The Liberation of Healing

We all deserve liberation. When we leave our thoughts or our traumas unexamined and, therefore, unhealed we tell our bodies we don’t deserve freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. We all deserve liberation! Freedom is our birthright.

When I first began to examine my thoughts on race I struggled. I am white and was brought up in an upper middle class neighborhood. I had a lot of privileges and didn’t want to accept that hard work wasn’t always the answer. Then I went to a mostly minority college and got my eyes opened. I was one lucky kid, and I had a lot to think about.

Recently we marked Juneteenth in America. Juneteenth commemorates when the last African-Americans found out they had been emancipated from enslavement. Slavery is a generational trauma that every American carries, black folks especially, but I’ve come to understand that I carry it in a way too.

Being in that mostly minority college showed me that I had attitudes and thoughts that weren’t true about other people that looked different from me or that were raised differently than me. Everyday to this day, I have to examine my thoughts and attitudes about people that look different from me to see if I am acting from those untrue places. That’s called working to be antiracist, and it is a lifelong work for me. I know it is a generational trauma brought on by slavery among other things, and working through it everyday brings me closer to liberation. I want that, and I’m worth that.

Maybe you don’t feel like your work lies in race, but somewhere else. Wherever your work in consciousness lies I know you are worth the hard work it takes to get to liberation. We are all worth healing.

When we heal we become a more open conduit for God to come into this world. When we’re gummed up with trauma and unhealed thoughts God stays in the background. We all lose out when that happens. I urge you to be courageous and engage in your healing! We’re all worth it, and we all win when we heal.    

I wish you liberation!