of us educating ourselves on what is really happening.
YOU are part of our One Light Family, and we know you feel the same call and vision of a just and equitable world. Often, it is really hard to know where to start, so we have compiled a list of resources below that have helped us so far, and call upon you to share yours.
Books
Black Voices
Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out by Ruth King
How to be an Anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
Indigenous Voices
Tulalip, From my Heart: an Autobiographical Account from a Reservation Community by Harriet Shelton Dover
Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods by Dr. Shawn Wilson
White Voices
White Fragility by Robin D'Angelo
Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
Films/Series
13th
Just Mercy
I am Not your Negro
Selma
When They See Us
Love Them First: Lessons From Lucy Laney Elementary
LA 92
Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women Films
Somebody's Daughter
PBS's Native America
PBS's Reconstruction: America After the Civil War
Social Media and Podcasts
Rowen White on Instagram: "Indigenous seed steward •Mohawk • I weave stories of ancestral foods, culture and seed"
Lyla June on Instagram: "Indigenous musician, scholar and community servant...."
Rachel Cargle on Instagram: "building an intellectual legacy through teaching, storytelling & critical discourse"
1619 Podcast, New York Times
First Name Basis Podcast, Jasmine Bradshaw
Scene On Radio Podcast, Seeing White Series, John Biewen, Chenjerai Kumanyika
For the Wild Podcast, ep. 138 "THE BUREAU of LINGUISTICAL REALITY on Seeding New Language, Ayana Young
Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo Podcast, CBC News' Connie Walker
On Being with Krista Tippett, Eula Biss: "Talking About Whiteness"
On Being with Krista Tippett, Ruby Sales, "Where Does it Hurt?"
On Being with Krista Tippett, Resmaa Menakem, "Notice the Rage, Notice the Silence"
Bioneers Special Release: Three Recordings featuring Racial Justice Leaders, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patrisse Cullors, Heather McGhee
“Minority communities have high health disparities, economic injustice and inadequate housing. This isn’t about just one incident but a myriad of things. What’s happening now is symptomatic of a much deeper ‘disease,’” she told the Great Falls Tribune... “Speak up if you see injustices, be a known ally for those who are disproportionately represented in these situations and, no matter what, vote.”
GRIEVE
As we acknowledge, listen, and learn, we must allow ourselves to FEEL all that is unjust in our society, all the suffering we have always known, but had to suppress in order to function day to day. It is okay and necessary to feel grief, rage, confusion, shame, helplessness in order to bring understanding from the head to the heart. It is hard to know viscerally that we are One Family and live in a world that doesn't reflect that. Throughout our collective healing process, it is essential to make time to fully allow these feelings to express in safe, healthy ways so they are no longer unconsciously weighing down our souls. Cry, scream, make art, sleep, sit in stillness in nature - trust the wisdom of your body as it finds ways to release its load of sorrow and intergenerational trauma. We need to have courage to feel the messiness and pain if there is hope for cultural healing, and to find our way, together, to systemic and societal change, and have the capacity to do our part.
REPARATIONS AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE. BEHAVIOR CHANGE. SYSTEMIC CHANGE.
US societal structures are built on the idea that "white" people are more valuable. That is painful to say and worse to experience. We invite you all to join us in declaring that Black and Indigenous Lives Matter, and that "matter" is the absolute minimum. Beyond declaring this, we must bring our actions and systems into integrity, both personally and as a society. This time of mourning is also a time of hope for real change, but it is up to each of us to make it so.
Speak out. Vote. Be an Ally. Donate time or funds. Support BIPOC businesses. Investigate your own behaviors. There are so many ways to get involved in turning the wheel. It's going to take all of us.
How are you making space in your life to transform this broken system; to live in integrity; to create a brighter future for all?
We are all profoundly inter-being, we are One Light.
As long as we have the capacity to "other" anyone or anything in this miraculous existence -- whether for skin color, religion, economics, age, gender, appearance, species, or anything else-- we cannot be WHOLE.
Wholeness arises from recognizing that ALL life arises from the same mystery and is sacred. When we understand our connection with all that exists, and live in integrity with that in word and action, we remember our deep belonging and connection in the wheel of life. We come home again.
Who or what do you exclude from your heart? Are you willing to let it in?
It is only through this profound understanding and allowing each unique expression of life to be heard and honored that our shared dream of an egalitarian and regenerative world will be made a reality.
We hope you will hit reply and join this conversation - share insights, experiences, questions, concerns, resources, whatever is on your heart.
From our hearts, full of grief and love -- growing hearts-- with room for it all,
The One Light Global Family
THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO:
…and all those whose names we don’t know.