We Have an Opportunity to Heal
Beloveds,
As I prepare to launch Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief, I have been reflecting on the journey of writing it and all the synchronicities that occurred along the way. Writing Finding Refuge was a shamanic journey. One where I had to dive into the depths of my own grief, allow it to move through me, and extract teachings and medicine from the material and spiritual realms. Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief is a call to unearth all that is in the way of us turning toward our hearts and allowing grief to pass through. It is a call to action that asks readers to connect with their hearts as a way of building their capacity to be present to what is in the way of our collective liberation. Finding Refuge is an homage to all the Black people who have been taken from us by white supremacy. It is a reminder of our connection with all sentient beings and a Spirit-filled book—a reminder that we are in fact divine beings.
When I turned in my manuscript to Shambhala Publications they responded with great excitement and a publication date of August 15, 2021. After reviewing the manuscript, they discovered that it would take less time than anticipated to complete all the tasks that must happen to make a manuscript become a book and be birthed in the world. They moved my publication date up to July 13, 2021. I felt great about an earlier release date for this work of art I had spent so much time writing. I plodded along, preparing for the launch, scheduling events, having marketing assets made, and planning a launch party for the book!
Just a few weeks ago, on the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, May 25, 2021, someone posted on Instagram about Finding Refuge. They posted their experience of reading the first few lines of the introduction, which read:
I remember the morning after. I was in bed, unable to rise up and face the day. I had gone out to dinner with a friend the night before and had come home to the news that George Zimmerman had been acquitted for the murder of Trayvon Martin. I was standing in my kitchen, holding my phone, and I fell to the floor upon reading the news.
As I think about the morning after now, I still feel waves of grief move through my body. That moment was pivotal for me and brought forth deep ancestral trauma and immense and catalyzing grief. That moment changed my life forever.
Shortly after the post came through on Instagram and into my feed, I saw a comment someone made in response to the post. A person commented that she remembers the day George Zimmerman was acquitted well. She was in Florida at the time with two other Black mothers and the moment was equally immense and catalyzing for her. It felt as if the entire world shifted on its axis and that nothing would ever again be the same.
George Zimmerman was acquitted on July 13th, 2013, the same day the Black Lives Matter movement emerged in the wake of a boy-child returning home from the store with candy in his hand who was murdered for being Black. My publication date for Finding Refuge is exactly eight years after this pivotal moment—July 13, 2021. To say this is just a coincidence would be a snub to Spirit and my ancestors. This is Spirit and the ancestors at work. They remind us the work of dismantling systems of oppression is timeless and the lessons we need to learn to make change are still needing to be taught to us.
Finding Refuge is an homage to Trayvon. A call to remind us how much work we still have yet to do. While some may feel as if so much has changed over the last eight years, so much is still the same. If we want to tear up white supremacy at its core, we have to dismantle the very foundation in which it is embedded. It is embedded in the bedrock of America and colonization is embedded in the bedrock around the globe.
An excerpt from Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief:
We are being guided to rise up. There is a collective call for history to cease repeating itself, and instead to make reparations and valuing Black Lives an essential practice. We have an opportunity to reveal what most of us feel: deep heartbreak, resilience, and the desire to heal and come back into balance and wholeness, individually and collectively. We have an opportunity to heal.
My hope is Finding Refuge serves as an answer to the call and a resource for healing.
If you want to learn more about Finding Refuge, visit my new Finding Refuge website.
And if you are interested, I have several activities planned for the week of my book launch! More on on my events calendar.
In love and solidarity,
Michelle