To live justly we must constantly walk through the doorway of our shared inheritance.
The most effective and long-lasting approach to racial justice work is the fruit of individuals who do their own inner healing work as well. Mindfulness teacher Rhonda V. Magee offers this guided meditation in her book The Inner Work of Racial Justice:
We live in a culture in which we have lost touch with the unfathomable richness of our true human inheritance and with the imperative that we honor it, share it, and pass it on.
Take a few moments to reflect on what you view as some of the many positive aspects of our shared human inheritance. Consider anything from language, to the capacity to cultivate and share the foods we eat, to music, and to the various ways we have learned to thrive.
What are some of the things that the broad family of human beings have passed down through the ages that you value most?
What have you been given as a result? What more are you willing to give back?
Now allow this inquiry to dissolve, and as you do so, let your awareness expand. Drop into the silence and let go, as best you can, of the sense of yourself, of your efforts and needs as apart from others. Allow your sense of self to soften. As you breathe in and out, imagine your human life story as a river, flowing into the ocean of humanity, all a part of the more than human world.
Rest in the ocean of awareness, and all of its powerful possibilities from here.
Now allow yourself to return to the feeling of yourself in this body, in this place, in this very moment. Gather and center the sense of yourself as a body and being with lived experience that matters, in a world of others. Allow yourself to feel strong in your being and gifts, even as you interconnect with the experiences and heritages of others. Separate individuality and common humanity may come together in your awareness now.
Gently allow yourself to feel the “both/and” of your own deep identity.
Weekly Summary. Living Justly.
Sunday. Making Wrongs Right. Where Hope Lies.
Monday. Threads of Faith. What Binds Us Together.
Tuesday. Saving Help. Being Healed.
Wednesday. Filling Gaps. More Workers.
Thursday. Sowing Justice. Compassion and Forgiveness.
Friday. Valuing My Gifts. Effort On My Part
Smitten With Goodness 