We Are All Needed in Community

Please keep praying for these dear souls… in North Dakota and in your hometown. Severe weather. Extremely complex conditions. As you pray, recognize that we who are in warm, safe-ish homes with our basic needs taken care of… our prayers are strength and grounding for others who know we are connected to them when they need to draw on the strength of that which is larger than themselves. This is part of what we must learn to do… to be extensions of one another… both in prayer AND IN ACTION. Winter is here across this country, people are facing extreme weather conditions and the threat of oppressive forces that are not concerned about their well-being.

My whole life I have been told that in urgent times, in times of crisis, people will step up to act in courageous ways that decenter themselves and allow the greater good to become the center of their focus. I have spent my life work praying and acting in hopes that we could get to that place without crisis. It hasn’t worked. Perhaps we are close now? What is your role, what is your part to contribute in helping this world transition from the destructive habits that perpetuate a system that keeps so many suppressed and suffering and Mother Earth spiraling out of balance while others have access to the resources that provide a ‘comfortable state of living’? May we each listen deeply and find the centeredness, strength, love and courage to do our part in this moment of life. <3

The Power of a Single Prayer & People Banded Together

I cannot express how much gratitude I have for the indigenous leadership of this movement… at this moment in time. I am learning so much. I am humbled. Please listen to Lyla June Johnston. I pulled out some of her words from the video, but you should listen to the story directly from her. It’s theatrical and she’s speaking serious truth. <3

“The people banded together to create a historic wonderful model to the rest of the world about how a single prayer can change everything. The people decided together that they would choose to use their prayers as a way to heal their own waters, their own people, and the waters of even those who chose to oppress and beat them.

These leaders, indigenous peoples, have created a blueprint which the world can follow which says that we do not need to lift a weapon or arm to change the world. Further more, our deepest strength comes from praying for all our relations. We can actually create a massive change when we adhere to the principles of non-violence, forgiveness, and prayer.

This is a model to the rest of us. Our strength comes from stepping out into the darkness against all odds and saying, you know what, I’m gonna try anyways. No matter where we are, if we are motivated by prayer, kindness, and the audacity to try against all odds, that we might just create a world wide movement.
We must take a moment to celebrate.

We must take a moment to celebrate the fact that we have united things that have never been united. We have united the Federal government with indigenous peoples. We have united Christians with indigenous peoples. We have united war veterans with non-violent peacenics. We have united Muslims with Christians.

The world has come together to put their stake in the ground and say, “Yes. We love our planet. We love the water. And we believe in creating some sort of solution to the century’s long issue of the oppression of indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.” This my friends is a victory, the first step to many more victories that we will have in the coming years and decades.

We have made history today by creating a critical mass where even the most Right-winged news sources cannot ignore the power and the beauty of this movement.
We have proven the efficacy of:

  • the strategy of nonviolence
  • the strategy of compassion and unconditional love for our enemies
  • having hope in the middle of the dark night when nothing seems possible, and stepping out and giving it a shot anyway.

Please, let’s all give a prayer of gratitude.
Together we have created a beautiful demonstration of human unity.

~ Lyla June Johnston

Veterans and Indigenous People: Healing & Forgiveness

Deep gratitude to all those involved in this. Please may we create many more opportunities for healing and forgiveness from the horrors of our past. Confession. Healing. Forgiveness. May we learn from our mistakes and never repeat them. May the power of our prayers and ceremonies continue to weave a new world.

“BEAUTIFUL MEDICINE AT STANDING ROCK! Where else in the world do you see this level of healing? DAPL doesn’t understand what they are trying to crush, which in a sense means they don’t understand themselves. This movement is trying to set past mistakes right to create spaces of healing. Healing historical trauma, restoring sustainability to Mother Earth, clergy denouncing the doctrine of discovery, THE PEOPLE TRYING TO forgive, heal, move forward together instead of being in denial. This movement is needed but DAPL only sees $. #NoDAPL” ~Prolific the Rapper

Beautiful photos.

Prayer for This Moment

My heart and body is shaky. This familiar place of tension. Work needs to get done. And yet the bigger questions call to be stronger. My heart is fluttering. Curiosity pounding my brain to “want to figure it out.” What seems clear to me is that there are many White people in this country who do not have any (??) close friends or family who they have meaningful conversations with about what it feels like to be a person of color in this country right now. That folks are not hearing the personal stories of how Muslim, Lantinx, Black, LGBTQ children are being effected right now… the fear they are feeling. The stress of the children because they feel they have a president that hates them and their people and now their classmates feel empowered to hate and discriminate against them as well. Fear that their families aren’t safe. The stress of parents trying to hide their own emotions as they assure their children that they will be safe.

