Toward Being Fully Connected, Powerful, and Effective
I am connected. Connected to Jews, to women, to all humans. Connected to all sorts of plants and animals, to all living things. Connected to rocks and rivers and sand and ocean.
It is joyful to be alive. My vision is to stand joyful, powerful, and strong in the face of anti-Semitism and all oppressions—speaking truth with calmness and kindness, united with all people to end all oppressions and take action for ourselves and our planet.
I have recognized that if I want to do this, I need to be able to speak (rather than going silent or trying to assimilate) but without blame or a feeling of victimization or anger at people.
With this in mind, at a Jewish gather-in I led I set two directions for us:
- Firstly, to live joyfully, connected with ourselves and each other and with the world around us. We took time noticing the land we each live on, and doing special time with each other (as in family work) in pairs and threes.
- Secondly, to more fully claim and discharge the early feelings of defeat and fear that may become feelings of victimization and anger—with the idea that we want to discharge whatever stands in our way of being fully powerful and effective in the world. And also to understand that our early feelings are not our fault, that they are completely understandable in the context of the long history of anti-Jewish oppression and all the other oppressions—and the individual circumstances of our lives.
In my final mini-session, I started to notice something new about anger and assimilation. I had imagined that I need to discharge so that I never show any anger about anything. But then I realised that this is part of the oppression. I saw that I could claim my anger and continue discharging the early hurts in sessions but that also, even before discharging everything, I could talk about feelings of anger or victimization—lightly, without blame or acting angry. I could bring my whole self, without hiding, while making space for everyone else.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Reprinted from the newsletter of the Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, RC Community
(Present Time 203, April 2021)