i need a dragon today
to show me fire in the sky on the exhale
to remind me how to lie on the ground
and feel like a mountain
and have an eye that can see
through the fog and into
the heart of a star
i need a dragon today
to open my mouth with the power of story
and the ability to endure
come dragon
i’m ready
come
now
[27 days ’till Daily Peace]
Do I believe real peace is possible?
For me?
For my community?
For my country?
For the world?
Learn more about:
Believing is Seeing: Daily Journal of Transformation
31 days of life-altering, soul-quenching peace in an invigorating online course that challenges you to commit to your own personal peace revolution and take action to manifest the life you want. You’ll use the book & journal I See Peace as a framework and guide to transform your everyday habits and infuse your life with peace. Let the peace begin January 1st!
More info or to register>>
[28 days ’till Daily Peace] Several students that I’ve worked with regularly over this last year are aspiring children’s book makers and yet our first time working with each other came through the Believing is Seeing e-course. Because of how I approach children’s books, working with peace and how we think is a perfect foundation to begin with. I’ve found it profound to watch artist/authors grow deeper into themselves and the strength of their creative expression. Cynthia has inspired me no end inside and outside. My own creative power is strengthened through my experience with her and I feel honored to share in this creative cycling. Here we go!
Maya: Weclome Cynthia! You and I have been working closely together for the last year now. We met in Mira’s Hero’s Art Journey and since then you’ve taken two sessions of The Heart of It course for children’s books as well as Believing is Seeing. So much of this work has to do with transforming your thinking and approaching things in a different way no matter what you’re creating. I’m curious if you sense a shift in your thinking and if so how that may be affecting your creativity?
Cynthia: Hero’s Art Journey was my first experience with you and your work. When I saw you light a candle and the focus of the camera was on your hands working, I knew this was someone I needed to work with. I say needed because there was something that resonated so deeply in the approach. It was an approach from the heart and the heart connection was what I was seeking. I didn’t even realize how much I was seeking this energy until I watched the art process you use.
Since taking online courses from you, beginning with Believing Is Seeing, I see my art and writing differently. I have always believed my creative force comes from Source Energy, but to witness and feel this with a conscience and present energy has deepened my work. I have definitely seen a shift in my thinking from the “old me.” The old me, used to believe that I needed to push myself and stay disciplined to accomplish and successfully produce something of value. The new me sees how I can peacefully create instead of produce. I try to focus on creating with ease and thus connecting to my heart and allowing Source Energy to flow from me effortlessly.
Some of my biggest shifts in my thinking are to look closely at how I and we see and believe something truly is. I’m talking about how I see myself, my beliefs, and my reaction to the world, and how we as a people see each other. These are very big concepts to soak up, but they are the very core of what we are as humans all sharing the same planet. How do we represent each other in our work and how do we INCLUDE each other in our work. Your work focuses largely on inclusive writing and art. This is the stuff that makes us unite! This unity is powerful beyond what we have been existing with and I’m excited to be a part of it.
Maya: Believing is Seeing includes a lot of art prompts and playful creative exploration and expression, I’m curious if that’s had any impact on your children’s books directly or indirectly?
Cynthia: Working in the Believing Is Seeing workbook [I See Peace Book & Journal] gave me the space to “play.” This very concept of “play” is at the core of your work. It is an energy and action that allows Source Energy or the Creative Force to flow from us. This is the energy that allows the heart connection that we all feel whether we are aware of it or not. It’s what drives us as humans and our interactions with each other. It’s the stuff of Light that allows us to connect and create.
It has been almost a year since I took the Believing Is Seeing online course and today I still am reminded to allow myself to come from a place of peace, for peace is at my very core. I am so much more magic and so much larger than I had been living. I am still working on this concept of expansion and need to remind myself often, but no matter what occurs, I am peace. I see peace.
Maya: Developing and creating an entire children’s books is a large endeavor with much to learn, have you noticed peace with you? Is peace a part of your children’s book process? How does peace affect what you create?
Cynthia: Doing the Believing Is Seeing course gave me wings! I can fly around peace and know that it is my foundation and building blocks to create the runway and take flight and soar into limitless possibilities.
Peace is always at the core of what I create. I think about how am feeling when I am creating and how can I translate that energy to my work, so that it can take flight and be received by others. I also think about how someone will feel when they see or read my work. Does it reflect or give them the peace we all desire? Peace is always present for all of us and to take a conscious approach to peace, gives my work the energy of peace. Peace allows me to trust my hands and their creative force.
