hey y'all,
winter is crisp in the air and my reflections feel so much more like wordless body expressions than written ones. as the winter calls for quiet here in the Northern Hemisphere, this soft quiet kinda feels right.
at the same time what i do hear loudly is our collective persecutor: the system, as in everything from media to government to the internalized version in people. it says “oh you don’t have it all together enough to live a meaningful life? that’s your fault!” it has us feel bad for making/ needing money or not financially sharing more, when it is actually a systemic failure hindering all of us access to the means for flourishing. it's what i call American dream-ism at its finest if you dwell in the states, otherwise its simply capitalist-white supremacist-patriarchy. (& any “healer” or self-help guidance that doesn’t address the cultural failures impacting your life is perpetuating the oppression.)
American dream-ism is the manifestation of what bell hooks calls the capitalist-white supremacist-patriarchy. capitalist as in there are those who own and control and those who don’t. white supremacist as in the ableism that says that white body is supreme & all others are primitive so they must assimilate to the white body. patriarchy as in men or dominant-stable-structures are supreme. American dream-ism brings these all together and says the one place where true freedom and escape from these oppressive systems becomes possible with hard work and (toxic) individuality is America. *eyeroll*
i think about how much undoing goes into all of this. it can be overwhelming, oppressive even, to think about how much we have to unlearn in ourselves and/ or tame, escape, dismantle, or abolish in the system. its a long game in ourselves for our collectives. and in a pandemic? tuh.
so here’s where i’m at with it: what’s the one value, one thing that i can lean into that offers me renewal and respite from the capitalist-white supremacy-patriarchal - American dream? what’s the one value that offers me what none of these can?
my answer these days has been communion. if i can be in conversation with a friend, coach a person, or facilitate a group space to be in relationship with whatever needs wrestling with, offering my listening and experience as fellowship, then i find renewal and respite. there’s no ownership, no power-over, no body-oppression, no toxic individuality, just space to be with the values that want to live out in us and reset us even in corporate spaces. my dear friend Althea said the other day that i guide people to living their values as verbs & it’s through communion i feel i can do that today in the face of all of this.
tomorrow it might change to a different value, or it might look different in action, and that is fine bc it's still my life in integrity with my renewal and truth.
what’s the one value that feels like it’s calling you to live out for renewal and respite?
solo self-practice: put on a song that comes to mind after this letter. shake out your body, starting from your shoulders all the way down to your toes. shake out your voice by making animal noises or roars. allow your body to move and ask, “what's calling me?” allow random words, images, sounds to come to mind as you play with this question and notice what comes up. what does that body wisdom offer you? how does it tie to the value calling you?
