Black Lives Matter, chant the protesters.
Cops Lives Matter, fire back the police.
All Lives Matter, reason some, who are promptly fired.
Taken out of the current context, none of these statements is inflammatory. Each one is true.
Yet, there is something about the collective phrasing of these slogans that channels their power into a sledgehammer to wield division.
We are bludgeoned into maligning or cheering blanket groups of people based on the most arbitrary and immutable of characteristics – skin color.
We would do well to remember that each life matters.
Yes.
Each. Life. Matters
The first life that matters is our own.
Your. Life. Matters.
We must ask ourselves with rigorous honesty if we are advancing toward the best version of ourself each and everyday.
Are we allowing the creative life force to flow through us and guide us to create beauty and connection in this world?
Are we nourishing our bodies, discerning the content we digest, educating ourselves and forming our own ideas?
Are we going to sleep grateful for the mini-joys of the day and waking up eager to share our unique gifts and talents with the world?
After that, we are called to engage with people in the world first and foremost as individuals.
We must open ourselves up to get to know someone for who they are, what they believe, and how they act. We then get to choose if we desire to form a relationship with that individual or not.
If you’ve noticed race more this past week, you are not alone.
We are being scolded by the media, our employers, and our friends to think first, foremost, and only about race. To group ourselves and other people into categories and then make blank judgments about one group’s victimhood and another group’s privilege.
Some people are being told to be shut up and be silent not because of who they are or what impact they can have on the world, but simply because they are a certain skin color. It has pained me to see women that I admire step down from their platforms and flagellate themselves for unspecified racism. Others are being told they couldn’t possibly have a platform without the other group being silent. How patronizing and disempowering.
We are all in pain right now because we are being told to subjugate ourselves at an altar for a religion that we did not choose.
I am writing to let you know that no matter the color of your skin, where you were born, how you grew up, where you were educated, how you live, who you serve – YOU matter.
Your story is unique.
You do not have to silence your voice or dim your light so that others can shout above you or force you to kneel down before them.
Right now be you. I invite you to be more YOU than you ever have before.
For it is only when we each confront our demons at an individual level and choose to rise above the things that haunt us or hold us down that we show the world how powerful a person with integrity is.
Each life matters.
Your life matters.
Love yourself first.
Then extend love and compassion toward others.
Challenge yourself first.
Then inspire others to excel.
Forgive yourself first.
Then forgive others.
Transform yourself first.
Then encourage others to grow.
There will be no change in systems or institutions without a change first in each of our individual hearts and minds.
Love,
Kayleigh