The Question
How do you ground?
The Intention
Settle
The Meditative Moment
Last Friday some friends who moved out of state were back for a visit. “How have you all been handling everything?” she asked. Those of us gathered were a bit flummoxed. How do we answer that? For many of us with white skin, we were never really in danger, but we have been afraid for people in our communities. We’ve heard stories. We’ve made grocery runs. We’ve donated or witnessed or whistled or trained or protested or written or comforted. The toll has been heavy. And it is nothing in comparison to what immigrants in our communities experienced and are experiencing. The political trauma Minnesota has gone through is significant. Having someone ask directly about it was a reminder that, though much as returned to “normal,” we are not living in normal times. Every once in a while, I feel myself swoop, like I’m being caught in a wave of “what the heck?” My friend’s question catalyst for the swoop. The following morning I read an article about citizenship, naturalization, and immigration in the April 2 issue of the London Review of Books. Yesterday I realized I hadn’t really settled after the discussion and the reading. So I placed one hand on my heart and the other on my belly and took some breaths. Coming fully into the present. Allowing the swoop to provide perspective about how strange these months (years, really) have been but coming back to this moment, this place, this okayness, this privilege of presence. How are we handling it? Are we? One hand to the heart, one to the belly. Inhale, exhale. Swoop, settle. A yo-yo of astonishment and rage, gratitude and community. An attempt to stabilize the self in the hopes that a ripple of peace reverberates from me to you.
