This moment

This is shared from my social media platforms on October 23, 2023. Reflections amidst the genocide in Gaza, and continued violence in the USA.

Was doing an ancestral reading for myself tonight using @grandmababyapothecary deck and pulled the tree.

The message felt very timely, especially this line, “And we owe it to ourselves to survive this moment.”

Those of us that are a part of communities that have been the targets of mass violence know the grief and heaviness that comes with every violation, whether we are the targets or the witnesses.

As someone who feels drawn to pour love, life, and purpose into the wounds of those oppressed and hurting, I’ve felt defeated lately as the wounds are just too large, and deep. But then I pulled this card tonight and remembered that my foundation is more than just my existence. It carries the foundation of my ancestors, God, and all that is divinely made.

So if you’ve been feeling the heaviness almost unbearably, I offer the same reminder I was given tonight. You are more than just your presence in the moment. You are the culmination of your ancestors and their testimony. You are divinely made, and you owe it to yourself and those who sacrificed, revolutionized, prayed, and came before you to survive this moment.

Evil structures, people, and things may always seem to have the upper hand, and yet they never can seem to destroy what is divine. Our spirits, our souls, our culture, and our stories.

I know it’s tiring to have to fight yet another battle, another injustice, another empire, but we owe it to ourselves, our past, and our future to survive this moment. And I’m hopeful that as long as we hold true these things, evil will not prevail.