Transcript
[0:01] I am so grateful to be here with you
[0:03] all.
[0:05] Each of you are on the front lines right
[0:07] now using your voice, your power, your
[0:10] position to meet this moment in history.
[0:13] We are gathering in the dark.
[0:16] The future
[0:18] feels dark.
[0:21] And so I come to you with a question I
[0:24] hold in my heart.
[0:26] What if?
[0:29] What if this darkness is not only the
[0:31] darkness of the tomb, but the darkness
[0:35] of the womb?
[0:37] What if our America is not dead, but a
[0:41] country still waiting to be born?
[0:45] What if the story of America is one long
[0:49] labor, a series of expansions and
[0:51] contractions, and this is our turn in
[0:53] the cycle?
[0:56] What if all of our ancestors are behind
[0:58] us now? Those who survived genocide and
[1:01] colonization,
[1:03] slavery and sufferings untold, they are
[1:05] behind you now, whispering in your ear,
[1:07] "You are brave. You are brave."
[1:12] What if this is our greatest transition?
[1:17] In birthing labor, transition is the
[1:19] final stage, the most dangerous stage.
[1:22] The contractions, the crises come so
[1:24] fast there is barely time to breathe. It
[1:27] feels like dying.
[1:30] And yet it is a stage that precedes the
[1:32] birth of a new world.
[1:36] Beloveds, we are in transition now.
[1:40] And we must heed the wisdom of the
[1:42] midwife.
[1:44] Breathe
[1:46] and push.
[1:48] So, I know you know you've got to push,
[1:52] but first we've got to breathe. So, I
[1:54] want you to place your feet on the earth
[1:55] for just a moment with me.
[1:58] Let your eyes close.
[2:01] Just feel the earth beneath your feet
[2:03] and imagine.
[2:05] Honor the indigenous ancestors who
[2:07] walked the soil before us.
[2:10] the Piscatoaway peoples,
[2:12] the Nagos Tank peoples, the way that
[2:15] they survived apocalyptic times and
[2:18] still lift their gaze to sing songs of
[2:20] courage.
[2:22] We honor that.
[2:26] I invite you now to think of one
[2:27] ancestor who represents courage to you.
[2:33] Imagine them behind you.
[2:37] So proud you are here.
[2:42] Notice what courage feels like in your
[2:45] body.
[2:50] Keep them at your back.
[2:54] Picture now a child in your life who
[2:58] brings you joy.
[3:01] Picture them in front of you,
[3:05] smiling at you.
[3:09] Notice what joy feels like in your body.
[3:15] Place your hand on your heart.
[3:19] You are the link between ancestors and
[3:23] descendants, between past and future.
[3:27] May you receive the medicine you need to
[3:30] be brave with your life.
[3:34] Let it come.
[3:37] and let it go
[3:40] and open your eyes.
[3:46] I've just returned from Minneapolis
[3:49] where I was on the ground with faith
[3:50] leaders at the invitation of my dear
[3:52] friend Reverend Susie Hayward and a
[3:55] coalition of faith leaders at March
[3:57] Minnesota.
[3:59] When they asked me to join them on the
[4:01] ground, I thought I was prepared for
[4:02] what I would see. Los Angeles is my home
[4:06] city. LA is the first city this
[4:08] administration chose to target, sending
[4:11] a force of masked men into our streets
[4:14] to terrorize our children rip our
[4:16] families apart. I saw my neighbors
[4:18] disappear and so we took to the streets
[4:22] and our protests were met with
[4:24] astonishing militarized force. I saw
[4:26] fellow protesters beaten, maimed,
[4:28] trampled by cavalry. And we as faith
[4:30] leaders put our bodies between
[4:32] protesters and men with machine guns,
[4:35] with flowers in our arms, singing the
[4:36] old songs of love.
[4:40] I thought I was prepared for what I
[4:43] would see in Minneapolis
[4:45] as we saw ice raids spread across the
[4:48] country, moving from Chicago to
[4:49] Portland.
[4:51] But when I arrived on the ground in
[4:53] Minneapolis,
[4:54] the scale and the pervasiveness of the
[4:57] brutality
[4:58] was unlike anything I could have
[5:00] imagined.
[5:02] Reverend Susie welcomed me to an
[5:04] occupied city. I did not understand that
[5:07] an American city could feel occupied,
[5:11] meaning you're moving through a field
[5:13] where you are proximate to brutality at
[5:15] any instant.
