“The Solstices teach us
to remember the dark,
to remember the light,
to remember time.
The seasons. And love
as we circle the sun.”
-David Breeden
As summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere, pause for a moment today and remember love.
Juneteenth celebrates the day–some two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation–when the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned that they were free.
On this Juneteenth, spend some time thinking about those who are still not free. How can you participate in their liberation?
“You are loved beyond belief. You are enough, you are precious, your work and your life matter, and you are not alone. You are part of a we, a great cloud of witnesses living and dead who have insisted that this beautiful, broken world of ours is a blessing worthy of both deep gratitude and fierce protection. Our ancestors and our descendants are beckoning us, compelling us onward toward greater connection, greater compassion, greater commitment to one another and to the earth. Together, we are resilient and resourceful enough to say ‘yes’ to that call, to make it our life’s work in a thousand different ways, knowing that we can do no other than bind ourselves more tightly together, and throw ourselves into the holy work of showing up, again and again, to be part of building that world of which we dream but which we have not yet seen.” -Ashley Horan
What is the holy work of showing up to which you are called? Where do you need to show up today?
“We wear our faith as tattoos on our bodies and in our hearts as testaments to the blood, tears, dreams, and inspirations of our community ancestors and elders.” – Elandria Williams
How do your faith and your values show up on your body? If your faith were a tattoo, what would it be?
“I am a brown, queer, disabled woman,” the Rev. Theresa Soto writes. “Pictures of people like me in mainstream media are uncommon. Social media, then, where I have my own account and can include myself as the subject, leaves space for me to show that my image and my face also matter and are also human. When I encounter dehumanizing treatment—let’s say, for example, someone calls me ‘wheelchair’—taking a selfie is a quick centering practice. I am still a person. I leave an abiding record of my personhood this way.”
Take a selfie today if you have the ability to do so. Notice how beautiful you are. Notice how much you matter.
