I'll walk with you anywhere

Spiritual resource to share: humility




The Ojibway work “Dodaem” means “That from which one draws one’s purpose, one’s meaning, one’s being”, and comes from the root word “Doodem”- to fulfill, and “Doodosh”- that from which I draw my substance.



There has been a slow boiling racism going on in this community for years between the Ojibway (Anishinabe) and whites. Moving here last year, I hardly noticed it right away, but little by little, different experiences came my way that indicated this was a problem with deep roots.

Recently there were racist threats at the high school, a preventative lockdown was called and now there are regular community meetings happening -- all in the efforts to heal this festering division.

I went to one of the meetings last night. It was put together by a dedicated and earnest group who had already had some successes dealing with this issue. They set up the meeting, identified the mission of the meeting, some rules of engagement, broke the group up into smaller discussion groups and gave them all two questions to answer - all this as a way to get to some solutions. The meeting was to end at 8pm.

The trouble was, the whole meeting was unnatural to the way the Ojibway worked. They expected to share their hearts; not be timed as the came up with their answers to prepared questions. By halfway through the meeting, all the elders of the tribe had left. Out of about 50 people remaining, only about a dozen were Ojibway.

After the agenda was completed, each one started to speak. First chastising the group for not allowing people to come and speak what was in their hearts, then taking the group to task for not addressing the issue head on - racism. Others spoke of the need to tell the truth about racism.

Richard spoke.

Racism is a division where words of fear and anger separate us. But it is our love that will bring us together.
Our children - we keep burying them. Why is that? Something is missing inside and we need to find it to give it back to them.
I remember a teacher who accepted me. She was Finnish. She encouraged me to go to college and I did. It was that spirit of love that she had. That spirit that is in all of us.

In this group, I just met Greg. I would walk with him anywhere. I don't see his color, I just see his fuzzy face.
Racism scares me. But it is love that keeps me going.
When you don't get your way, don't walk out the door. Don't walk out on one another. We can apologize to one another.

I don't care what color you are -- you came here to help. I'll walk with you all anywhere.

The meeting turned. Others spoke, recognizing that everyone who came, stayed to help.

It doesn't matter what color you are. You are here. I want to welcome you here. Wherever the next meeting is, I'll be there.

We appreciate the hard work that has gone into getting us all together. We can change the structure of the next meeting. But I love this community and it tears at me to see it be divisive. I want this community to unite.

I am shocked at the racism here. I want so badly for this crap to stop.

We need a strong community effort. We need to keep working together. We need us all.

What moved me was the humility of those who set up the meeting. There was a passion to do something. The community is in crisis. And so someone had to have the courage to step forward and do something. Even if it meant falling on your face.

What moved me was the humility of the participants. Not comfortable with the structure of the meeting, they participated and then spoke their peace and graced the rest of us with their forgiveness and encouragement to keep going.

And I know that what will deepen this experience in all of our hearts is the humility and love that persists until healing is revealed.

We draw our purpose from the same source. We draw our substance from the same source and we are fulfilled by the same source. In humility, we will come together and find healing. More to report on later...............




Would love for you to share how you have overcome racism in your life and community...

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