Over the past year, my body has experienced a few physical injuries, including a concussion from falling last January and a cut from stepping on a broken bowl back in August. The fall left both knees badly scraped and bruised so that scars are still visible on the surface. The puncture in my foot has involved months of getting ceramic out—piece by piece—and an MRI now confirms that “only scar tissue remains.” That scar tissue isn’t visible like the scars on my knees, ... Read more ...
whiteness
Why I Don’t Believe the #CovingtonCatholic Student’s Statement
I woke up today (the day after MLK Day in the U.S.) to a Facebook friend who presents as a white woman asking if I’d seen the #CovingtonCatholic student’s statement because she’s not sure what to believe. Later in the day, a white family member also sent me the statement, presumably to vindicate the white students. These messages come in response to me speaking out over the past few days about the incident, asking for white folks to break patterns of niceness and to ... Read more ...
My New Year’s Resolution = Self-Love for Countering White Fragility
The days leading up to this new year have been bumpy for me, pushing me to recommit to radical self-love. I’ve had some really tough conversations with family around everyday injustice, and these conversations have reminded me why we need a deep well of emotional literacies for confronting complicity. In the midst of one of these tough conversations—in which I was speaking aloud my embodied responses to white supremacy—I shared that my heart was throbbing, and I ... Read more ...
Hurting and Hollering in the Wake of This Week’s Violence
Bombs sent, guns shot. And I cry. Histories hidden, truths buried. And I ache. Hateful laws, escalating harms. And I mourn. White terrorism, everyday violence. And I rage. Black folks targeted. Jewish folks targeted. Native folks targeted. Latinx folks targeted. Migrant folks targeted. Trans folks targeted. Femme folks targeted. Marginalized folks targeted. Targeted, passive voice. Failing to name the assailants. Failing to name white supremacist, ... Read more ...
Beyond Self-Care: How Hiking Invites Self-Work
Time outdoors and along hiking trails is especially important time to me. As I’ve written previously, it’s time to consider the steps involved in making change, including learning to tread alternative paths. It’s time to slow down, notice beauty, and appreciate life, even in the roughest of conditions. It’s also time to do important intrapersonal work toward disrupting biases and internalized inferiority + superiority. It’s possible to consider activities like hiking ... Read more ...
A New Spell for a New Space
These past few weeks I’ve been focused on moving and settling into a new home. The move has called attention to all sorts of stuff, habits, and emotional swings—things I’d like to keep and release, to shore up and tear down. This process has reminded me, too, of the contemplative practices that contribute to a sense of grounding: grounding needed to stand TALL for justice. One of these practices is spell-casting, which I learned from activist-writer-healer adrienne ... Read more ...
Against the Tyranny of Positivity
On this day of the lunar eclipse in Aquarius, may we allow ourselves to feel. To feel whatever comes up. To feel deeply, expansively, expressively. To feel a fuller range of emotions than we’re typically taught is appropriate or agreeable or allowable to feel. To grieve for Nia Wilson, for Markeis McGlockton, and for many people whose lives are deemed expendable. To rage against white supremacy, patriarchy, colonization, and oppression. To push past easy, ready, ... Read more ...
A Barrage of Microaggressions
Some years ago I began recording everyday microaggressions toward learning to recognize racism, which is so often coded and which whiteness has taught me not to see. This recording project aimed at building a repository of common microaggressions to teach with and practice interventions using Augusto Boal’s theatre of the oppressed. The project emerged from conversations with colleagues of color, who shared how often white colleagues failed to believe their experiences. ... Read more ...
Crocheting Granny Squares, Connecting to Grandmothers, and Crafting a More Just Future
Recently, I felt inspired to pick up crocheting again, after many seasons without touching a needle, hook, or yarn. Feeling the call for creative self-care, I ordered vegan yarn in the colors of the 7 chakras and laid them out, planning a small afghan of granny squares. Thread yarn onto hook. Chain five, and connect stitches, making a circle. Days after purchasing the yarn and only a few stitches into my first granny square, my mom shared some news. Betty, the woman ... Read more ...
What Is Justice?
What does it mean to strive for justice in everyday life? This question is front and center for me most days, but especially now, as I'm teaching two undergraduate courses focused on justice and as I’m offering a 40-day practice for a local church on “Building Resilience for Racial Justice.” These teaching spaces—the university and the church—are predominantly white and marked by whiteness that obscures understandings of race, racism, white supremacy, and systemic ... Read more ...
![Since posting about turtles earlier this week, I’ve been thinking about the mantra “slow and steady.” Though I’m often hard on myself—noticing all the ways I fall short or don’t act on this mantra—I had a recent reminder that simply doing something regularly, even if less often than I’d like, allows for growth.
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Specifically, this week I “flashed” my first 5.9 climbing route (meaning that I got up the wall on my first try). I’ve been climbing for almost 16 months, and my learning has been slow, slow, slow … More often than not, I feel like I’m struggling. I feel clumsy and shaky. I bump my knees and tweak my shoulders and cry a lot. Yet, by sticking with the work (in this case, climbing), I’m meeting new milestones. A few months ago, I began trying 5.8s, then 5.9s, and now I’m regularly getting up those routes.
