Breathe in Hope
Breathe out Hate
Breathe in Healing
Breathe out Hostility
Breath - we so take it for granted but in each breath we find life, in each breath we receive and in each breath we let go.
Our world is full of beautiful things for us to breathe in but so too is our world, our lives, our bodies full of that which we must release - pain, anger, fear to name only a few.
There is always going to be something in the news to give us pause. This week it is the death of Jessica Hernandez, a 17 year old girl who was shot and killed by police while driving a stolen car and hitting an officer with said car. I don't pretend to know the specifics of what happened on Monday night, or the character of this girl but I do believe that there is something here we must let go of. We seem to have an understanding that guns, or bombs - that violence protects us, but again and again that doesn't prove true.
Friends and family are grieving the death of this girl, the police who were given weapons to kill must face their role in this, and the rest of us are left wondering if there is such a thing as safety at all. I don't know many 17 year olds who would believe that aggressive driving would lead the police to kill them. Maybe this needs to be a conversation about authority. Some have taken the threat very seriously issuing instructions: 10 Rules of Survival if Stopped by the Police. This specifically targets young black men whose stories are only now coming to the forefront of public view. But I wonder, would something have changed if Jessica had seen this video? Is that our best hope?
Or can we hope that someday we will realize that violence leads to fear which leads to violence. That we are stuck in a cycle of death. When will we finally have enough and begin the work of dismantling the systems and assumptions that exist on the belief that safety only comes through force when in fact none of us are safe. Nor should safety be our goal. Our goal is not for my kids to be safe while someone elses child is shot - our goal must be finding ways to hold each other accountable in ways that do not reflect that which we are trying to stop.
I offer no solutions, but maybe a start...the next time you are afraid...breathe out fear, breath in love...and keep breathing.
