• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Heart - Head - Hands logo

  • About
    • Beth Godbee
    • Commitments
    • Offerings
    • Publications
  • Blog
    • Contemplative Practices
    • Emotional Literacies
    • Everyday Feminism
    • Higher Education
    • Interviews
    • Racial Justice
    • Recipes
    • Why Vegan?
  • Courses
  • Coaching
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter

Words Matter: Naming, Inspiring, Truth-telling, Revealing, and Reckoning with This Moment

Filed Under: Everyday Feminism, Racial Justice By Beth Godbee January 7, 2021 Leave a Comment

Words That Matter and Inspire Me Now

There are so many words to say today (in the midst of insurrection in the United States), but I want to share some words from adrienne maree brown.

brown’s blog post this morning—what is unveiled? the founding wound. (poem/directive)—speaks to my soul. It speaks to festering wounds and the need to name violence and to break white supremacy: “denial will not disappear a wound.”

I hope you’ll read this blog post in full.

Along with this blog post, I appreciate this social media post from adrienne maree brown, which reads:

This tweet from adrienne maree brown reads: “words matter. Coup: a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government. Terrorism: the unlawful use of force and violence vs persons or property to intimidate or coerce a gvmt, civilian population, or segment thereof. today was not anarchy, not protest. (sedition. insurrection. there's lots of precise options.)”

“words matter. Coup: a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government. Terrorism: the unlawful use of force and violence vs persons or property to intimidate or coerce a gvmt, civilian population, or segment thereof. today was not anarchy, not protest. (sedition. insurrection. there’s lots of precise options.)”

Why and How Words Matter

Words matter in many ways, and they matter through our relational responsibilities. As educators, as parents, as mentors, as colleagues, as aunties, as writers, as storytellers, as neighbors, as reporters, as organizers, as witnesses, as curators, as creators, as communicators.

Words matter because they name the world. They shape our understandings and capacities to act. They can inspire and fuel us, obscure and do harm. They can lift emotional weight or weigh us down. Wear us down. Tear us down. Words matter.

Today, I’m noticing again how whiteness circulates in words used and in the absence of words (in complicity and silence, in refusing to listen and refusing to tell truths). So, to white colleagues, I’m asking again: Let’s invest in rehearsing how to speak up imperfectly. Let’s dive into the fears that block courageous words. Let’s read adrienne maree brown’s blog to understand the stakes. And let’s bring attention to which words are used and not used and how those choices have consequences.

We need sustained investment in truth-telling—in recognizing and responding to white supremacy in ourselves, in our interactions, and in our systems. We need words for reckoning with the festering wounds of the U.S. nation-state: so deeply rooted in white supremacy, settler colonialism, capitalism, heteropatriarchy, oppression. We need words to rise up for justice—to express visions and longings loud and clear. Again and again and again.

Longing for Words That Matter

May we amplify words of the Movement for Black Lives to name white supremacy and ongoing terror in the United States.

May we do more truth-telling and crying out and living out commitments.

May we say “hell no!” and “absolutely, yes!”

For, our humanity is so lost, so ruptured, and for many of us, so stolen and denied … We need to call it back day by day, act by act, word by word.

—
This post is written by
Beth Godbee, Ph.D. for Heart-Head-Hands.com.

Become a subscriber via Patreon to receive ongoing support for your efforts of striving to live for justice (social, racial, and environmental justice). And consider subscribing to the newsletter for additional resources and announcements. Thanks!

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket

Tagged with: accountability, antiracism, commitments, language, mantras, racial justice, resistance, social justice, storytelling, white fragility, whiteness, words, writing

Support the Work

subscribe to posts:

Previous Post: « Contemplative Practices for Setting Intentions and Welcoming the New Year
Next Post: Q&A with Cedric Burrows about His New Book Rhetorical Crossover: The Black Presence in White Culture »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About This Site

Embodied knowledge matters. So do commitments. And especially acting on commitments as part of everyday life, BIG and small. This website—a mix of blog posts and research writing, courses and offerings—shares ongoing efforts toward everyday living (feeling, thinking, and doing) for justice.

Subscribe via Patreon

This button from Patreon says “Become a Patron” in white font against a bright orange background.

Subscribe to Newsletter

courses, webinars, and writing groups

This grid shows four colorful cacti (two above and two below) the event information (black font against white background): “Monthly Gathering Space: Recharge and Recommit. For details, see Heart-Head-Hands.com.”This e-course announcement shows a yellow sunflower and blue sky. It includes a textbox with the following information: “E-COURSE AVAILABLE NOW! Career Discernment for Academics: Aligning Career with Commitments. Self-paced study, exercises, coaching, and more ...”

