What Is Your Work to Do?

It has been a little over a year since my last Bump.  I didn't know what or when to write, so I chose to Be.  I waited, I listened, and then I got a harsh kick in the butt.

Perhaps like most of you, I was just beginning to feel a sense of ease as we began to emerge from sheltering in place as a result of one global pandemic, when another pandemic that had been growing for years and spreading like a nasty virus, struck the heart and soul of America with a second blow.

The brutal and heart wrenching murder of George Floyd rocked me to my core.  Usually media will stop a video before the more graphic part is shown, but when they didn't and I actually saw the life seep from my brother's body, it was just too much.

Then the protests began, and while I had a tremendous sense of pride about how our youth took to the streets, I felt some kind of way about not being out there with them.  They were using their anger and outrage to catapult themselves into action.  It made me ask myself how could I use all that I was feeling and also channel it into action. 

What was my work to do?
 
I prayed and meditated asking that exact question and I was presented with an opportunity to step into ACTION!  As a young adult I ran away from and avoided conflict at all cost.  However the Black Lives Matter movement empowered me to rip the band aid off and step head on into an opportunity to stretch myself, not only into action, but ACTIVISM. 

For me that meant, no more remaining silent in the face of racism. 

I declared I would no longer:
- let micro-aggressions (which now felt macro) roll off my back
- shrink in the face of racism
- smile to make others feel comfortable
- be complicit in my own oppression
AND (this was a big one)
- be afraid of looking like "the angry black woman" because I WAS!!!   I felt a lot of things, but anger was high on the list.  I was mad as hell.

ENOUGH!!!

I had to set some people straight. 
I had to have difficult and awkward conversations. 
I had to step up as a healer for black and brown sisters and brothers.
I had to write this Bump.

You MAY not find me protesting in the streets, but I am still protesting.  Know that our work in this global shift/evolution/revolution will be as varied as we are. 

NOTE:  One of the first things I had to do was to forgive myself for all those times that I didn't speak up.  That was important so I could move forward.

Who do you need to forgive, yourself or another, so you can move forward and do the work that is yours to do?  Lay that burden down and GET TO WORK!! 

Now you know better, so do better.
We need you! 
It will take ALL of us in the quest for justice, reform, for equal treatment, for LIBERATION!!

Love, love, love,
Mama Nay