A Joyful Practice

Remember, What’s Important (& You Can Still Practice! Part II) June 19, 2022

Happy Juneteenth! Happy Dads’ Day!!

“Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”

*

– quoted from the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

It is kind of wild to think about what it means to be a dad, a pa, a da, a papa, a daddy, a pappi, a paw-paw, a gran-daddy, a pepaw… today, Juneteenth, – especially if you are in the United States… especially if you are in Texas. And, if you are new to me, then maybe you’re wondering why I didn’t mention being a father. It is, after all, Father’s Day for much of the world. However, as I have mentioned in the past, today is about more – so much more – than someone’s ability to beget a child. Today, like Mothers’ Day, is about people who raise children. Sometimes they are known by different names than the ones I listed above (and my apologies to the uncle-pappies out there), but they are all still doing they job.

They are still sticking, staying, and raising the children who will be the future.

The thing is, it hasn’t always been easy to stick, stay, and raise a child. I’m not saying it’s easy now. However, now more people have a choice. Go back to yesterday in 1865, in my home state (let alone the little island where I was born) and there were a lot of people who didn’t have a choice. They sometimes didn’t get a say in when, if, and/or how they beget a child. Neither did they often get a say in whether or not they stayed to raise the child. On some level, that changed today, June 19, 1865, with General Gordon Granger’s reading of “General Order No. 3.” However, as history has shown us, the order that announced the (legal) end of slavery – in the Confederate states – didn’t change much for the emancipated people. And, not to seemingly digress, but neither did it change much for “dirt poor” white people in said states. At least, however, people had a choice.

Or did they?

In yoga, I often mention samskāras (“mental impressions”) and vasanas (the “dwelling places” of habits), which – just like neural pathways and culture – are created through repeated behavior. They are the legacy of being alive. Slavery and having choice stolen are also part of the legacy of being alive, especially if you are in the United States, and so we can’t ignore what that legacy has given us: a culture where people who beget a child don’t always know how to stick AND a culture where stereotypes abound about the people who don’t stick.

*

– variations attributed to Brandan Odums, Darius Simpson, and others

I’m fortunate in that I have a father, known as Daddy (or Hey), who had a hand in raising me to be the person I am. In fact, for all the ways I am like the women in my family, those are all the ways I grew up wanting to be just like my dad – who, as my Mommy (or Ahma) was fond of saying, I thought was the smartest person on the planet. (He taught doctors and married my mom, so… just saying.) He is a man who was raised by a man who was raised by a man and they all grew up in rural Texas (on hard clay).

The fact that I grew up knowing all these Black men, and got to touch the soil that they owned, is one of the greatest gifts I’ve been given.

My dad went to a “Negro” school (because that was his only option), earned an undergraduate degree and a PhD from HBCUs, served in Vietnam, and then went on to teach doctors who are practicing medicine all over the world. He also raised two sons… who, along with their many accomplishments, raised their own kids and now have grandkids.

All of these things are gifts I cherish to this day. All of these things I appreciate with the understanding that everyone can’t say the same. Everyone doesn’t get the same gifts, but we get something. We get someone, a teacher, an uncle, a neighbor, a Big Brother…

And today is about celebrating those gifts.

Since today is also about celebrating emancipation and freedom, I think back to my Texas elders and ancestors – my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and all the generations I never met. I think about their dreams. I think about their dreams of freedom. I think about the dreams they had for the generations that were coming after them. I think about the fact that if I had any ancestors listening to General Order No. 3, today in 1865, they could not – in their wildest dreams – have dreamed the details of my life.

Yet they dreamed of me and a world where I could dream of things they never conceived.

In their wildest dreams, they never would have dreamed of people still fighting and struggling to rise in 2022.

Yet, in the words of Dr. Maya Angelou, WE…

“…rise
…rise
…rise.”

*

– quoted from the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

There is no class today, but I will be back on schedule (and on Zoom) tomorrow. If you are on my Sunday recording list, I have sent you a copy of the 2020 Dad’s Day practice and a copy of the 2021 Juneteenth practice. If you want to be added to my Sunday list (or any other list), please email me or comment below.

The “Dad’s Big Day” playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

The “0619 Juneteenth” playlist is also available on YouTube and Spotify.

The embedded links in the first paragraph of this post will take you to the appropriate date-related posts from 2020. In a 2022 update (of my Juneteenth 2020 post), The Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America (a. k. a. The Naming Commission) has recommended that Fort Rucker be renamed Fort Novosel – after Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Novosel Sr. (the son of Croatian immigrants), who flew more than 2,500 extraction missions in Vietnam, rescuing more than 5,500 soldiers – and that Fort Hood be renamed Fort Cavazos – after General Richard Cavazos, a Mexican-American Texan who served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and was the Army’s first Mexican-American four-star general. These recommendations, along with seven others (including 1.5 which would be named after women who served in the military) will be in the hands of Congress in October of this year.

Let’s keep dreaming, y’all, and let’s keep dreaming (and working) on those dreams coming true.

*

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

*

### DREAMS OF FREEDOM (should be part of all our bios) ###