My Home, My Perspective
New Orleans & The Deep South
Various streams of my family have lived in and around New Orleans for generations. My earliest memories are of her waters - the stillness of Lake Pontchartrain to the North and the power of the Mississippi River to the South - but I could always sense the complex contradictions of her Dark Beauty - of her regal, sprawling oaks whispering of past horrors while lovingly accepting children swinging through their branches. The sweetness of honeysuckle, jasmine and magnolia wafting through thick, humid air, belying the pain-soaked soil below. Soil that holds the memories of the original Indigenous inhabitants of this land , of those who were brought here against their will and enslaved, and of those who came here fleeing their own injustices only to inflict and perpetuate similar cycles of violence.
The dark, potent humus of decay catalyzes new life, new hope: her curse / blessing of Resilience.
The atrocities and lingering effects of her past interweave with the revelry and boundless joy of her many well-known celebrations. The rapture and grief, unity and separation, all exist together in her embrace, informing the other in a dance of continuous co-creation springing from the same source - the raw emotion of destruction and creation.
She is a constant teacher of Paradox.
Paradox
from the Greek para- ("beyond" or "outside of") + dokein ("to think"), forming "paradoxos," meaning "contrary to expectation."The absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence.
To think beyond.
Beyond what we Perceive to be Real. Beyond the appearance of our sunsets and sunrises, of the stars in the sky, of the experience of our physical forms, of seeing as believing.
When did we forget our curiosity, our wonder, our awe? When did we forget how to see? To see not with our eyes but with our whole being, to feel our perception?
Although we perceive that it is the sun which rises and sets in the sky, it is our counterclockwise rotation with the Earth around the sun that provides that perspective. The light we perceive in the night sky as stars in our present reality is a moving record of what once was, traveling sometimes millions of years from our past before reaching our eyes.
We exist in paradox.
But Dogma doesn’t like Paradox. It wants rules and order, right and wrong, incontrovertible truths that are imposed from an Authority, knowledge that is static and unyielding, that says “This is so!” And while some find comfort in the order that Dogma creates, it can become corrupt from its own power, denying others their own, shaming and ostracizing non-conformers.
Dogma weakens when cracks in its absolutism begin to show, when perspectives are shifted, hearts are opened, and consciousness is expanded by facing that which we have been avoiding.
Reckoning
an accounting, as for things received or doneNo more avoidance. If you desire evolution, you encounter the things that you fear. Ultimately, it comes down to accountability - having the courage to face - and the ability to see - all aspects of one’s self - the light, the dark, and everything inbetween, and take responsibility for all of those aspects, their manifestations and creations.
The only way out is through.
Reconciliation
from Latin re- ‘back’ + conciliare ‘bring together’.Evolution and growth are often uncomfortable and difficult. Once we allow ourselves to look at all we have placed in the shadows - our fear, our shame, our resentment and rage - towards ourselves, our lineage, and others - we can begin reconciliation by allowing ourselves to feel it all. Acceptance, self-forgiveness and compassion facilitate the re-assembly of ourselves into wholeness.
But you must believe it is possible.
Integration
combine something with another so that they become a wholeAs we acknowledge all facets of our Self with compassion and neutrality, the pain lessens and the constriction eases, providing more space to hold the complexities. The sharp edges begin to heal, and we call ourselves back into integrity. We no longer have to deny, suppress or ignore. We are free to act from a place of truth, of whole-heartedness. We glean lessons from the trauma, we extract medicine from the poison.
We are able to exist in paradox without cognitive dissonance…
…so that we may re-member our selves in this time and place with hearts healed and open…
This Body. This Time. This Place.
absence beyond presence
presence beyond absence
absence beyond presence presence beyond absence