Maya: You are on the verge of going into final drawings and arte for your first children’s book, what creativity/peace wisdom do you have to share as you approach this milestone?
Cynthia: Creating a book is a process and a milestone that has been coming for a very long time. With internal and external creating, I have given myself the space to create something. The concept of space translates to everything in my life. Do I give space for freedom, space for joy, space for grief, space for love, space for change? Without space I cannot create. Each of us is called forth to create and change the space we exist within. I have been called forth to create a children’s book with the hope to change space.
Maya: Is there anything else you’d like to share? Feel free to ask yourself anything!
Cynthia: If I was to ask myself anything, it would be how do I see myself changing. When I look back on the body of work I have created, each one tells a story about me and where I was at the moment I created that piece of work. I have memories within each piece that is like a journal. It is somewhat a timeline of me and where I have been and even has the seeds planted to what will grow with my future work. My work is ever changing as I change and become aware of my beliefs. Change and awareness are a goal, for without it, I will be the same and create the same work. This practice of creating art is a reflection of my life that is to be ever changing.
Maya: Oh Cynthia! I feel like I’ve gone on a journey just listening to your words. Thank you so much. May the peace continue!
Learn more about:
Believing is Seeing: Daily Journal of Transformation
31 days of life-altering, soul-quenching peace in an invigorating online course that challenges you to commit to your own personal peace revolution and take action to manifest the life you want. You’ll use the book & journal I See Peace as a framework and guide to transform your everyday habits and infuse your life with peace. Let the peace begin January 1st!
More info or to register>>
[29 days ’till Daily Peace] In my Believing is Seeing e-course we use my book I See Peace as the framework, guide and writing/art journal. We work through it spread by spread over 31 days. For my next interview, I talk with Marta who took the course in January however she latched onto I See Peace as soon as it came out in 2012! Marta is a comadre in spirit. We share a great love of peace and freedom. Marta literally takes it to the ends of the Earth! seeding peace in conversations, in hearts and in hands with I See Peace. Peace is global. It was only natural that she would be my translator for the book into Spanish. I’m so happy to share all her words.
Maya: Welcome Marta! You love to give I See Peace as a gift, no one has been as prolific at this as you. Why do you do it and do you see results?
Marta: I love to give copies of I See Peace
because I love it
I love its simplicity
It makes me happy and I want to spread the joy
I See Peace
distills peace
into being
palpable
recognizable
achievable
I have seen a range of responses & results
I translated the first copy I saw when the project crowdfunded and then had the honor of doing it for real to publish.
My friend Paul wrote a personal manifesto in his copy.
A traveler I met in Spain left it, conscious or not, behind.
Most people though they love it, do not immediately get its depth.
It is one of those books that sneaks up on you in a profound way.
Maya: How do you bring peace up with people? is it easy to talk about?
Marta: Sometimes during a trying time, I will use that pregnant pause. I use that silence as a place to invoke love & peace from that deepest part of my soul. I remind myself that right NOW that I am angry, upset, scared, pissed off, hurt, in crisis is when I most need that all embracing sensation of peace to be with me/us today and always.
Maya: Why is peace so important to you? How has this book or this course served you in your life pursuit of peace?
Marta: Why do I breathe?
Peace of being
Serenity of mind >is the highest expression of love in action
Acceptance of self
Anything I have ever created has come from my most peaceful center.
Focusing on peace, beginning with oneself, appears to me to be the most effective manner in which to feel, or do, something personally to be the change, I want to see in the world.
I see peace validates what is at my core though life may distract me. It helps me remember when I forget or venture away.
Maya: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Marta: THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART FOR CREATING SUCH A BEAUTIFUL EXPRESSION OF WHO I AM OF WHO WE ARE AS A HUMAN RACE XXOX
Maya: It’s amazing to be met in others. Tu eres mi otro yo. We are peace. Thank you for walking with me Marta and allowing others to hear your song as we go.
Learn more about:
Believing is Seeing: Daily Journal of Transformation
31 days of life-altering, soul-quenching peace in an invigorating online course that challenges you to commit to your own personal peace revolution and take action to manifest the life you want. You’ll use the book & journal I See Peace as a framework and guide to transform your everyday habits and infuse your life with peace. Let the peace begin January 1st!
