A New Path

Hello People,

I hope you are all doing great and when the lessons come that you learn from them in the most gentle way possible; when the time comes to not do that thing that you may always do, to think and be aware of bypassing that statement or gesture- you know when it comes because your body/mind/brain/emotions are on high alert.  

It's raining today here in Greensboro, North Carolina, just a light rain and just enough cloud to make it a cool day.  

I met with my Ashram friends last night and we had a conversation about equality, white privilege, racism, and how to move forward with the ashramic ideals of transformation and healing while honoring these current avenues for learning.

These topics of recognizing inequalities are not easy.  For me, the best way to move forward is to recognize them and pay attention to them and be sensitive to what people are going through.  It reminds me to tune in a little bit more and to maybe see how I can relate.  Some feel they cannot relate because they are white and so having never been black how could they?  I am trying to relate by my own experiences with black and white cultures mixing.  I am reminded of paints and when you mix those two colors, black and white, you get grey.  Grey is rather indistinct but it is a popular color choice among many aspiring colorists- people who enjoy colors and aesthetics.  I wonder what the history of colors are?  When was grey first noticed and labeled grey?  Maybe it was on the cave walls when people figured out that they could use charcoal on the walls but that is more black than grey, I think.  

It seems this issue of difference goes back a long, long way when we began to see and notice that this person over here looks different, does different things, talks different, acts, behaves, eats, gestures, smells, lives, etcetera, all in different ways.  I am sure there was a sense of wonder, like wow, they are doing this this way, maybe I can try that too.  But then maybe someone came along and said, no, that is not how we do it here.  But look, this way is so much easier, and the other might go hmmm.... perhaps you are right, or they may go, no, this is the way we do it and you need to respect tradition or you will be kicked out of the tribe.  Maybe that person decided to move along and find another tribe but more than likely not.  

If I were a painter and I had all these colors to choose from I could make a grand painting.  If I had limited colors then I could create something really cool but I would not have as many options, I could not pull from the full spectrum of color and variation that is out there.  

I really appreciate all those colors.  

Maybe some do not appreciate some of those colors.  They can not see in a way that harmonizes and respects the other person simply because they are different.  Maybe they got greedy and thought they could use this person to their own end.  Then that dark path was created; then that path was created for people to not honor people; then that path was created that led us to where we are now, undoing that path.  

How do we undo it?  I do not know that we can but we can create new paths for sure, and go to that palette and start mixing new colors and playing with the full spectrum and honoring each colors uniqueness and thereby creating something more beautiful and more inclusive.  

I can see and feel people's pain.  I can see that people want to get together and work together and feel included and to not be shunned.  There is some unraveling but there is more room for commitment and openness- commitment to be aware and alert of that humanness in us that says, there is another path, let us try it though it is new.  How does it feel to try a new path?  It feels exciting and good because it has never been walked before.  

I'm walking a new, with new eyes

down a path never walked before

It is bright but also a little scary because I have to be gentle and vulnerable

but I can be aware too

That things are going my way

because I love this new path I am walking

so much in each step

and I am loving each step

because as I come across others, they are walking it too

and we meet and we look and we see

with an openness

that includes the other's full presence in the knowing that

when I see your eyes

they see me

and in the seeing

there is simply