Love and light doesn’t fix it all. #Charlottesville

It was an ordinary night. Until I scrolled through my Twitter feed. One word stood out to me: Charlottesville.

And my heart sank. UVA. And my heart sank some more.

UVA is one of the few places that’s ever felt like home to me. And better yet, it’s one of the few places that superficial value didn’t matter. (Ironic, as the uniform of popped collars, sundresses, and North Face jackets is nothing but superficial.) For those of you who don’t know my heritage, I’m multiracial. I grew up in an one stoplight town where the first day of hunting season was an excused school holiday. For real.  While racism was never precisely an issue for me, I grew accustomed to questions like “What are you, anyway?”, and how to tell from the first meeting if my friend/date/whatever’s parents were okay with my mixed background. (Hint: not all of them were.)

UVA was one of the places where none of that mattered. No one threw Oreo slurs at me. No one asked me what my background consisted of. (French, Irish, African American, Cherokee, and prob a ton more, in case you’re curious.) Where no one made assumptions on my heritage based on their own background.  (Yes, Italian men, I can assure you that I am not Italian.)

UVA was the first place that I truly thrived.

Which is what made all of this even worse. These people came into a place that should be safe. A place that felt like home to me. And tainted it with their fear and hate and urine filled bottles and pepper spray.

I let myself feel. I let myself process. I decided how I should best act…and in the meantime, I noticed the angry posts from others. And the “just send love” posts from others. And the desperate need from my clients to do something with their gifts that makes a real difference.

Well, here’s a message for you. As my soul sisters would call it, a witchslap.  Love and light doesn’t fix everything. 

Love and light isn’t the philosophy of ignoring what’s going in the world, because “if I don’t focus on it, I’m not adding to the problem.” Love and light is using your power to DO good – in whatever way that means for you.

So, as a spiritual person, what CAN you do?

I’ve cried. I’ve been angry. I’ve paced with internal thoughts of  ” Who do you think you are? Get the HELL OFF MY CAMPUS.” I’ve wondered how someone could hate so much that driving a car into a crowd of people. How they could care so little about human life.

I’ve wondered if this is what Germany felt like before it was undeniably obvious that Hitler was a problem. I’ve wondered how some many of us are ascending so quickly right now if there are still so many of us stuck in a hate mindset of the past.

And all of those reactions are fine. But none of those reactions do anything to solve the problem. And here’s where we get stuck – how do we actually MOVE that energy we’re creating into something positive? Into something that actually helps the situation? Focusing solely on what we’re angry about or what we don’t want is NOT the solution.

And the short answer – this is going to look differently for every person. Your soul power is different than my soul power.

But here’s some of my top suggestions – try them out. Experiment. See what feels the most impactful for you.

Political Action

Use your time or money to back up your beliefs. Volunteer.  Call people in charge of making a difference.

Here’s a lovely thread of possibilities of where to donate your money to help Charlottesville specifically.

My personal suggestions:

Madison House, UVA – Support the ability for UVA students to make a difference in a variety of ways. Everything from volunteered time at the local hospital/ER to teaching others English to mentoring refugees to providing legal service for those who need it. When I was on campus, I was part of Madison House and got to see the impact it makes directly. It’s big.

Hillel (Brody Jewish Center), UVA  – Support the Jewish community at UVA

Black Student Alliance, UVA – Help make every black student feel welcomed on grounds + get mentored

The Haven, Charlottesville – Help provide housing/food to the homeless of Charlottesville

NAACP, Charlottesville 

Pride, Charlottesville

Support Your (Non-White) Peers

I know this one seems random – and it won’t help Charlottesville specifically – but if you want to help the situation, help your peers who are excluded against.  Nominate women (and men) of color to the next speaking gig you go to. Interview them on your podcast. Share their blogs and offers.

As humans, we tend to naturally gravitate to people who look like us. We do the same in our graphics – choose images of people who remind us of us. But what about the people who don’t look like us? What will they relate to? How will they relate to you?

Speak Up

Let’s be clear – by speaking up, I don’t solely mean expressing your anger, or hate of these people, or any of that. I mean using your voice to do good.

See someone who needs defending? Do that.

Have an opinion on how others can do good? On how others can understand someone else’s point of view? Share it. Inspire others to make a difference. Inspire others to stand up.

In the South (and likely everywhere), women are trained* to stay silent and look pretty. To keep their opinions to themselves so they don’t offend anyone. Or in the words of Miranda Lambert, “Run and hide your crazy and start actin’ like a lady/Gotta keep it together/Even when you fall apart”. It’s time for that to fully end.

*Yes, my use of the word trained is intentional. 

Meditation/Visualization Energywork

Sorry, you don’t get just to meditate and visualize peace. I mean you can, but that’s not really going to move energy. How about instead you:

• Send healing energy or reiki to the people who are healing in Charlottesville (or any other place going through similar situations).
• Send protective energy or reiki to the people who are protesting live at events. Use your own strengths. If you’re good with runes, use that. If you’re great at prayer and chanting, do that.
• Call upon your spiritual support team to see how THEY suggest you help. Your guides know a lot. They know more than I do on how you can best use your energy. Trust them.
• Create crystal grids of protection for areas of discord. Meditate over them/empower/charge them regularly.
• Create crystal grids to take power from those who are brandishing hate + transmute it into something else (remember, it’s not all love and light here 😉)
• Light a red candle to give strength to those defending, while lighting a black candle to diminish the effect of other’s hatred.

(If you guys want to see some of these in action/need more detailed instructions, let me know.)

What one of my clients is doing: tapping into the grid energy of the United States to see where there is actively large amounts of dark energy and dispersing it or transmuting it as guided. She’s a really gifted shadow worker who easily sees the inbetween of light and dark – this is the perfect way for her to use that.

EFT

You guys know that I’m a big fan of tapping. Butttt have you thought about using it in ways other than improving yourself and your mindset?

What about:

• tapping to diminish fear in the United States – decrease the vibration of fear collectively (Even though I’m afraid for the state of our country…. Even though I’m surrounded by people who are full of fear….Even though I’m surrounded by people who are feeling anger…)
• tapping to diminish racial based hate in the United States (I release hate in myself…I release hate in those around me…I release hate in my state…I release hate in my country…I ask Archangel Michael to come in and replace this hate with positive energy…I allow ask Archangel Michael to come in and replace this hate with positive energy)
• tapping to give strength to those who need it – give others the strength to release their own shit so they can do more (I support those who are representing love and justice in our country….I send strength to those who are speaking up…. I send strength to those leaving their jobs as a message….I send strength to those are standing face to face with evil….)
• tapping to release your own fears and triggers so you can do the rest of the work more easily

(Feel free to fill in the blanks between the ellipses yourself.)

Take care of yourself.

It is okay to turn the tv off. It’s okay to not be aware of every little thing. You don’t need to stay glued to the news to be a good person.

Confession: I have most political words blocked from Twitter. Trump. Nazi. Nuclear.

I don’t need to know every single thing my community is thinking about the current world.

Why? Because that’s just overwhelming. Because I know my sensitive boundaries, and I can’t serve from a place of taking on everyone else’s shit.

Because these things invoke fear – which lowers vibration – which means people are often sharing from a place of fear/hate/anger, and my energy doesn’t need to get intertangled with that.

I can’t help the world if I’m swimming in all of its energetic problems. And neither can you.

Above all, take care of yourself. Choose love. Follow your gut.

xo,