Walking Each Other Home - Sept 15, 2022
Through mindfulness practices, focusing on antiracism, we increase our emotional resilience, recognize our biases, and make real our common humanity. "Walking Each Other Home" is a guided embodied meditation practice.
Transcript
Welcome to our embodied anti-racism mindfulness practice that here at Project Sanctus we like to call walking each other home.
Walking each other home.
Because that's I think what we're ultimately doing as we work to deconstruct racism,
As we work to embody wholeness,
Embody love,
Justice,
Liberation,
As we do our individual and collective healing,
Collective solidarity.
So walking each other home is,
You know,
Sometimes I think to myself,
Well,
What exactly is home?
And is it a place or is it wherever I am?
And is it where my beloved is?
Is it where friends are?
Is it the structure,
You know,
The building that I'm actually in?
Is it my ancestors?
Is it my angels and guides?
Is it,
You know,
My favorite TV show or movie or book?
You know,
There's a lot of things that are home.
Earth,
Right?
When I'm outside or even if I'm not,
Like feeling when I sit at my desk and feeling my feet on the floor and thinking to myself that even when I'm up on the fourth floor,
I live on the fourth floor in an apartment building,
But when I put my feet flat,
You know,
I can feel the carpeting.
I like doing this in bare feet.
And then I imagine what's below that and below that until eventually I have this sensation on my feet of dirt or grass or maybe some,
You know,
Rocks,
But something earth to remind me that it is home.
So this morning,
Our practice of walking each other home is I kind of chose it and,
You know,
Work with,
It's already,
It's something already created from Rhonda McGee in her book,
The Inner Work of Racial Justice,
But I'm changing it up a little bit in response to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
And while,
You know,
Millions and millions of people are,
You know,
It's,
You know,
You can feel and see all the tension if you're on social media at all,
Or on the news,
This,
You know,
Mourning mother,
Mourning the grandmother,
Mourning the woman Elizabeth,
And yet at the same time,
What her,
You know,
The monarchy means,
You know,
The system that she was in and a part of.
And there's a lot of people that are not,
Okay,
She's gone,
Moving on,
Because of the institution that her role,
You know,
Really magnified.
And while she did not create colonialism,
She's,
You know,
Her role as a monarch certainly perpetuated it,
And we now are at,
You know,
Another time of reckoning to around decolonizing.
So I wanted to take that idea of decolonizing,
Of looking at what are the hallmarks of,
You know,
You know,
With colonization comes oppression,
Comes,
You know,
Genocide,
Comes violence,
Comes extortion,
And,
You know,
Enslaving people and pillaging Earth's resources and,
And,
And.
And to decolonize really is,
In many ways about just shifting,
Not just but,
You know,
Shifting our own response to these things,
Shifting how I show up in the world,
Being mindful of what I say,
Being mindful of what I think,
Being mindful of,
You know,
Particularly as a white body,
When am I doing the,
The power over thing,
Which is just it's just an is,
Right?
I didn't create the system,
And how am I propping it up?
So that's our walking each other home this morning is just really paying attention to,
You know,
I'll prompt some things,
You know,
For our mind,
But then also,
Where in my body do I feel it?
And what does it mean for me and,
And digging a little bit deeper.
So let's do our collective act of solidarity,
Which is a big breath,
A really big breath in,
Or maybe it's not big,
But just a breath in and exhale.
And just continue to do that.
Just continue to follow the breath.
Allowing it to as you follow the,
The sense of it,
The bodily sense of it coming in through the nose or the mouth into the lungs,
You know,
Just feeling the body expanding.
And then contracting a little as,
As you exhale.
And then each inhale,
See if you can bring the breath a little deeper and settle into your body.
Okay.
And bring to mind just what you've experienced this week,
Maybe seen on the news or conversations about the passing of Queen Elizabeth the second.
Maybe it's a little,
Maybe it's a lot.
Just bring to mind the conversations you've had,
The thoughts,
Some of the tensions.
I know for me,
I certainly have this tension between,
Of course I have compassion and kindness for the loss of a mother,
A grandmother,
A friend,
Someone I love.
Of course I have compassion for that.
And at the same time,
I feel the tension of as a monarch,
The institution that she served,
That she,
The institution that,
That for centuries has propped up,
Has perpetuated oppression,
Has perpetuated racism,
Classism,
Has perpetuated environmental destruction.
And so if you feel a tension around these things,
Or if you find yourself thinking,
Wait,
It's,
You know,
Can we,
Can we first just mourn,
Can we first just grieve?
Can we just feel sad?
Like let's not talk about that other stuff yet.
And if you feel a tension,
Just allow it to be.