More info or to register>>
personal heart social heart
meditating just now i had a vision of my two hearts. my personal heart is where i negotiate my own life, my own lessons. i have taken great care to heal my personal heart. i have learned many fabulously challenging lessons and amazingly found what i can call lasting peace. finally.
i pay good attention to keeping my personal heart strong because i know it affects everything in my life. my work, my relationships, my parenting, my sense of well being, my connection to nature, my activism. i have learned to allow all of my feelings to flow freely and this keeps my heart clear. my personal heart.
then there is my social heart. this is where i negotiate being in community. i have always worked to keep this heart flowing as well. recently the current affairs, especially in ferguson have been both extremely sad and angering. i have even at times said, we are living in hell. this heart feels and flows, but it wasn’t until recently that i realized some people think this is the same as my personal heart. sweetsweet people have reached out thinking i am in personal pain and suffering.
while my personal heart very much connects and supports my social heart, i am expressing my social heart. i will not say that it is comfortable or easy to keep my social heart flowing in these times. my personal heart has learned through experiences of domination and being scapegoated, so i have empathy. but i know that this is not affecting me personally. personally i am fine. and if and when my social heart begins to burden my personal heart, i always take time out to attend to my personal heart.
i continue to learn how to keep my social heart open and strong. feel all the feelings. allow them to flow through and not get stuck. apply what i have learned with my personal heart while knowing all along that my personal heart is separate and sound. this gives me the strength i need to keep having the sane response of rage and grief without being weighed down and unable to act with power. because i have attended to my personal heart these strong feelings do not attach there.
i have two hearts. one is my heart of hearts, my private lessons and life.
and one is the heart i share with everyone. our common heart. the heart that is learning with everyone else to negotiate true equality once and for all.
i open this heart. i keep my feelings flowing however uncomfortable. i express and do not repress with the hope that the more i do this, the more heart we can share as a people. our one shared heart.
tu eres mi otro yo.
[30 days ’till Daily Peace] As the countdown continues to my 2015 Believing is Seeing e-course, I thought I’d take these next few days of December to check in with a few students who took the course this past January 2014. Many of them have continued to engage with the materials long after the “official” end of the course and several have continued to take classes with me. For my first interview I’d like to share Judith’s story. We have been working together for over a year connecting peace with children’s books and personal transformation. It has been a great honor to witness Judith journey. She is amazing.
Maya: Welcome Judith! You have quite possibly been the most engaged person, besides my own self, with the peace materials than anyone. I’m curious what draws you to this work in particular?
Judith: Basically I’m drawn to this Peace work as I have a very deep desire to connect with Peace or Spirit and Creativity with a big C. I know now all three are one and the same. That big desire is coupled with a drive, and underneath a strong fear, to evolve or transform from the traumatized, abused little girl I was. She rarely knew what Peace could be or what it could feel like unless she was reading a book or playing with her dolls. So it’s a motivation from the inside out into the real essence of me through creativity. Doing the Peace course is an affirming, healing, and being vehicle for this transformation.
Maya: You have proven to be quite an adept and your commitment to your true self is beautiful. Believing is Seeing has a lot of layers and different ways of engaging and it can affect many areas of your life. Do you feel differently about some area of your life because of your peace work?
Judith: Oh, yes! I do feel much more at peace overall. Most deeply, I believe more in me as an artist and am now beginning to be able to draw my deepest heart stories, especially the hardest heart-ache ones. Now that I’ve begun this journey of drawing these heart stories. I can’t wait to evolve this ability. The other day I was listening to an interview with Harold Bloom, one of the foremost experts on Shakespeare. He said that Shakespeare made each one of his thousands of characters, even the minor ones, a unique, identifiable, individual. Imagine if I could draw and write my characters that way!!
Maya: You seem to be on a journey of profound transformation, what would you say has changed the most for you from engaging with peace in this way?
Judith: Seeing the “Peace Me” and believing in me is the biggest change I have made. I’m not 100% there yet, but at least half-way from when I started January 1, 2014. This is a huge shift from the me who was notoriously lacking in self-esteem. I’m beginning to believe that I may really have a place for me on this Earth and a true purpose in serving children now through creating books for them. I know I was a good teacher for over four decades in inner cities, but I am trusting I can expand that service to more children through books and Peace and Being Me.
Maya: Is there anything else you’d like to share? feel free to ask yourself anything!
Judith: I am grateful that I am now connecting with Peace even when it’s rough and revealing of the dirt-mud parts of me. Peace helps me turn or transform the mud into diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and especially turquoise, which is my birthstone! I can now embrace that wounded little girl inside of me and let her draw and write more to her heart’s content. I can also embrace more fully the real children in my life. Children truly are so precious to me.
