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The Surprising Place I Found Hope
It was an example of how observance of Jewish rituals can exist, and even thrive, without being tied, in any way, to the state of Israel. There was laughter, tears, community, prayer, solemnity, and lightheartedness. There was a commitment to collective liberation. There was an honoring of all people's humanity, not just the people who look and sound like me. It felt, to me, what religion should feel like.
A Common Mistake in Social Justice Work
We can't 'check the box' on learning about and fighting racism and other forms of oppression. It has to be a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing the world. We have to integrate it into everything we do, even if that happens more slowly than we'd like.
Here are some fairly simple things that I have personally found super helpful in keeping this work top of mind and integrating it into my day to day life, and I will offer them to you as an invitation.
This is what I cling to
While I hold space for all of this joy, which is so, so important, I also hold space for all of the tragic, scary things happening in our world.
When it all feels so overwhelmingly bad (and when 'overwhelmingly bad' seems like the understatement of the year), these are the things I cling to:
The thing that I'm still really scared to talk about
I’ve gotten really really good at leaning head-on into uncomfortable conversations about race. But what I’m about to write scares the pants off of me. It’s something so fraught in my community that it’s something that we just don’t talk about, unless we know how the other person feels. And even then, we probably still don’t talk about it.
All cooped up and needing something to read? I got your back.
Reading in the time of coronavirus… Does anyone have the mental energy to read?
We all handle pandemics in different ways (did you EVER think you’d read those words?), and sometimes the way we are handling it changes from minute to minute!
I’ve curated a list of my favorite spiritual books just for you, with links right to the amazon page (I’m not getting any kickbacks!). Some of them are directly related to the type of meditation that I teach, some are more general personal growth books, and some might not (at first glance) seem to be spiritual. But I define spiritual as anything that expands your consciousness and the way you see the world, so (for me) that includes topics such as anti-racism and feminism.