Just allow whatever tensions you feel.
It could be,
I don't even know what's going on and I don't want to know.
And yet there might be a part of your brain that says,
Well,
Maybe it's a good idea to know a little something.
Maybe some overwhelm has,
Has drifted in.
Or maybe just the flight mode where we just completely pull ourselves out of conversation,
Social media,
The news.
And let's remember this is not an either or experience.
This is a both,
A both and.
We can feel the tension and allow it to be,
Just let it be.
If we are to decolonize our minds,
Decolonize our self-care,
Decolonize our relationships,
We just need to be able to hold some of those paradoxes,
Those tensions that are so uncomfortable at times.
Magnificently.
When you look at yesterday and the day before and maybe you'll look within at the week before now,
Is there a particular moment or even more than one moment where you had a thought that I'm not doing this right or this isn't the right way to do something and maybe you had that thought around anything at work,
With family,
In your spiritual community,
Sitting at your computer,
Doing something?
Did you have a moment where you thought this isn't the right way?
I'm not doing this right.
This isn't enough.
This isn't good enough.
Anything around similar to those kinds of thoughts?
And if you feel any of those words kind of land in your chest or in the back or shoulders,
Then you know it's alive.
And so just breathe into that place in your body.
Let's pause for a minute and see where in your body you have that sense of I got to get it right.
I got to do it right or this isn't enough or good enough or enough fill in the blank or not enough time,
Right?
That urgency and perfection.
Let's pause and just scan the body and see where you feel it.
And when you find that place in your body,
Just stretch it a little bit.
Just move the body.
Stretch the shoulders or the back or the belly,
Maybe put your hands on the belly.
It's good for us to learn to touch ourselves,
To care for ourselves.
Kind of look back on,
Let's just say the events of yesterday.
Are there parts of the day,
Maybe even the whole day,
That maybe seems a little jumbled or muddled or there's blurs?
I know for myself,
I have this sense of blur that kind of goes from 11 to 3,
11 a.
M.
To 3 p.
M.
Yesterday.
It was just kind of this blur,
You know,
Moving from one thing to the next and never pausing.
Got to get her done.
So if you find a space from yesterday that is that muddled or jumbled or blurred or just lots of things put together,
Just be still for a moment.
Ask your higher self to just bring a little clarity to that time and space.
Ask your higher self to bring some clarity of was there some of this perfection,
This urgency,
This got to get it done,
Got to get it right.
I can't stop.
I can't rest.
I can't pause.
So let's decolonize ourselves and pause right now.
And as maybe you gain a little clarity of that time and place,
Is there some gratitude in there?
And if not,
To look at your whole day.
Walk through your day.
Notice the joys,
Notice the delights.
Look at the people that you interacted with,
Some of the tasks you were engaged with.
If you engaged with some people,
What did they give you?
What did you receive from them?
What did you give them?
And pay attention to the little things,
The food you ate,
Sights you saw,
Any small pleasures.
More often than not,
Love,
Justice,
And liberation is found in the details.
And as you focus on that,
That gratitude for in that time and in that place,
It doesn't have to be grateful for something.
It just could be noticing some gratefulness in something,
The little joys,
The little delights.
What does that feel?
What is emotion is around that?
Does it bring some peace?
Does it bring some self-compassion?
Does it bring some little contentment,
A little quiet?
Take that and bring that to that place that we focused on earlier that was that place of got to get it done and perfection and going fast and doing something the right way.
So bring that sense of peace,
Of content,
Of gratitude to that place in your body where you hold that colonized feeling,
That colonized thinking.
And breathe it into all of your being.
Gratitude is a very powerful practice for decolonizing the mind,
Decolonizing the body,
Moving us into rest,
Into restoration and repair.
Gratitude is a powerful tool of healing individually and collectively.
Maybe look at who you interacted with yesterday and today,
Send them a note of appreciation,
A text,
A call,
An email,
Appreciation for anything.
And then use that gratitude as a catapult for looking toward tomorrow.
As you sort of survey what's coming up today and tomorrow,
Do you feel some nervousness?
Do you feel some excitement,
Delighted anticipation,
Uncertainty?
Whatever the feelings are,
Bring the gratitude into that space.
Send those feelings into your prayer,
Into your intention,
Into your practice.
Reminding yourself that nothing is forever.
Nothing is forever.
We find our healing in those little details.
When I look at my day and find the small things,
The color of something that I enjoyed.
Maybe I heard a child laugh,
A song,
My favorite food,
A really good cup of coffee.
Remember the love,
The justice and liberation is in the details.
So let's take one more deep breath together.
Inhale and exhale.
Thank you for spending some time with us and for walking each other home.