Maya: Thank you so much for sharing and allowing more of us to witness your transformation. I love seeing your strength come forward! I’m excited too that you’ll be joining me again in 2015 for another round of Believing is Seeing!
Learn more about:
Believing is Seeing: Daily Journal of Transformation
31 days of life-altering, soul-quenching peace in an invigorating online course that challenges you to commit to your own personal peace revolution and take action to manifest the life you want. You’ll use the book & journal I See Peace as a framework and guide to transform your everyday habits and infuse your life with peace. Let the peace begin January 1st!
More info or to register>>
[31 days ’till Daily Peace] As we begin December, we turn our attention toward my Believing is Seeing e-course starting January 1st, 2015 and explore the many faces and journeys of peace. Because I cannot ignore the current state of affairs in Ferguson and the US, I wanted to begin by focusing on what peace is and what it is not, beyond the many misconceptions and illusions that keep us always seemingly striving for a peace we can never attain or hold on to. Now is the time to understand peace for ourselves. The stronger peace is within us, the stronger our actions to change the status quo toward equality for ourselves, our children and all people.
Peace is not…
Peace is…
The two most true things I can sayPeace is not what I thought it was
and what it is
cannot be taken away.
The more we understand the true nature of peace for ourselves
The more likely we will be able to create it in the world around us
The revolution is always now.
Peace begins within.
Be the revolution.
Learn more about:
Believing is Seeing: Daily Journal of Transformation
31 days of life-altering, soul-quenching peace in an invigorating online course that challenges you to commit to your own personal peace practice, remove blocks and take action to create the life you want. You’ll use the book & journal I See Peace as a framework and guide to transform your everyday habits and infuse your life with peace.
More info or to register>>
i have been making children’s books since 1995, but i have to admit, this was a helluva 9 days.
to start off, i wrote about jacqueline woodson winning the national book award!!! and the series of racist jokes by snicket/handler at the ceremony. just a few days later i wrote about darren wilson not being indicted on the same day my latest book, CALL ME TREE was placed on kirkus reviews’ best picture books of 2014 that celebrate diversity.
what i didn’t write about is how these events affected me as a children’s book author/artist/activist on a deep, personal level. i want to write about this aspect because i remember 1995 and how shocked and amazed i was that someone like me got to have a voice in the world. i want to use that voice to sing OUT LOUD about what i’ve learned and contribute to the long song about how we as queers, as women and people of color have voice and belong. all of us. all the time. everywhere. including in children’s books.
i decided to write and be specific about it after a moment of crystallized perception. thursday (“thankgiving”) i was contacted for the second time by someone who doesn’t know me. i was amazed.
this experience seemed to drive home what was happening for me. and if this was happening for me it may be happening to others.
the day i wrote about jacqueline woodson i felt angry. i could see the function of ‘public shaming’ and call it out in my small way. but that did not prevent what happened for the rest of the evening. it snuck up on me. little thoughts, background feelings, small at first, but accumulating. by the time evening settled in i was having full blown thoughts in the front of my mind.
i don’t know if i want to pursue children’s books and teaching anymore. i don’t have anything to say that’s not already being said. my voice is pale and insignificant. i just want to paint and go underground again. i want to just be an artist again making private interviews, shielded, semi-reclusive.
at first i thought these were valid thoughts. i considered them seriously. then it dawned on me. these are the exact opposite of all the thoughts i was having prior to witnessing daniel handler’s racist comments. when i realized this i could feel my heart and how heavy it was. it worked! it worked on me!!! the function of public shaming, that i knew full well, had worked on me. ok then.
once i realized it, my strength slowly came back. but it shook me to witness myself change thinking, so easily and so deeply.
a few days later, i got up early and shared that CALL ME TREE was listed on kirkus. i am an enormous supporter of inclusive and gender free books for small children and this was a great opportunity to talk about it. but that same day the darren wilson decision was coming down. it was a terrible day. my heart racing for hours and hours. with all the lying and manipulation already going on, i knew he was not going to be indicted.
i kept being haunted by an experience i had when i was young in eugene, oregon. i was up veryveryearly to work at a small local organic vegetable distributor. there were 3 of us in the car, all lesbians. we got pulled over by the police because the driver had done some small thing outside of the law. when the officer came over, she looked in the car and singled me out. in eugene, oregon being chicana and a freeek really stood out. before i knew it she pulled me out and had me spread eagle on the back of the car on a busy over pass and was patting me down and asking accusatory questions. apparently there was a chicana wanted for prostitution. she even had my same name.
