I recently attended a retreat focused on entering the new year with clarity, compassion, and courage. I left the retreat thinking about people who embodied these attributes; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to the top of the list. I added fearlessness! Today we continue to reflect on and honor Dr. King’s legacy that calls us here in these United States of America and beyond, closer still to justice and collective, true peace.
These are hard times, times that call for great clarity. We risk evolving into more despair and violence if we are not clear headed in our thinking. Dr. King, in the midst of the violence of anti-Blackness and the 1960s Civil Rights movement, called on love to strengthen him and to remind him of compassion for his enemies: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” This deep compassion required wholesome courage and fearlessness. Together clarity, compassion, courage and fearlessness fueled him in the midst of violence to turn toward love, and have the strength to stay in a powerful love of justice.
In the midst of these chaotic times, many are fatigued and tired of the unknown of the next COVID19 variant; adapting to and/or grieving an anemic government that shows no leadership and instead seek only to bolster greed, division, and hatred; depressed and stressed out from a climate disaster brought on by the three poisons Dr. King named (racism, poverty, and militarism).
In these times, we can turn toward ancestors who went through great difficulties and resisted with love. On a day when we honor Dr. King and his legacy, let’s truly honor all of him by lifting up him in us. Let us get to clarity by slowing down and being aware of ourselves so we can take care of what needs to be cared for to act from presence and not from old stories. When we pause, we remember who we are, we remember compassion; our compassionate action comes from a bigger place, a place of clarity. We understand we must practice non-violence and have the courage to do so, even while someone might be acting toward us with violence; because compassion and courage comes from clarity. Compassion is not weak, it is courageous, it is fierce, and acts toward balance, justice. Our fearlessness in the face of all forms of adversity must be wholesome. We can reach all this when we pause and find the stillness to look deeply. We recognize that we have the courage to act with a bigger heart than our so-called enemies…heck, we remember we have a heart! We are able to see that we are part of have a bigger goal: our peace of mind that leads to the liberation of the collective.
If we are to live into Dr. Kings’ legacy, we cannot continue with the same attitudes of greed, hatred, and ignorance of those causing environmental harm, racial and social injustice, and government corruption. We call on the spirit of Dr. King, the ancestors, inviting them into our struggle for justice and collective healing today. We honor them by committing to developing our clarity, compassion, fearlessness, and courage on this path of true liberation.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Presente!