Magic

I'm having a hard time sleeping while it feels like the world is on fire, but I don't mind going into work. Why? Because when I'm at work, I feel like I'm a part of Dumbledore's Army (more on that reference here). We encourage the magic in each other and in our students. We are not consumed by the fire, we light up the dark. 

A Personal Retreat Day for Justice

Yesterday there was an executive order banning immigrants from certain Muslim countries. Today I woke up and immediately began my justice work. I was like a justice-producing machine for 15 hours, only taking breaks to shower and prepare meals. I produced 87 tweets. I signed 18 petitions. I read all the calls-to-action I didn't have time for during the week and all the resources I'd been saving. I made a Google Folder with all my favorite resistance materials. I shared everything I came across that I thought others would appreciate. I checked in with my fellow social justice warriors to see how they were doing. I invited people to protests. I followed all the actions happening throughout the country. I cried, a lot, as I was awed by the extent to which we were all standing together. I felt like even though I was not putting my body on the line today, I was equally useful as an information hub. It was a good reminder of how many different ways there are for people to use their voices and find their actions for justice. We all need to find our place in the work, cause now is a time when we need all hands on deck!

For Love of the Dance

I went to an amazing dance performance last night by Collage Dance Collective. They exuded what so much of humanity strives for -- grace, strength, and beauty. It was powerful and moving. It made me think of a prayer that the book Finding God in the Verbs: Crafting a Fresh Language of Prayer says was written by St. Augustine (but which I have seen elsewhere may be misattributed to him): 
“I praise the dance, for it frees people from the heaviness of matter and binds the isolated to community. I praise the dance, which demands everything: health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul. Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people, who are in constant danger of becoming all brain, will, or feeling. Dancing demands a whole person, one who is firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is not obsessed by lust for people and things and the demon of isolation in his own ego. Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates with the equipoise of all his powers. I praise the dance.O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you.”

May we all learn to embrace the joys of dance.

2016 in Review

There was a lot of rhetoric at the end of last year about what a terrible year it was, but on December 31, I took a look back at the year and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of highlights and lessons that the year had produced. I came away from 2016 knowing these things:

- I am strengthened by spirituality, love, friendship, and my sense of perseverance
- I can organize conferences (I did three in April!)
- My voice has power (I felt this through both writing and presentations)
- Organizing for justice is the path to a better future
- There is a power of being in the room where it happens (I got so much inspiration from programs I attended)
- Making space for reflecting on my values builds my spiritual foundation
- I find great joy in reading and walking (not at the same time except when I elliptical)
- I am brave (from phone banking to canvassing, I stretched myself beyond my comfort zone)
- I make a difference to students (they told me in a number of different ways)
- I am at my best when I stand in my power with love
- I have expertise to share (and I was asked to share it more in 2016 than ever before)
- There is nothing wrong with external motivation (I have the refrigerator and door to prove it)

And if there were a theme for the year, it would be "They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds." And that "we" meant so many things in 2016. To me, "we" included my colleagues, and women, and African Americans, and everyone in the struggle for social justice. As a teacher of genocide, I know that we only move forward when there is no "they" and we expand our compassionate circle of "we" to include all of humanity, particularly those on the margins. All of our seeds need love and light to grow, and in the right conditions we can bravely overcome obstacles. Let us join together in resisting anything and anyone that would stop us from brightening the world.

My First Letter to the Editor Submission

One of my goals last year was to step up my civic engagement game by writing letters to the editor. I even did a training with Catholic Climate Covenant, but I never quite figured out where to start. And then the New York Times asked for submissions with reflections on Obama's presidency. So below is my first ever letter to the editor submission. It didn't get published, but it doesn't make me any less proud to have taken that first step in the world of LTEs!

As a Black woman in the United States, I grew up feeling marginalized. And then the election of Barack Obama in 2008 felt like a victory for all of us in the margins. That feeling was most explicitly realized for me in President Obama’s 2013 inaugural address, in which he reminded this nation of our better nature through those moments at Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall when people bravely demanded that they too were America. We knew that by joining him in hoping for and even demanding that better America, we made ourselves vulnerable. President Obama invited us to recognize our vulnerabilities as sources of strength. Through him we saw the both the power and the limitations of hope. We were sometimes frustrated with him, often felt he could and should have done more, but personally, deep down he always felt like my champion. President Obama has shown me that America is worthy of my civic engagement as someone who believes in love and justice, freedom and equity. And because of President Obama, I believe that even in these United States it is possible that, in Seamus Heaney’s words, “justice can rise up, [a]nd hope and history rhyme.”

Goals for 2017

As we head into a new political administration, I'm channeling politicians for my mantras of 2017. In the spirit of Shirley Chisolm, my first mantra of the year is "unbroken and unbossed." In honor of Cory Booker, I am also guided by the words "I am the storm." With those slogans to ground me, I would like to:

- Divest from Bank of America because of their negative social impact

- Be authentic in all situations

- Increase my mindfulness and decrease my egocentrism by decreasing my time on social media to the point that I no longer feel addicted.

- Develop the habit of single tasking

- Start bullet journaling (this one's already done!)

- Leave home early enough that I don't have to worry about traffic on my way to work and can begin my day with less stress

- Train for and run in the Marine Corps Marathon to commemorate my 10th anniversary from my first race

I am hoping for an efficient and effective year!