i recently learned that inside the car, the driver, a very religious lesbian, kept asking my partner what i had done wrong. and my partner kept saying, she hasn’t done anything wrong. you did something wrong which is why we got pulled over. maya hasn’t done anything.
after it was verified that darren wilson would not be indicted for killing michael brown, i started having an old feeling of not being safe in the world, even though i live between the castro and the mission (historically queer and latino neighborhoods respectively). this too snuck up on me. it took me a moment to realize why i kept having this memory and that a feeling of unsafeness was sneaking in. the kind of unsafeness that is connected to police and largelarge systems seemingly impossible to call out. when i realized what was going on AGAIN i laughed sadly to myself. i am safe. i said to myself. i am safe, but not everyone is.
i went back and walked through my single, annoying incident in which i was physically safe but profiled and treated aggressively by a female police officer. so faint, not even close to what african american males deal with all the time. in fact, the only thing that stood out as vaguely similar was that the driver kept asking what i had done wrong because i was so obviously the one who could have done something wrong in that car as the chicana.
i was impressed with my multiple responses to these very public experiences. then it hit closer to home. someone i know through facebook, but who i do not know personally messaged me privately:
I see your points about the Ferguson disaster but what is the point in burning down the city you live in? Can you give a logical answer to that question?
a LOGICAL answer
i gave a short, respectful response and kept my feelings to myself. then on thursday, a day matthew and i were actually taking off from work and visiting chosen family out of town i got this:
maya, I have my beloved son as a deputy sheriff, and my son-in[law as a deputy sheriff. I am telling you they do the best that they can. Please don’t make their lives more vulnerable and in danger by this. Most police officers are people.
I really am hurt by what you are saying.
I can’t wait till they can retire, but if good people aren’t in law enforcement, the military will be.
at first i was the model of chill. i kept doing what i was doing. i was not on facebook. matthew had told me when it came through. i said i would handle it politely and be educational later and put it out of my mind. i thought maybe this person had taken a class with me or we had done a session together and she felt safe enough to vent like this on me. then a few hours later my heart started racing. it raced for hours. i felt enormously sad and as if i do not belong in this world even though i was surrounded by deardear family and beautiful trees. then it hit me AGAIN. now people are actually stepping forward in my own life wanting me to prove my perspective by their standards and/or BE SILENT.
then i went back and checked who this person was and realized that they didn’t know me at all and i had no connection with them whatsoever. they had seemingly friended me solely because i’m a children’s book author/artist and they were networking.
i changed my mind about how to respond and wrote this:
i really can’t believe you wrote something like this to me on thanksgiving day. you don’t even know me.
i’ve never written one thing disrespectful of police officers. and in fact hold a prayerful, inclusive place even as i call attention to the historical, sociopolitical power structures within our society that currently affect all disenfranchised people, including the numerous families that have lost their unarmed sons forever.
you didn’t ask questions. you were not looking for dialog. for all intents and purposes you blamed me for your hurt feelings and some idea that I AM putting men in your family in danger and making them more vulnerable. if you think that my posts are endangering your men, i encourage you to read the posts that i post all the way through. don’t read headlines and interpret. they are all thoughtful and insightful and each and every one is intended that we as a people wake up and understand the reality of what’s going on in order to create equality and respect between all people in our country.
sadly your thoughtlessness in this message ruined my day, broke my heart at what people think is ok to act out on complete strangers and firmed my commitment to supporting people waking up to the reality of our current circumstance.
good luck XX. unfortunately because of your style of engagement i have no desire for further contact. i encourage you to educate yourself about the real history of the usa, specifically regarding african americans and attend to your personal feelings of fear. maya
she then tried to engage me by saying:
Some pf my best friends are africa.n americans. Ihabe blood relatives who are too and native americans .some of my best amd dearest friends are hispanic and asian. We are multicultural. I also love my so who is in harms way every day I
i did not respond.
i continue to feel stronger and stronger in my voice as i watch my heart grow through these experiences. whether public or private, they have a very real impact on our hearts and our voices. it is important to see through what’s going on. it is important to keep funding our strength of self, who we are at core and continue to stand strong with the communities that are taking the brunt of oppression right now.
as queer, as woman, as chicana, as artist, as human i support the african american community. as a whole people, we must deal with the power structures of our society that value some and sacrifice others.
shame, safety and silence: the lessons i refuse to learn.
the revolution is always now. xomaya
I have been having a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings, a lot of everything lately! I’ve got about 5 blog posts in different stages of completion, but I love the ones that just pop out with barely any effort.