This ad reads: “Time to write! Writing Retreats. Learn more @ Heart-Head-Hands.com.” A white coffee mug and table appear in the foreground, with golden chairs and walls in the background.

This image shows writing tools (phone, keyboard, journal, pencil, and pen) along with the event information: “Online Writing Groups. Friday mornings 10am EST | 9am CST | 8am MST | 7am PST. Come Write Together: Heart-Head-Hands.com.”

Categories

  • Contemplative Practices (57)
  • Emotional Literacies (76)
  • Everyday Feminism (91)
  • Higher Education (45)
  • Interviews (7)
  • Racial Justice (56)
  • Recipes (22)
  • Why Vegan? (11)

Footer

bethgodbee

I’m really excited about @soulsupportlc and hope I’m really excited about @soulsupportlc and hope you’ll check out David (@dgs425)’s coaching support. 💗 See you at the launch?

#Repost @ericdarnellpritchard with @make_repost
・・・
Congratulations, David! 💜😭✨🌻🎉💃🏿💕 Today my beloved announced that he has decided to leave his position as a tenure-track faculty member in order to create more space to serve his purpose as a healer. Doing so, he has formally launched his life coaching practice, @soulsupportlc. I say formally because David has been a life coach to me and many of our kindred for a very long time. I am so glad he has chosen to share his gifts and serve his purpose more widely. Please follow his work at @soulsupportlc AND if your time permits, please register and attend the Soul Support Life Coaching virtual launch on June 30. Link in my bio!
vacation mode = cloud watching [Photo is taken l vacation mode = cloud watching 

[Photo is taken looking up at trees, clouds, and blue sky.]

#learningfromnature #cloudwatching #lookingup #trees #sky
I'm starting some time off for hiking and visiting I'm starting some time off for hiking and visiting family this week. And here's a photo of me at a North Carolina welcome center, high in the Appalachian Mountains, standing before a wall of blooming rhododendrons. I'm tired from all-day driving, but so happy to be deep in the mountains and surrounded by blues, greens, and even pinks! <3

#appalachianmountains #rhodadendron #blueridgemountains #home
Today’s newsletter points in multiple directions Today’s newsletter points in multiple directions, much like this turkey tail mushroom. (I love the striations of copper, cream, and olive green on these curly tails.)
 
Here’s a link to the newsletter on tending to brokenheartedness and burnout: https://mailchi.mp/99bd4ad2e962/burnout --> link in bio, too.
 
And if you aren’t receiving my newsletter but would like to, there’s a link to subscribe at the email’s end (just scroll to the bottom).
 
#LearningFromNature #HeartHeadHands #newsletter #brokenheartedness #burnout #resources
🧡🧡🧡 This touches my heart. Grounding and 🧡🧡🧡 This touches my heart. Grounding and guiding.

#Repost @yallaroza with @make_repost
・・・
The first person to show me the power of bearing witness was Helen, my first year Women and Gender Studies professor. Helen was a fierce feminist whose lectures felt more like prose, poetic and passionate. She made me want to take a hammer to patriarchy, and I loved it. 

With Helen, I felt safe enough to say the things I could barely articulate to myself. To name my wounds, to language hard truths, to let someone else in on my hurt. And with Helen, I felt held in those lived and living realities. There were no therapeutic interventions, no life adages, no solutions. There was simply a human being listening, honouring and affirming my experiences of misogyny, racism and sexual violence.

Years later, I forgot this wisdom. I went through therapeutic training(s) that, over time, left me feeling like that wasn't enough. That listening, and presence, and holding space for hurt wasn't enough. And in many aspects of life, I started to feel like I always needed a brilliant intervention that would offer an "aha moment." 

This week, I was reminded in many ways of the power of being present, of listening, of bearing witness. That you don't always need to have the answers, or offer your critical feminist thinking on a topic. You don't always need to have a solution, or advice. And you don't always need to intellectualize what someone's going through. Sometimes, you can just climb into the emotional fort they've built, grab a pillow, and be there. 

Yup, you can just be there, friend. And that's enough. 

(Consensually*)

♥️✨ Gratitude Tag: tag someone in your life who shows up in meaningful ways.
Load More... Follow on Instagram

About Beth Godbee

I'm an educator and former college professor who believes our fully embodied selves matter in the world. We can’t just think our way out of the incredible injustices, dehumanization, violence, and wrongdoing that characterize everyday life. We must feel and act, too. [Pronouns: she/her.] Read more ...

This image shows books alongside the words: courses, coaching, consulting. learning + unlearning.

Copyright © 2022