[5:17] Everyone I spoke with had either been
[5:20] brutalized by our federal government or
[5:22] knew someone who had. Everyone I spoke
[5:26] with had a loved one or a neighbor who
[5:29] had been abducted, arrested, or gone
[5:31] missing.
[5:32] And so we as faith leaders asked, "What
[5:35] can we do? What can we do?" A thousand
[5:36] of us showed up across the country last
[5:38] week, one week ago today to ask, "What
[5:41] can we do?" And so, Reverend Susie and
[5:42] her faith leaders, they sent 100 faith
[5:44] leaders to the airport in Minneapolis to
[5:48] get arrested, to protest deportation
[5:51] flights. They sent another 200 clergy
[5:54] all across the city to observe ICE
[5:57] operations, to act as legal observers.
[6:00] The children before my eyes were my
[6:02] little ones, and I made a promise to my
[6:04] husband that I would get on that plane
[6:06] and go home to them. So, I chose what I
[6:07] thought was the safe option.
[6:10] I decided to join a bus of faith leaders
[6:12] to a pilgrimage site.
[6:16] Turns out there's no safe option in an
[6:18] occupied city.
[6:20] We went to George Floyd Memorial Square.
[6:24] And I was there with Angela Harelson,
[6:27] George Floyd's auntie, a woman I know
[6:30] and love. The last time I was with her,
[6:33] I asked her what gives her courage, and
[6:36] she said George's last words. She said,
[6:39] "I am a nurse. I know how much strength
[6:42] he had to pull from inside of him to say
[6:44] those words, I can't breathe." When we
[6:47] heard agony, she heard courage. And that
[6:50] gave her strength to keep going. And so
[6:52] I was there with her again on the spot
[6:54] where her nephew bled to death.
[6:58] And I asked
[7:00] was choked to death. And I asked, "What
[7:03] does it mean for you that Renee Good was
[7:06] killed less than a mile away from where
[7:08] your nephew took his last breath?" And
[7:11] she said, "It was retraumatizing."
[7:14] Retraumatizing.
[7:17] The faith leaders got on the bus to go
[7:19] to the memorial site for Renee Good. And
[7:22] because it was so cold, Angela and I got
[7:24] in her car and followed the bus to Renee
[7:27] Good's memorial together. And when we
[7:30] got out there, she said, "It's a white
[7:33] woman this time.
[7:36] It's about humanity now."
[7:40] It was always about humanity.
[7:46] But now we know, the whole world knows
[7:48] that we must stand on the side of
[7:51] humanity.
[7:53] And what we need, what she said, what we
[7:55] need is to bring a mustard seed of
[7:56] faith. just a mustard seed that we can
[8:00] pull through this.
[8:02] The faith leaders got back on the bus to
[8:04] go back to the church and I was there
[8:05] with Angela and it was so heavy and I
[8:07] needed to hold my own mustard seed of
[8:09] faith. So I stayed. I stayed to breathe
[8:13] to take in the stuffed animals and the
[8:15] flowers and Rene's portrait.
[8:20] That is when
[8:22] an ICE vehicle was spotted following the
[8:25] bus of faith leaders.
[8:28] Ice had been trailing us that entire
[8:31] morning.
[8:33] A woman in her 20s named Clay
[8:36] spotted the ice vehicle and came up and
[8:39] drove behind the ice vehicle to watch to
[8:41] witness. Ice spotted her, swarmed her
[8:44] car, shattered her glass. She's holding
[8:47] on to the steering wheel. Her partner is
[8:48] holding on to her. No orders to
[8:50] disperse. Nothing but pure intimidation.
[8:52] tried to pull her out of the car and
[8:54] neighbors in the street showed up within
[8:57] moments with their cameras watching
[9:00] witnessing and because of all those
[9:02] neighbors Ice gave up and left.
[9:06] Clay has glass in her cheek and her eyes
[9:09] in her throat and she is taken to the
[9:11] church where my friends Corey and Anise
[9:14] are the medics who treat her.
[9:16] They then come to me, tell me what
[9:18] happened, and they are shaken, and I
[9:20] hold them.
[9:26] Minnesota
[9:27] is the new ground zero for the scale of
[9:31] brutality this administration is willing
[9:34] to inflict on immigrants, on people of
[9:37] color, and on the neighbors who stand up
[9:40] to protect them.
[9:42] The very next morning, Alex Prey was
[9:45] murdered a few miles away from us.