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Like a turtle, I’m moving from my starting place, perhaps slower than others and slower than I’d like … but steadily, I’m becoming a “climber,” and surely, I’m learning to stay with what’s hard to develop the stamina and strength to keep going.
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Knowing that stamina is especially needed for white folks to stay in the work for racial justice (and for all sorts of learning-living anti-oppression work), may the image of the turtle and the mantra of “slow and steady” help as guiding points.
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Two steps forward, one step backward, but stepping, still … Step after step after step …
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[This photo of me climbing is from a few months ago, but it shows me working the route. :-)]
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#bloggersofinstagram #socialjusticeeducation #climbing #climbingtraining #climb #climbing_lovers #climbing_photos_of_instagram #belayon #climbon #learning #climbinglessons #slowandsteady #slowingdown #longhaul #slowprogress #slowprogressisstillprogress #stickwithit #steady #saturdayvibes #saturdaymorning #reflection #storytelling #lifelessons #alwayslearning](http://scontent-ort2-2.cdninstagram.com/vp/7044bea515c5aed622b735fa2e0fdcf2/5CEAE4AC/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/c0.134.1080.1080/s640x640/51275780_538507049971301_4950861348305084968_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.cdninstagram.com "Since posting about turtles earlier this week, I’ve been thinking about the mantra “slow and steady.” Though I’m often hard on myself—noticing all the ways I fall short or don’t act on this mantra—I had a recent reminder that simply doing something regularly, even if less often than I’d like, allows for growth.
.
Specifically, this week I “flashed” my first 5.9 climbing route (meaning that I got up the wall on my first try). I’ve been climbing for almost 16 months, and my learning has been slow, slow, slow … More often than not, I feel like I’m struggling. I feel clumsy and shaky. I bump my knees and tweak my shoulders and cry a lot. Yet, by sticking with the work (in this case, climbing), I’m meeting new milestones. A few months ago, I began trying 5.8s, then 5.9s, and now I’m regularly getting up those routes.
.
Like a turtle, I’m moving from my starting place, perhaps slower than others and slower than I’d like … but steadily, I’m becoming a “climber,” and surely, I’m learning to stay with what’s hard to develop the stamina and strength to keep going.
.
Knowing that stamina is especially needed for white folks to stay in the work for racial justice (and for all sorts of learning-living anti-oppression work), may the image of the turtle and the mantra of “slow and steady” help as guiding points.
.
Two steps forward, one step backward, but stepping, still … Step after step after step …
.
[This photo of me climbing is from a few months ago, but it shows me working the route. :-)]
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#bloggersofinstagram #socialjusticeeducation #climbing #climbingtraining #climb #climbing_lovers #climbing_photos_of_instagram #belayon #climbon #learning #climbinglessons #slowandsteady #slowingdown #longhaul #slowprogress #slowprogressisstillprogress #stickwithit #steady #saturdayvibes #saturdaymorning #reflection #storytelling #lifelessons #alwayslearning")
![Still in my first year as a #smallbusiness owner, I can say that this work isn't possible without a strong, supportive network. There are many people to say THANKS to specifically, but let me say today (on #ValentinesDay) that my heart swells whenever I think of the support that's flowed my way this year. Today, may each of us feel a little more love flowing in our directions, a little more love filling up our reservoirs and making possible the work we're each called to do. Truly, you are loved. I send love. <3
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[Image description: This Valentine's Day card is primarily yellow and blue with pink-red flowers lining the bottom. It reads "you are loved" in large script, followed by "Happy Valentine's Day" in all-caps. Below that is the message, repeated in script: "Thanks for your support this year! With love, Beth (Heart-Head-Hands.com)."] .
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#supportwomen #gratitude #lovenothate #love #valentinesday2018 #valentines #grateful #gratitude #loveyou #instalove #lovenote #veganblogger #bloggerlife #bloggersofinstagram #womanownedbusiness #womanowned #womanownedbiz #youareloved #youarelove #thankyou #support #supportivefriends #supportnetwork #sendinglove](http://scontent-ort2-2.cdninstagram.com/vp/3aaa1eed7631b4856bd3035d1d0ee8e0/5CEDC5A1/t51.2885-15/e35/c96.0.479.479/51321814_116709839443439_8702693490264459485_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.cdninstagram.com "Still in my first year as a #smallbusiness owner, I can say that this work isn't possible without a strong, supportive network. There are many people to say THANKS to specifically, but let me say today (on #ValentinesDay) that my heart swells whenever I think of the support that's flowed my way this year. Today, may each of us feel a little more love flowing in our directions, a little more love filling up our reservoirs and making possible the work we're each called to do. Truly, you are loved. I send love. <3
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[Image description: This Valentine's Day card is primarily yellow and blue with pink-red flowers lining the bottom. It reads \"you are loved\" in large script, followed by \"Happy Valentine's Day\" in all-caps. Below that is the message, repeated in script: \"Thanks for your support this year! With love, Beth (Heart-Head-Hands.com).\"] .
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#supportwomen #gratitude #lovenothate #love #valentinesday2018 #valentines #grateful #gratitude #loveyou #instalove #lovenote #veganblogger #bloggerlife #bloggersofinstagram #womanownedbusiness #womanowned #womanownedbiz #youareloved #youarelove #thankyou #support #supportivefriends #supportnetwork #sendinglove")
