Falling and Feeling, Rising and Realizing

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Inspired by today:

Black History Month

National Get Up Day

National Freedom Day

 
Monday, February 1, 2021 – 2.1.2021.  I like it. The first of a new month. The first workday of a new week. A day as well as a month that signals some important things in all of our lives. I had never heard of National Get Up Day and learned that it was created by ice skaters – a sport where you quickly learn that when you fall, you get up. It’s something that we all must learn and learn to appreciate in some form or another as it builds resilience and allows us to grow. Whether we have this in our instinctive repertoire as infants who learned to walk, or from harsh moments in life that once threw us down and we somehow got up whether gracefully or not, whether from self-inflicted or externally motivated forces that we somehow rose out of, the human experience is never without having to pick our positives up and brush our negatives off. What can happen is that we fall down and then forget what or who it took to get us up and then we fall again and again with our focus on the down and not the up. That’s why I love a new day, a new week, a new month, a new perspective from a source I didn’t realize had declared this National Get Up Day!
 
Wednesday, February 1, 1865:  National Freedom Day is one that is recognized as a pivotal moment in history.  This day, 156 years ago, President Lincoln signed the resolution that proposed the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery. As our world perpetuates systemic racism and white privilege and white supremacy feel threatened, we are also quite far from being free of modern day slavery. And during the pandemic, it’s predicted there are worse conditions happening in the sex trafficking world in particular.  Read the article, “As the Global Economy Melts Down, Human Trafficking is Booming” – foreignpolicy.com.  (Also read, “Sex Trafficking is Still Happening – and May Be More Violent Than Ever” – polarisproject.org).  It’s apparent that at some level of human consciousness, awareness of other beings and especially black men, women and children who become forced into slavery and trafficking is recognized as an abhorrent treatment of fellow human beings when at one time it was commonly agreed to being just fine.
 

“Major Richard Robert Wright Senior, a former slave who founded the National Freedom Day Association, played a crucial role in creating the observance. Major Wright was deemed as a community leader in Philadelphia and was active in education, the media, business and politics. He hoped to see a day that would be dedicated to celebrating freedom for all Americans.” – timeanddate.com

 

 

“When Carter G. Woodson established Negro History week in 1926, he realized the importance of providing a theme to focus the attention of the public. The intention has never been to dictate or limit the exploration of the Black experience, but to bring to the public’s attention important developments that merit emphasis.” – https://asalh.org

 
 
1915-1970’s: Carter G. Woodson is given credit as starting the wave as early as 1915 to increase awareness of contributions by African Americans in American culture. What started off as Negro History and Literature Week turned into a month long celebration of Black History Month by the early 1970’s. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History has been offering themes for each year since 1928.  For 2021, this year’s theme is – The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity. Here’s a pdf from : https://asalh.org.  The first themes being noted are from 1928: Civilization: A World Achievement. In 1929: Possibility of Putting Negro History in the Curriculum. Possibility?  Well, I suppose that’s good that it was even brought up for conversation. But I wonder how much they argued around how exactly to explain the history or to bend it and tell a story of convenience. It would be nice to sit back and realize how far we’ve come since then and appreciate our world’s achievements, but it’s clear we still have quite a ways to go and that even some of what has been done unfortunately perpetuated an untold story. When we can at the very least acknowledge ignorance and wish for the light of wisdom to reveal our true stories and our true selves, then there is hope for humanity. When we get tired out and weak, jaded and suspicious, locked in fear and doubt, filled with misinformation, then we most certainly will struggle to remember the connection to the innate power of transformation that resides within each and every one of us.  We will convince ourselves of made up stories that when told enough times, become the most convincing truth we’ve ever heard.  Well that sounds familiar…

Online references over the last few years that I found helpful to review:

How history textbooks reflect America’s refusal to reckon with slavery – vox.com

Interesting and lesser known facts of Black History at pbs.org

Statistics on the miseducation in American schools at nytimesmagazine.com

Books:

Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies

 

This is from last year but I think still a good list:

https://www.blackenterprise.com/best-black-books-black-history-month/

 

Here are some references to learn, unlearn and relearn as Dr. Frantonia Pollis taught me when taking action through education.  

 

African American History Books

ASALH Invites You to Attend the 2021 Virtual Black History Month Festival. Several events are free and open to the public on ASALH TV, the association’s premier YouTube channel! Click on the images above.

It always will be that in our own life and in the world at large, we will fall. And when we fall, it hurts.  But still we must get up.  If we allow the feelings to dominate the experience, we might only wish to soothe and stay down and possibly get lost in the the pain. It actually might hurt to get up and rise up.  But it’s a different type of pain, more like what we call growing pains.  Like how cultivating a new habit can be hard when a part of us wants to stay right where we’ve been.  Can we keep moving through the discomfort and reach the point where we rise?  Do we need that extra hand or that extra voice or that helpful smile?  And by rising, we have the chance to realize how we fell in the first place and how we might be more than we allowed ourself to be. And by falling we might recognize what pushed us to our changing point. 

Falling and rising will happen again and again in many different ways. I believe this is part of the path versus expecting that we will grow to our greatest potential by having everything go smoothly and as planned. The conflict and the resolution, the error and the amends, the blaming then forgiving are often the necessary ingredients that design the pathways to locate everlasting Peace.  And I believe we have a direct line to live a life of excellence once we’ve accepted our story as the one required for our transformation.  We either forgot how to access our highest self or the world hasn’t known how to make space for us to shine.  And as history has shown, we also have a world that has wished for our death. Our medicine is to do what we can to rise and realize we are all meant to be here in spite of that.  If that strength isn’t there, then we do what we can to remove anything that drains our life force energy and add in anything that supports it.  One day at a time, one positive influence at a time, even our own affirmation daily can shift the way our heart and mind function all the way down to the cellular level.

 

May we each realize that we are valuable members of this changing world, even when it is our smile that soothes the one who is struggling. May we accept where we have been ignorant and be willing to educate and elevate ourselves with healthy perspectives of Peace. May we take care of the one body that we’ve been given in order to love ourself just enough so that we can love one another.  When we fall may we find acceptance, and may we rise with humble wisdom.

 

Let’s stay connected,

Marc Morozumi

Owner and Director of Mukunda Yoga Center

 

 

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