[9:49] Renee Good and Alex Prey were killed for
[9:53] doing what tens of thousands of motans
[9:56] agreed to do, which was to watch, to
[10:00] witness. Witnessing is a shield.
[10:03] Witnessing says you cannot do this to
[10:05] our neighbors in the dark. Witnessing
[10:07] says you cannot disappear our people and
[10:09] call it routine. and witnessing is now
[10:12] so dangerous.
[10:14] Renee Good and Alex Py's murders are an
[10:18] extension of the violence that people of
[10:21] color have long survived on this soil.
[10:24] >> Come on now.
[10:29] When they call you illegal, when they
[10:32] call you criminal, when they call you
[10:35] savage, when they call you terrorist or
[10:37] domestic terrorist, they are saying we
[10:39] can do anything to you or allow anything
[10:41] to be done to you and call it your
[10:44] fault. But that relies on the rest of us
[10:48] being silent.
[10:50] And Minnesota decided not to be silent.
[10:53] Minnesota decided to show up. That
[10:56] moment, that morning, I saw the network
[10:58] of care. Think about it. Community
[11:01] leaders protecting immigrant communities
[11:03] call us as faith leaders to witness
[11:05] them. ICE targets us. A woman we do not
[11:09] know witnesses to protect us. She's the
[11:13] one brutalized. And all of those people
[11:15] from the street came out to witness and
[11:17] protect her. None of us knew each other.
[11:20] None of us had to know each other to be
[11:22] able to have the audacity to say, "You
[11:26] are my brother. You are my sister. You
[11:28] are my kin. This is what it means for me
[11:30] to be human. This is who I want to be in
[11:33] the story."
[11:36] I saw that
[11:38] way of being all over Minneapolis and
[11:40] all across the state of Minnesota.
[11:43] networks of care block by block,
[11:45] heartto-heart. People who have no
[11:47] obvious reason to love one another,
[11:49] standing up for each other, protecting
[11:51] each other. Minnesota has created an
[11:55] underground civil society. Teaching
[11:58] children how to read and write in hybrid
[12:00] underground schools because schools are
[12:03] not safe. Delivering groceries and
[12:05] supplies because stores are not safe.
[12:09] Walking each other's dogs. getting the
[12:11] mail because streets are not safe.
[12:14] Providing midwiffery to mamas and babies
[12:17] because hospitals are not safe. One
[12:20] woman was late to our convening because
[12:22] she was delivering breast milk to a
[12:24] three-month-old whose mother had just
[12:26] been abducted.
[12:30] These networks of care
[12:33] are love in action.
[12:37] And it looks like this.
[12:40] With every act of care, the roots go
[12:42] deeper, grow stronger, more fortified.
[12:47] This is our most powerful resistance to
[12:51] authoritarianism.
[12:54] But it is also so much more than
[12:56] resistance.
[12:58] This is a picture of the world that
[13:02] could be. We are practicing the world we
[13:06] want in the space between us. a world
[13:08] that is abundant and free, safe and
[13:12] whole.
[13:13] That is the blueprint of love that
[13:16] Minnesota is showing all of us now.
[13:20] You see, the root of authoritarianism
[13:23] is lovelessness.
[13:26] They are depending on the rest of us to
[13:28] turn away to shut down our hearts to
[13:30] relinquish our humanity
[13:33] to retreat and to whatever fear or
[13:36] fatigue or despair that we feel. But
[13:39] love, revolutionary love, is the choice
[13:42] to see no stranger, to leave no one
[13:45] outside of our circle of care, to risk
[13:48] ourselves for one another, to show up
[13:51] with whistles when they have guns. And
[13:55] that kind of love is a power that this
[13:57] administration does not understand and
[14:00] cannot defeat. Revolutionary love is the
[14:04] call of our times.
[14:07] So this is what I want you all to know.
[14:10] It will get darker. Cruelty is the
[14:13] point. Chaos is the means. Helplessness
[14:17] is the desired result. But Minnesota is
[14:20] showing us that we are not helpless. The
[14:24] majority of us oppose authoritarianism.
[14:27] We are the majority. We must act like
[14:31] the majority.
