Tonight marks an unusual moon that has been recognized by Native Americans as a time to mark the harvest of ripe strawberries. Tonight the moon will come closer to the Earth (it will appear very large) and it will cast an orange or pinkish glow. This year there are thirteen full moons rather than the normal twelve. The Universe must have known that we needed an extra full-moon in 2020! This year has marked a world-wide pandemic and the rise of society against racism and police brutality, inequity within our society, and a time to look inward to our part and how we can add to the solution towards a better world!
The fact that there will be a different color emanating from the moon tonight is significant. We are dealing with social injustice concerning race and it has gone on far too long (1619-know that year-the year kidnapped African’s were brought to North America as slaves)! Even the sky will cast color that we are not normally seeing in order to wake us up! It is time for us to take a look at ourselves, especially if you are white and benefit from your privilege in our society. White privilege is something that many people give lip service to and others will not even consider it “a thing.” The fact is that if you are white you benefit by being able to walk or jog down the street, question a police officer, you do not have to put your hands on the dash of a car when pulled over by a police officer and your parents never had a conversation with you about how to act accordingly if you ever were to have an encounter with law enforcement. That conversation just never happened nor will it in the future because you did not need to worry about it–you have white privilege!
My point is this is a blessed time of change if we embrace it. If you take tonight with the colored moon casting it’s glow of change on our world and asking us to just meditate, pray, whatever you do, to send out positiveness, do it tonight! Even with the curfew, that is another issue, you can look at the moon and put out positive, regardless where you are in the world. I am calling everyone to take this collective Strawberry Moon evening and take a look at yourself. No matter what color you are, how can YOU effectively do SOMETHING in your life or your thinking to aid the healing of our world to really become color blind as a culture. Pick something attainable, make a list perhaps, but pick one thing to work on. Then stick to it and be part of the solution. Being silent is perpetuating the violence. If you do nothing else, be BRAVE and speak up when the opportunity presents itself, and it will, especially right now. Challenge your thinking, open your mind, feel the collective oneness of being HUMAN, part of the HUMAN RACE!!!
White privilege, according to “Teaching Tolerance,” an organization that I respect and have utilized throughout my teaching career, defines white privilege through Peggy McIntosh’s essay “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack:” “…It was being able to walk into a store and find that the main displays of shampoo and panty hose were catered toward your hair type and skin tone. It was being able to turn on the television and see people of your race widely represented. It was being able to move through life without being racially profiled or unfairly stereotyped.” This definition has expanded since 1988 and white privilege is systemic. It is a mass of interknotted roots that have embedded themselves and permiated the total of society. It is “…a legacy and cause of racism,” https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2018/what-is-white-privilege-really It is conscious acts that perpetuate historical perspectives. Acts, did you see that word, acts, that means action-your action! So maybe you should check out this site by clicking the blue and challenge yourself! Educate yourself! Move yourself with the movement for positive and righteous change and away from the racist system (systemic racism) into the solution.
If you have already and are challenging yourself awesome! My challenge to you is you can never have too much education and there is always more action you can take. Join a group for change, they are slathered across social media. Pick one, have a conversation, be part of the conversation, then take action. Words without action are dead. Move, do something different. Cast your eyes around tonight with the glow of the Strawberry Moon for change. Close your eyes and put good out there over the deadly roots that are smothering a faction of our family of humans. Think about all of the other people that are doing the same thing tonight, a collective, yes, a family of humans who care about each other and want to create a new way of being and viewing the world. See society as it is, then imagine it how you want it, then go do it! Say their names: George Floyd, Emmett Till, Shantel Davis, the list could go on or not, it is up to you! Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Light and Love to you all!