The Beat of Liberation
This last weekend, Threads of Justice Collective gathered a small group of folks from our Facilitation Circle to spend some time immersing ourselves in cultural work and community. Guitars, flute, voices...we sang. We celebrated our shared passion for justice. We mourned these times we are living through.
There was lots of cardboard, glue, collage materials, markers, paint, magazines...we documented our lives, our stories, our struggles to be free, to be our authentic selves.
We rested our hands in tubs of sensory oobleck, by candlelight, in silence. The worries of our day, floating away. We talked late into the night.
We held each other as the stories emerged....
"It is hard to grow joy in my community right now."
"I dance every night alone."
"What would our grandmothers want to be teaching us?"
"We can enslave ourselves and we can set ourselves free."
"The colonizer's greed is everywhere."
"Release what is not mine to hold."
"The dignity that we give ourselves and others must be nurtured."
We cooked and ate together....bean soup, salad, breads. We drank chai, lovingly cooked, stirred and gifted to us from one participant.
We learned a bit of carving and made prints of our designs. We were taught with gentleness and care. The tiny chips fell to the table and floor as we whittled and scooped. We felt the presence of the ancestors in this work.
We wrote and read poetry. "What does liberation mean to me?" We cried, we held hands, we danced. We sang in our day at the edge of the ocean. We sang out our day on the sandy dunes.
We all go back....a bit rested, a bit rejuvenated, a bit blessed by this community of justice-loving comrades....re-assured and strengthened to continue in this struggle, in step with the beat of liberation.
This is something we hope to repeat until all the TOJC Facilitation Circle has had the opportunity. If there is also interest in the larger community, we are certainly willing to expand. Let us know. And if you would like to support this work, please make a donation.