[14:39] And that means building communities that
[14:42] are so anchored in love, so activated by
[14:46] joy that the cruelty that drives
[14:48] authoritarianism cannot take root. It
[14:51] means taking this blueprint that
[14:53] Minnesota has given us back to our
[14:55] communities, to our cities. Because what
[14:57] I heard over and over again from
[14:59] everyone I talked to is that what is
[15:01] happening in Minneapolis is coming for
[15:03] your city if it isn't already there. So
[15:06] take our blueprint, put it into action
[15:09] right where you are. And when we're
[15:12] doing that, we're practicing the world
[15:14] that we want in the space between us. We
[15:17] are enacting a dream of a world where
[15:20] you see my child as yours and I see
[15:22] yours as mine. And we're showing the
[15:24] country. We're showing the world that
[15:26] dream. Our dream is more powerful than
[15:30] your nightmare.
[15:41] And that brings me to each and every one
[15:43] of you.
[15:45] You are the lawyers and the plaintiffs.
[15:47] You are the press and elected leaders.
[15:50] You are the faith leaders and the
[15:51] organizers. And yes, you are parents and
[15:55] friends and daughters and sons. You are
[15:56] family. You are king. You are American.
[15:59] You are human. You are on the front
[16:01] lines. And you have a role to play, an
[16:04] essential role to play that only you can
[16:06] play to meet this moment in history.
[16:10] So I ask you,
[16:13] how will you lead with love?
[16:18] I want to leave you with a tool, a
[16:21] compass to put that love into action.
[16:25] You each were given a sticker that looks
[16:28] like this.
[16:31] As a civil rights leader, I have spent
[16:33] 20 years in the trenches organizing
[16:35] around hate. I have made a promise, a
[16:38] vow to spend the rest of my life
[16:39] organizing around love. It is an
[16:43] ancestral call. It's come down thousands
[16:46] of years in the lips of spiritual
[16:48] teachers and indigenous healers and
[16:49] social reformers. The call to love, when
[16:51] did you first hear it?
[16:53] And we know that love is not something
[16:56] sentimental and anemic, not a rush of
[16:58] feeling that comes and goes, es and
[17:00] flows. No. Minnesota showing us that
[17:02] love is sweet labor, fierce, bloody,
[17:07] imperfect, lifegiving, a choice we make
[17:10] again and again. And when we choose to
[17:13] love like that, when it is dangerous,
[17:16] when we are brave with our love, then
[17:18] our love becomes revolutionary.
[17:20] That is why I believe revolutionary love
[17:23] is the call of our times and that each
[17:25] of us has a role to labor in that love.
[17:29] And so we developed this tool, this
[17:31] compass. It is a compass that is born of
[17:34] deep evidence, an evidence-based tool
[17:37] drawing from research from neuroscience,
[17:39] ethics, history, psychology. It is also
[17:41] deeply shaped and infused with ancestral
[17:43] wisdom. I invite you to take this
[17:45] compass into your life to use it as you
[17:47] wish. And I'm going to show you how. So
[17:50] take it into your hands
[17:53] and you'll see revolutionary love is the
[17:56] choice to enter into labor for others,
[17:59] opponents, and ourselves. You see that
[18:02] outer ring? The way this compass works
[18:04] is that you point it to whomever you
[18:07] wish to practice loving.
[18:10] So let's begin with an other.
[18:13] Imagine an other in front of you. This
[18:17] orientation is called see no stranger
[18:20] and it begins with the act of wonder.
[18:22] Imagine being able to move through your
[18:24] life each day. And any face on the
[18:27] street, on the subway, on the screen,
[18:29] you can say to yourself, "Sister,
[18:31] brother, kin, you are a part of me. I do
[18:35] not yet know."
[18:37] It is a simple act, but it is a radical
[18:40] act. For our minds are wired to see us
[18:43] and them. But we are able to retrain our
[18:46] eye to see all others as family. Who we
[18:50] see as one of us shapes what we do, who
[18:52] we stand up for, what policies we
[18:54] support, and whether demagogues win.
[18:56] Minnesota has created a new identity, an
[19:00] expanded we. And it looks like all of
[19:04] us, one family. What does it mean for us
[19:08] as Americans to reclaim that identity as
[19:12] one people? It begins with opening our
[19:14] hearts to each other. When you lead with
[19:17] wonder, when you open yourself to other
[19:19] stories and that leads to that next
[19:20] practice, which is to grieve with
[19:23] others,
[19:24] there is so much grief right now. Where
[19:26] is grief in your body?
[19:29] There is no fixing grief. There is only
[19:32] surviving it. And we can only survive it
[19:35] when we do so together.
