Pause and Notice Progress. Healing & Growth is Nonlinear.
Happy first day of Halloween 🎃. (originally posted on blog on October 1st)
From one Libra to all the Libras in our lives - I send a wish for playfulness, belly laughs and lingering in joy this season. I enjoy this time of year because in the briefest space of fall, while the trees are surprising us with bright colors before the leaves drop, it represents a sense of hope and new possibilities. In these early days of October – I am curious about which new seeds I can plant.
The interesting thing is, what about the seeds we’ve already planted (last month, a year ago, 5 years…)? How about the ideas and intentions that we’ve made to ourselves and others which are already in bloom?
As the saying “friends for a season, reason, and lifetime” (unknown) goes, I hold tight to relationships, so it can be hard to let go when a rupture or shift in connection occurs. We may have been taught that when relationships end or something doesn’t go as planned, it means we’re not good enough or we failed in some way. Yet, there can be beauty and opportunity in completion just as there is among the changing landscapes around us. Sure, we may have been fired, miss certain friends, or struggle over and over with similar dynamics; it doesn’t mean we’re defective (*). Maybe, just maybe we’ve been taught to be hyper self-critical, we carry wounds from the past with us, internalized oppression runs deep and/or we live in a society where it is not encouraged to build and maintain community.
happy birthday libras! (mine was october 2nd)
When we’re not present to the micro and macro progress WE are making, let’s pause. Remember, “healing is nonlinear” (unknown)? The invitation is: to pause and notice (one subtle difference in how we are holding, experiencing, and reacting today). To give yourself space to reframe and notice what is stirring. As we practice noticing the ways we have been shifting ever so slightly, perhaps we may over time broaden that awareness towards the whole –tangible, external, intangible, and internal shifts of all form(s) within and among us.
This same concept can be helpful as we find our way into and through our DE&I learning journey. I find it helpful to think of our learning journey as a series of micro, on-going, moments available for us to practice daily; the more we can notice/encourage others to notice our choices during the micro moments, the more we can potentially shift in wider macro ways like having our personal brand represent more of the values important to us and saying yes to a new opportunity.
Keep up the work you’re doing to support the well-being of yourself and others!
Warmly,
Sarah
Community Resource Spotlight: Twenty-one Front Range Initiatives to Receive $255,000 in Funding from the Women & Girls of Color Fund. Check out the 21 women and non-binary people of color leading amazing initiatives in Colorado! / Colorado Women’s Foundation
(*) ideas from Resmaa Menakem and team, and the somatic abolitionism movement www.resmaa.com/movement