the power in recognizing powerlessness
Admitting powerlessness has a contradictory effect. It is not admitting defeat, it’s releasing control. Rather than giving up and checking out, an attitude of powerlessness invites us to unhook from the pressures we put on ourselves to predict and perfect.
what the bones know
The majority of our ancestors (regardless of how your body is racialized today) lived in reverence to the more than human world. We all come from people who engaged in ritual practices; whose somatic intelligence was intact as they moved their bodies, told stories and sang around a communal fire. Our ancestors trusted the unseen and honored these spirits, protectors, gods, goddesses, and mischief-makers.
finding wisdom in what aches
My knee is tired. This simple truth lands in my chest like the thud of the old-school yellow pages on a hard desk. There's a heaviness here I've been dutifully avoiding. My knee is tired. It's tired of running, tired of pushing, tired of jumping, tired twisting and bending, tired of extending beyond itself to get just ... a little ... further.
And when I hear my knee, when I can really let these words in, I get it. Yeah knee, I'm fucking tired too.
letting ourselves bend
In watching the storms today, I’m reminded that it is our ability to “not do” that reveals our strength. As the world swirls, we can bravely stand in the midst of all that turbulence and declare this act as simply enough. For marginalized bodies, this in itself is a political action. As Audre Lord reminds us, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”