[19:37] When people who have no obvious reason
[19:39] to love one another come together to
[19:40] grieve, then they gave rise to new
[19:43] relationships, new solidarities, and new
[19:45] movements.
[19:47] And so, how are you brave with your
[19:48] grief? It's not secondary in our
[19:50] movements. It's vital to gather with
[19:52] people to grieve together. For when we
[19:55] grieve together, we gain information for
[19:58] how to fight for one another. And
[20:00] everyone has a role in the fight.
[20:01] Whether it's delivering those groceries
[20:03] or standing in the street with those
[20:05] whistles, that's what Minnesota has
[20:07] shown us. Wondering about others,
[20:10] grieving with others, fighting for
[20:12] others. That's the blueprint. That's the
[20:15] blueprint for deep solidarity. Rooted
[20:17] not in the logic of exchange. I show up
[20:19] for you, so you show up for me. Deep
[20:21] solidarity is rooted in love. I show up
[20:24] for you because you are my brother, you
[20:25] are my sister, you are my neighbor, you
[20:26] are my kin. And that kind of love can
[20:28] survive any news cycle and any any
[20:31] regime.
[20:34] What do you need more of in your life in
[20:35] this moment?
[20:39] We're going to take that compass
[20:42] and now point it to someone in your
[20:45] mind, a group in your mind who is an
[20:47] opponent.
[20:49] All right?
[20:51] Notice I don't use the word enemy. An
[20:54] enemy is a fixed and permanent identity.
[20:57] An opponent is anyone whose ideas,
[21:00] words, or actions oppose your own. They
[21:02] may stay your opponent this whole
[21:04] lifetime, but they might not. And just
[21:06] thinking that is a revolutionary act.
[21:08] This orientation is called tend the
[21:11] wound.
[21:12] But it begins with tending your own
[21:14] wound. It begins with honoring our rage.
[21:19] Folks think that rage is the opposite of
[21:20] love. No. Indifference is the opposite
[21:22] of love. Rage connects us with our
[21:25] ability to fight for who and what we
[21:26] love. Honor your rage. Where is rage in
[21:29] your body? The solution is not to
[21:32] suppress your rage or to let it explode.
[21:35] The solution is to process your rage in
[21:37] safe containers. And that's what we saw
[21:39] in Minnesota. People gathering in those
[21:41] church basement, drumming, singing,
[21:43] shaking, processing that energy
[21:45] together. One faith leader told me, "I
[21:47] can't be in the street right now because
[21:48] I have so much rage. I know that I need
[21:50] to process it here before I go out
[21:52] there. You see, when we move that energy
[21:54] in community through our bodies, that
[21:56] righteous fury, we can ask ourselves,
[21:59] what information does our rage carry?
[22:02] What does it say about what's important
[22:03] to me? And how do I wish to channel this
[22:05] energy for what I do in the world? I
[22:08] call that harnessed energy divine rage.
[22:10] The aim of divine rage is not vengeance.
[22:13] The aim of divine rage is to reorder the
[22:16] world.
[22:18] There is a question hanging in the air
[22:20] right now in every room I'm in. And the
[22:23] question is, is nonviolence working?
[22:27] Minnesota is showing us how and why
[22:31] nonviolence works? Violence is the
[22:34] language of this administration.
[22:37] Violence is the language of ICE.
[22:39] Violence is the language of
[22:41] authoritarianism.
[22:43] If we respond in their chosen language,
[22:45] we give them exactly what they want.
[22:48] Nonviolence is disciplined, strategic,
[22:51] powerful, morally grounded, and
[22:56] it is the most powerful tool we have
[22:58] when treated as a craft.
[23:01] It is how we do not become what we are
[23:02] fighting against. And it's what invites
[23:06] that way of being that shows,
[23:10] models what a beloved community looks
[23:13] like and feels like.
[23:15] And so you might be someone in a
[23:18] position where you need to stay here in
[23:20] the compass creating containers for
[23:22] grief, containing creating containers
[23:24] for rage, driving all that energy to
[23:26] creative non-violent coordinated action.
[23:29] But you might be someone who is in a
[23:32] position to go to this next practice,
[23:34] which is to wonder even about our
[23:37] opponents,
[23:39] to dare to listen to them,
[23:42] to listen for their story and listen for
[23:44] their wound.
