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Cleo Wade’s powerful words .... “The world is changing. It’s hard and it’s complicated and it’s heartbreaking, but it’s beautiful and important and incredible.” We are in transition... in this in-between space and it feels empty and overfull at the same time. It feels so divisive, yet unified with so many hearts right now. How many more Black people have to die at the hands of injustice before everyone is on the same page? The fact that the belief that Black Lives Matter is even up for discussion. We are talking about whether they matter and we can’t unanimously agree? There is still a sense of separation for some, driven by ego. We as humans want to be right, always. We don’t want to be wrong...To be wrong feels shameful because we’ve been conditioned with that reaction to being wrong, rather than feeling a sense of humility and an urge of motivation for self discovery and learning. We also inherently lean our focus outwardly rather than focus inward because it’s easier to deflect and place blame than to take responsibility and accountability. Because in our deflection or “I’m not racist” stance, we can just sit in silence. And when we acknowledge our responsibility, we have to do something different than we have been doing. We have to talk about our whiteness. And that’s uncomfortable for us because we have moved along through life with our whiteness as a given. No need to mention or call attention to it. Doing so would be our admission of and prolonged upholding of a set-up that white people disproportionately structured around race. Instead we let our whiteness fade into the camouflage of it’s own construct. This is a time for our humility. To be in the discomfort of our whiteness. To understand what it has all meant for us as individuals, as a collective, and how we cannot continue in this way. When we let go of our ego, we open the space to our own self discovery and areas where we hold bias, areas that keep us from interconnection with others and can start to think more openly and truly embody the change that is so desperately needed right now. This is the work that is required to begin moving away from the world with a story of separation and build a world with a new story of interconnectedness. We cannot simply say “all lives matter” as a response to what’s unfolding right now. Of course we want to believe collectively that all lives matter, but the reality now tells us otherwise. Until we can understand the WHY of all that is happening now and it’s deep dark history, and understand our own contribution and that of our white ancestors (and yes this is our job by the way); until we can live, breathe, and truly embody the knowing that Black lives do matter, all lives won’t matter. “WE ARE THE BUILDERS OF A WORLD THAT HAS NEVER BEEN BUILT BEFORE” Quotes and image by Cleo Wade Words in between by Trish Campbell
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