A Meditation on the Life and Death of George Floyd

. . . I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.
Acts 2:17

Soul Friends,

If you've been awake, you've been taking in the news this week about George Floyd, the 46 year-old black man who was choked to death by a white cop. You've also read about Amy Cooper, the white woman who called the cops on a black man who was birdwatching in Central Park, who asked her to please leash her dog, in accordance with park rules for that space. Of course, these two events are only the most currently poignant stories of racism in America.

Most of you on this list are white people. The majority of you are women. I'm guessing that many of us do not think of ourselves as racist. Most of us probably do not consider our complicity with empire based on the values of White Supremacy. We'd like to think we are "the good white people."

Soul friends, with the help of white friends farther along on their journey with anti-racism than I, with the help of challenging black authors like Layla Saad, author of Me and White Supremacy, with the help of new friends who are willing to honestly explore our own complicity and confusions, I have been waking up. I am not yet woke. But I am waking, and I am not going back to sleep.

And I invite you to keep waking, too.

But let's keep it real. Waking up can be uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to consider the ways in which I am like Amy Cooper. It's uncomfortable to to live with the responsibility and uncertainty of what my waking requires of me. It's uncomfortable to choose to stay present to the pain, rather than just numb out by turning away, or simply going back to sleep.

Information can help us wake up. And I am thankful for all those who offer it. But it can also numb us. Information is not my gift to you. I am here to hold sacred space for our transformation. And that is what I offer today.

Twice this week I have held space, virtually, for a meditation on the life and death of George Floyd, as shared by poet and pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes. In this meditation, I invited each one gathered to welcome their whole selves: body, heart, and mind. I invited each to stay with what Reality evokes. And to bring God's infinite compassion, as well as their own, to what shows up. I invited each one to listen to the prayer forming within them.

With the help of my son, Basil, I invite you into this 20-minute guided meditation, offered with prayers for our shared transformation, for the benefit of our world.