[23:48] There are no such thing as monsters in
[23:50] this world. There are only human beings
[23:52] who are wounded, who act out of their
[23:55] fear, insecurity, greed, rage. That does
[23:58] not make them any less dangerous. But
[23:59] when we see their wound, they lose power
[24:02] over us. We become free. Instead of
[24:05] reacting endlessly from our trauma, we
[24:06] get to sit in our deepest wisdom and
[24:09] respond from a place of love. I was out
[24:12] in those streets with a a frail man who
[24:14] told me that he had stage four cancer.
[24:17] But he was in those streets because
[24:19] that's what it meant to stand for peace
[24:20] now. And he got really quiet and he
[24:24] said, "Imagine the pain of so many of
[24:26] those ICE agents with their masks and
[24:29] their guns and how this administration
[24:31] gave them a target for their pain.
[24:33] They're the ones to blame. They're the
[24:35] ones to blame."
[24:37] He got really quiet and he began to
[24:40] imagine what the truth and
[24:41] reconciliation commissions might look
[24:43] like years down the line that offered a
[24:46] pathway back to community, back to
[24:48] wholeness.
[24:51] I know this is hard labor and courageous
[24:54] and it is not for everyone,
[24:57] but I know that this is who I want to be
[24:59] in the story. In Los Angeles, when we
[25:02] were out at the federal building where
[25:03] they're caging our people, we brought
[25:05] flowers to the immigrant families. And
[25:07] because no one is outside of our circle
[25:09] of care, I laid flowers at the feet of
[25:12] the ICE agents. They are our brothers,
[25:14] too, even if they have forgotten it.
[25:17] I turned around to leave and that first
[25:19] agent gestures for me to come back. He's
[25:24] the one with the gun. So,
[25:26] I come back to him.
[25:30] I'm shaking.
[25:32] And he says, "Thank you."
[25:36] And he puts out his hand.
[25:40] What do I do?
[25:43] In the street, you held your baton over
[25:45] me. You pointed your rifle at me. And
[25:49] now you're extending your hand to me.
[25:53] What do I do?
[25:57] Revolutionary love is to block your
[26:01] actions with one hand and extend the
[26:03] other with the hope that you will one
[26:06] day take it or your children will take
[26:09] it. For the brief high of domination is
[26:13] nothing compared to the infinite love
[26:16] and joy of true community.
[26:21] So I took his hand.
[26:24] I don't know whether that man will stop
[26:26] hurting our people. But I want to be the
[26:29] one who believes in that possibility.
[26:31] That is who I want to be in the story. I
[26:36] want to come to my front line with
[26:37] flowers. And here's the thing, the front
[26:40] line is everywhere. The front line is in
[26:42] the courts and in the media rooms. The
[26:44] front line is in the classrooms and the
[26:45] houses of worship. The front line is in
[26:47] those kitchen tables where we're having
[26:49] the hard, beautiful, wrenching
[26:51] conversations. The front line is your
[26:52] own heart. What does it mean for you to
[26:55] come to your front line with flowers?
[27:02] When we do so,
[27:05] when we pay attention to everyone's
[27:07] wounds like that, we
[27:10] we gain the information for how to
[27:13] re-imagine
[27:14] a world on the other side of this ash
[27:18] that leaves no one behind, not even
[27:20] them.
[27:22] And in that reimagining,
[27:24] we are able to lift up a vision of a
[27:27] world that they can see themselves in.
[27:31] That dream
[27:33] that is beautiful and powerful and
[27:36] irresistible.
[27:38] That dream that diminishes
[27:41] their nightmare.
[27:44] Beloveds, this is long labor,
[27:47] courageous labor. You get to decide who
[27:49] you are on the compass. What is your
[27:52] role? We're all part of a larger
[27:54] community, a larger ecosystem.
[27:57] But just remember because this is long
[27:59] and courageous labor, we got to turn
[28:01] that compass one more time so that it is
[28:03] facing you.
[28:05] How do we love ourselves?
[28:08] This is the feminist intervention.
[28:12] This is the wisdom of the midwife who
[28:14] says, "Breathe, my love, and then push."
[28:17] And then breathe again. She doesn't say,
[28:19] "Push all the way." And I know it feels
[28:21] like you just got to push nonstop. It's
[28:23] coming. The news is coming nonstop. You
[28:25] have to do. You have to do. you have to
[28:26] push non-stop. But that is how we begin
[28:30] to to burn out, to opt out. We lose our
[28:33] lives. No, we we need to last in the
[28:36] labor. And so, what does it mean to pour
[28:39] into your own body the love that you are
[28:41] pouring out into your communities?
