“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
― Albert Camus
“I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road
“black wellness is the antithesis to state violence”
–Mark Anthony Johnson.
my two cents to us folk—don’t let the matrix control your soul. your narrative or your mind.
learn who you are. remember who you are.
yes, know the situations of the world but live into the situations of your heart…your lifemaking.
our role is not to save or be saved. it is not to explain our rage or sadness. it is not turn any hearts but our own.
so that we may become boldly us. more completely us.
this is the time for healing the gasping wounds inside of us.
healing from generations of abuse and earsure…socially and economically. communally and individually.
it is a reclaiming of our skin. if we ever left it or felt it left us. we return.
there is so much good inside of us.
we have each other. even when we feel lost. alone. we are each other. if we remember where to look.
I truly believe- our ancestors are gathering and praying over heads.
swaying in songs that still feel tender on our modern bones.
asking us to resist the brainwashing and whitewashing and rebuild and heal
worldwide
rolling holy disruptions down from the ether. praying in their old tongues that we have returned.
we have stories to share
pain that runs deep
joy
and vibrancy, too.
love. “we have always loves us” (Lucille Clifton )
questions that demand answers.
lives that need more than handouts and empathy.
that is the hard stuff that feels like it is breaking us open.
maybe it is. maybe it will.
maybe it has.
but
we are not looking for permission to be free. “we are already free. and we
act accordingly”( as Pauline Alexis Gums said).