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In this episode, I recommend the book Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, and speak into the process of letting it mirror me. I point out that often those at the center, or in the contrived dominant caste, are led through healing journeys that can be hyper-individualized, and the resiliency needed for collective healing, and decentering, can be hard to find, or to build. The books I reference are Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah's book Unsettling Truths - The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, as well as Resmaa Manekem's book My Grandmother's Hands, and The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. The album I mention is Sanctuary - Exploring the Healing Path (with James Finley) , and you can listen to it below, or get it at my gift economy store.
4 Comments
nancy hendricks
4/18/2021 04:57:00 pm
I ordered Caste and Grandmother's Hands. Thank you for the suggestion.
Alana
4/20/2021 05:30:20 pm
Wonderful Nancy.
april brenneman
4/19/2021 08:38:32 am
thank you, Alana. It seems that your posts always connect with my own journey and readings and introspection. I've noticed that my own trauma healing journey has connected me with the collective trauma healing. Even as a young girl, I could feel the whole trauma of society. As I raised my 5 children one of them having cancer, the collective trauma waned as I hyperfocused on my family trauma. The residuales of which continue. That carried over for a decade and once again, I feel the expansion of myself from micro to macro. There is consistently a tension that I carry about "what should I do?" for the whole. You named keeping vigil. This feels holy. Spirit leads us to our individual calling which cannot not connect to the whole. I often feel myself move from a single cell image to a whole body image of society and then out further to a universe image. All connected, all one, all sacred, All Love. Thank you for the reminder once again, as a white woman to step from myself to the whole. For me it feels like a dance.
Alana
4/20/2021 05:42:31 pm
Thanks so much April for sharing your difficult journey and for seeing the wider story. My heart is with you and all the days you spent caring for your child. The more we can move out of a Caste system, the more we can support each other no matter who we are, as we go through life's challenges. It is a whole systems thing not an individual thing. Caste keeps us from holding each other as we all endure heart-wrenching trials. And caste also makes some people go through their day being racialized, while also dealing with all the other traumas that life can bring. So far to go... but the collective trauma of white people needs healing... we've been so hyper-individualized and we have a violent history... and the family nucleus holds on for dear life... and the pressure is always ON for us to show only our "together" side like perfect islands. Real beloved community doesn't look like that! Leave a Reply. |
AuthorAlana Levandoski is a song and chant writer, recording artist and music producer, in the Christian tradition, who lives with her family on a regenerative farm on the Canadian prairies. Archives
January 2022
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