[28:44] What does it mean for you to breathe
[28:46] every day? How are you breathing? Are
[28:50] you breathing with music, meditation,
[28:52] prayer, praise, song? How are you
[28:53] breathing? a faith leader just got
[28:54] arrested at that airport and then told
[28:57] me I had to go to the trees after that.
[28:59] I had to breathe with the trees. I had
[29:01] to breathe in what they were breathing
[29:02] out. I had to remember the magic and the
[29:04] mystery and the beauty and the wonder of
[29:05] being alive right here, right now.
[29:06] Mother Earth has us. We'll breathe into
[29:09] us. We'll breathe into you. How do you
[29:10] breathe? Who do you breathe with? Who do
[29:13] you help breathe? And the deeper we
[29:16] breathe every day, every day, the deeper
[29:18] we breathe, the more we're able to show
[29:21] up and push. What is your particular
[29:25] push right now? And just like we don't
[29:28] go to battle alone, we don't give birth
[29:29] alone. Who is next to you holding your
[29:31] hand as you're breathing and pushing?
[29:34] And then there will be a moment where
[29:36] you say, "I can't. I can't. It's too
[29:37] hard." And any midwife knows the I can't
[29:40] moment is right before the miracle
[29:41] happens. And so you are in transition.
[29:45] We are in transition right now.
[29:49] We have to transition ourselves as we're
[29:51] transitioning our country, our species.
[29:56] And so I invite you to think about what
[29:59] you need to withstand those fires.
[30:03] And remember this.
[30:05] We might not live to see the results of
[30:07] our labor. I want to live to see a
[30:11] nation that is safe and free. A
[30:14] multi-racial democracy where all belong.
[30:16] I want to live to see a planet where we
[30:18] know how to live with each other to
[30:19] stay. I want to see it. I want to see
[30:21] it. When I close my eyes, I dream it,
[30:22] but I might not live to see it. Just
[30:24] like those ancestors did not live to see
[30:26] us. Our sacred task is to stay faithful
[30:28] to the labor.
[30:31] And when we labor in love, we let in
[30:33] joy.
[30:35] Joy is the gift of love. I know it's we
[30:39] hear in the streets like joy is an act
[30:41] of resistance. It goes so much deeper
[30:43] than that. I traveled to societies that
[30:45] had survived authoritarian regimes
[30:47] across the world this last year. I sat
[30:49] at the feet of black condom elders in
[30:52] Brazil. I sat at the feet of Mayan women
[30:54] at the sights of mass graves in
[30:57] Guatemala. And every time they tell a
[30:59] story that is horrific, you know what
[31:00] they do next? They pull out their drums
[31:04] and they begin to dance and they begin
[31:06] to sing. Singing their freedom. We are
[31:09] free inside. We are already free. And in
[31:12] that freedom is joy. In the sick
[31:14] tradition, it's called chartikola. Ever
[31:16] rising joy. Even darkness, ever rising
[31:19] spirits. How will you protect your joy?
[31:22] Every day
[31:25] in joy,
[31:26] we see darkness with new eyes. And so I
[31:30] returned to that question in my heart.
[31:34] Is this the darkness of the tomb or the
[31:37] darkness of the womb?
[31:39] Beloved, it is both.
[31:42] After you leave here, you will find a
[31:43] moment where you feel alone and it is
[31:45] dark again, standing in all of that
[31:47] trauma and all that pain. And you will
[31:50] taste the ash in your mouth. In that
[31:51] moment, I invite you to lift your gaze
[31:54] and realize that you are not alone in
[31:56] the dark.
[31:58] I invite you to see into that darkness
[32:00] what is wanting to be born.
[32:03] In Minnesota, I saw a glimpse of the
[32:05] world wanting to be born. Here in the
[32:08] space between us, I see the world
[32:09] wanting to be born. What needs to be
[32:12] born in you to be able to live and
[32:16] believe in that future?
[32:20] For this is what we know to be true.
[32:24] You will be an ancestor one day.
[32:27] They will gather in spaces like this and
[32:29] they will summon you. You will be the
[32:32] one behind them.
[32:34] But if we show up now with our whole
[32:37] hearts and with all of our love, what
[32:40] they will inherit from this time will
[32:42] not be our fear or our trauma. It will
[32:45] be our courage born of joy.
[32:50] Thank you so much. Thank you.
[33:02] Let's break this thing open.