I imagine that folks who think this time is just about politics don’t have relationships where they hear first hand stories about being victims of hate speech or hate violence. I believe in the good of human nature and I believe that if folks genuinely understood how real the threat that many Americans are feeling right now was… if people really got that, then they would be willing to stand up against the rhetoric that is promoting this hate.

I believe in the goodness of people and my body aches for us as a collective to transform like I used to watch the Incredible Hulk as a child… may the pressure of injustice, hate and violence be so strong that our actual cells and chemistry transform. May we be emboldened with such courage and bravery that the fierceness of our love and devotion to that which is sacred and life-giving has a collective power like we have never seen before. May we have access to the fullness of our spiritual powers, our emotional strength, our physical strength, our intellectual wisdom, and the power of our connected relationships. May we be as graceful as possible amongst the chaos and complexity. May the suffering, trauma and pain that we feel find moments of respite in our breath so that it does not interfere with our actions, so that we may act in ways that are driven by love and dedication to freedom, justice and the sacredness of life. May we experience healing and forgiveness. May we be clear about the journey we are on, even with the path is uncertain. May we be humble to the fact that clarity does not equal knowing… that it is not through our knowing that we will find the way, but through our reverent listening, centeredness and attunement to the moment and what is calling for our attention. May we have the humility to recognize when to step back, when to follow the leadership of others, when to act differently than we have in the past. May we be awake to when we are being called to step forward and to do so with humble grace and fierce courage. May we be committed in our relationships, using the power of our connections to walk with others, support one another, and grant us all access to the collective wisdom that is so much grater than our individual thinking and doing. May our hearts be filled with love, love, love. May we remember to smile and laugh… often. Inviting each other into moments of joy… even as we stay close to the real suffering that is present. May we be spiritual warriors, learning from indigenous relatives about what this actually looks like, how we move with the sacred, being humble as we step in ways that we’ve never stepped before, re-membering the wisdom that we all have access to.

May it be so… Ashe.

Thank you for reading, listening, praying with me. 

Excerpt: “At a time when specific groups of students are being targeted, we must ensure that those students specifically know that their schools welcome them and that they will be safe. We urge all education stakeholders, including district leaders, heads of schools, principals, teachers, parents and guardians, and other educators to take action immediately within their school communities to support all students, especially those who face bias incidents in their schools. These actions should specifically affirm the right of all students, regardless of race, color, national origin, immigration status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or religion to be educated in an environment free from fear, violence, and intimidation.”

Standing Rock Update

Screen Shot 2016-12-01 at 6.29.56 PMA good overview of this historical moment, the situation at Standing Rock, getting into the specifics about the use of the pipeline itself, finances behind it, and other details about the Army Corps of Engineers and timelines. I hadn’t heard the phrase “deep north” yet… to parallel the “deep south” and the racism that is congruent in both places.

Article: The Beginning is Near: The Deep North, Evictions & Pipeline Deadlines

Pretty good reporting from CNN.

Words of 2016: Xenophobia & Post-Truth

Xenophobia was just made the word for the year by dictionary.com. Understand its meaning if you don’t already and what it means for you (and your actions in 2017) that this is the word of 2016…

Oxford Dictionaries named “post-truth” as the word of the year for 2016, defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In other words, truth is regarded as “less important.”

How will you help to regulate yourself in how you are swayed by emotional and personal belief information, when you choose to look at the facts and when you don’t? As the media is wrapped in this post-truth reality, us the consumers of media have to develop new approaches to information. One idea I wondered about is discovering specific journalists who are consistent in their use of true facts and following specific journalists. What ideas do you have?

Article on Oxford’s word of the year.

What Will Motivate Us to See and Face the Truth

My biggest question… What will motivate more people to find the strength to see what is happening and grow the courage to resist the stripping of our freedoms and human rights? This is not hypothetical. This is happening now. Yale historian and Holocaust expert Timothy Snyder wrote recently:

 “Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so.” Snyder is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (which includes former Secretaries of State), and consults on political situations around the globe. He says, “Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today.”

  1. Do not obey in advance
  2. Defend an institution
  3. Recall professional ethics
  4. When listening to politics, distinguish certain words
  5. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives
  6. Be kind to our language
  7. Stand out
  8. Believe in truth
  9. Investigate
  10. Practice corporeal politics
  11. Make eye contact and small talk
  12. Take responsibility for the face of the world
  13. Hinder the one-party state
  14. Give regularly to good causes, if you can
  15. Establish a private life
  16. Learn from others in other countries
  17. Watch otu for the paramilitaries
  18. Be reflective if you must be armed
  19. Be as courageous as you can
  20. Be a patriot

Click here to read the explanations of all 20 lessons.