This is one of those.
I had this idea. It’s based on something I believe, but for some reason I finally played it out a little further. It must be because I’m opening up to a new narrative, new ideas, new ways of imagining the future and how we get there and what actions to take now.
As an activist concerned with full equality, the only action that makes any sense is that based on supporting the disenfranchised and underprivileged of our society. Currently there are a number of communities who fit this bill, but the most privilege-challenged are the black community, the native American community and the trans community. Structurally speaking these communities are getting largely shorted.
So my proposal is that ALL disenfranchised communities (lgbtqi, disabled, religious minorities, elders, women, all ethnic minorities, etc…) make the Black, the Native American and the Trans communities A PRIORITY. if ALL the underprivileged communities united and supported these 3 communities in the ways they asked for, I believe we would make fast progress and we would create powerful alliances.
Once we create some solid ground there, we would then turn our attention to our next most challenged community and throw ALL OUR SUPPORT their way. However, I imagine supporting equality for our most challenged would have a trickle up effect and make any other efforts all the more easy and swift!
The part about ALL underprivileged communities uniting is the part I finally played out in my imagination. I always saw it in the back of my mind, but it’s like it came to the foreground and became more real. A new narrative rising!
I focus on children’s books. They are my preferred tool of transformation. What’s yours? Everyone has something to offer! The revolution is always now. xomaya
(Image by Alexander Girard)
i believe everything is connected and that our life, if viewed through a particular lens, can expose the mythology of our deeper being and life experience.
today feels mythic. elements from different parts of my life feel like they’re rising up around me and i can see clearly the threads that hold them all together.
this morning CALL ME TREE was on kirkus reviews’ BEST PICTURE BOOKS OF 2014 THAT CELEBRATE DIVERSITY. i haven’t had a new children’s book out in 5 years and it was pleasing to know that it could land there. this was a strange comfort on the day they said the darren wilson decision would be announced.
from the review: A seed, depicted as a little boy, nestles deep underground. He wakes up and grows into a strong tree, free yet rooted. When he awakens, he sees other trees, presented on the page as an array of ethnically diverse children, standing and moving in their own ways.
when i reread the review, this stood out: ‘he wakes up and grows into a strong tree, free yet rooted.’
just a few hours ago it was announced that darren wilson would not be indicted for the murder of michael brown. it seemed the obvious conclusion in our current state of affairs, but the audacity of it still stings like the face slap it is.
everything connected.
my heart hurts. and like everyone i know, i’m tired of my heart hurting. but i have worked hard to keep my eyes and my heart open. i don’t want to lose that, so i go with the hurt.
‘he wakes up.’ i listen, hear the myth. waking up. becoming aware. seeing things for what they are. opening to the truth all around.
when St. Louis County prosecutor, Robert P. McCulloch spoke the well crafted words that the grand jury did not indict darren wilson, it was clear to me, seemed beyond obvious… this is wrong. everything is wrong here. how he’s talking. what he’s saying. for a moment i thought it was me. like i was having an emperor’s new clothes moment. i was relieved when i saw the huffington post refer to his announcement as bizarre. something is wrong.
i know what it’s like to be lied to. it can make you feel crazy and powerless if no one believes you. ‘he wakes up and grows into a strong tree.‘ when i trust myself and what i know, when i open my mind and don’t buy the big lies fed to us for generations (and this evening), i grow into myself. as a queer chicana growing into myself is a radical act. and supporting and aligning with more communities like mine is the most sane and natural path. we belong together.
‘he wakes up and grows into a strong tree, free yet rooted.’ this last part is prayerful. may we wake up, grow strong in ourselves, and from that strong place feel our belonging as well as our deep, innate freedom.
darren wilson not being indicted for the murder of michael brown is wrong. the larger systems are wrong. they are based on old lies. now is the time to wake up, grow into the strength beyond the lies. so that one day we can understand what it means to feel free yet rooted. and strong like a tree.
i am deeply grateful that children’s books are a part of my practice. they teach me. they heal me. creating new stories, new visions of inclusion and belonging for our children changes the world. slowly but surely.
thinking of you michael brown.
amidst the trees.
(if you need to make some art or you know some kids who do, you can go here to download drawing pages of strong black youth at kidlitEquality)
#kidlitequality #blackyouthrock
