Learn to Just Let the Tears Fall. · R.I.S.E. and Shine Collective

Jul 4 (edited) • Ask Me Anything—Open Coaching

Learn to Just Let the Tears Fall.

Today, I am grieving the version of me that innocently and innocuously celebrated the 4th of July for the first 25 years of my life.

That attended fireworks displays, staring up at the sky with wonder and awe at the explosive spectacle of light, sound and color.

The United States of America was always painted to us as the pinnacle of freedom and democracy. A picture of progress and the embodiment of limitless opportunity.

I grieve the little girl that thought slavery was a moment in time. A complicated history that was corrected and as such, justice was served.

It was not corrected. It was covered. Buried. Hidden. Attempted to be rewritten.

But there can be no reconciliation without repair.

So as memories of rose-colored flag glasses, Old Navy t-shirts and firecrackers on the front porch fade into the distance of my memory, I come into consciousness.

We are living in a world where suffering is so normalized, where partisan politics are so weaponized and white supremacy is so violent that dozens of white men can now, in broad daylight, unhooded and undeterred, vote against basic human dignity in at least seven different variatiants including but not limited to revoking healthcare, ending SNAP benefits, and violently detaining citizens and parents of citizens on the basis of race.

And because we have normalized it, we can no longer control it.

So if today you need to just let the tears fall, do that.

If you need to write and write and scream and write until your fingers fall off, do that.

If you need to cancel everything and sit in a dark room, do that.

But if you feel the need to take up space today, do that too. You can start here.

Write how you’re feeling below.

Tell me what comes up for you.

You don’t have to have a solution.

You don’t have to find a bright side.

It’s okay if it feels like there isn’t one.

This is your community, and it is protected to the best of my ability so that you can say whatever is on your mind.

Please use it if you need it.