I’ve shared posts about how I stand with the Black community and I want to help elevate their voices and that I’m learning to confront my own white privilege, white supremacy, & white fragility in an effort to make change within myself, my circle of influence, my community, and ultimately the world we live in.
This isn’t some social media ploy to be trendy. This is truly my heart and I’m not going to get everything right, all the time. I’m human! But I’m also WILLING to learn and do the work. And, if you want to know the truth about it all, I would be doing the work regardless of what’s going on in our society right now because the Lord works in mysterious ways anyways, and one of my grad school classes that I’m in for the summer is Multicultural Counseling. So I would be doing the work anyways, it just so happens that the timing of this self-reflective work is at exactly the right time!
The hard work is happening in real time. A lot of times you’ll take a class for a degree and won’t use that coursework until after graduation and well into your career, right? Well guess what folks, it’s almost as if I’m getting that OJT right now, today, everyday! Some can say that some classes are great in theory but in practice it’s much different. Well, I’m getting to put the theory into practice RIGHT NOW and it’s an amazing experience.
It is also an exhausting experience! I am mentally drained, emotionally spent, physically tired but it’s worth it! I’m here for the tough conversations, heck it’s why I’m going into counseling for crying out loud, literally! I’m here to be a voice for those that feel as though they have no voice, it’s why I’m going into counseling! I’m here to be a part of the solution and not contribute to the problem, it’s why I’m going into counseling!
My whole life, I’ve wanted to help people. Whether that meant to help them build character through sport, build self-love through friendship, or build confidence through community; I’ve always known I’m made to help other people be the best versions of themselves! Now is no different. Now, I just see the scope of my reach just expanding further than I realized before.
Don’t shy away from the hard things. It’s fine to get back to posting your normal posts, but keep sharing your heart to stand up for those that need you to stand with them. To my black friends, I know you know I love you and I know you know I’m here to listen (about anything, but especially about what you’re struggling with right now). I will never pretend to understand what it’s like to be you, but I will always extend my love and my voice, to build you up and make you even stronger. Together, we can do the hard things and make the necessary changes. I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner, just exactly how I could have been helping all along, but my eyes have been opened, and my heart has made even more room, to continue learning and changing.
To my white friends, I know you know I love you and I know you know I’m here to listen (about anything, but especially about what you’re struggling with right now). I will never pretend that I’m exactly like you and that our experiences have been the exact same, but I will likely be able to relate very closely with what you’ve experienced. We may not see eye to eye, initially, on the matters of the world right now. But it’s my hope that after we’ve talked, that you can at least see things a little differently and that your heart will be opened a little more as well.
I know I’ve not done enough in my lifetime to make an impact on systemic change of any kind, and I won’t pretend that I have. I will tell you about someone that I fiercely admire and respect, that has been doing the work necessary, for a really long time and it’s time that we stand with her even more so now than ever and support her journey and that’s the beautiful, strong, amazingly talented Simone Cottrell! Simone, I don’t tell you often enough, just how proud I am to know you and I can only hope that our friendship continues to grow. You’re amazing, I love you, and I am so so proud of the many wonderful, and even hard, things you have done for social justice efforts in your area. You are seen and you are loved!
A drop of resilience. A path to wholeness. 