Refresher

I want you to take a moment and just breathe. I want you to feel how your neck expands and gently comes

back inward on the exhales. I want you to truly begin to feelhow light the breath lands in the body whenever you truly are connected with having a moment of stillness. Fill up your lungs for 3-5 seconds, hold the breath for the same, and then exhale on that same number you choose. Gently begin toopen up your eyes and begin to exam the body. You may choose to continue the breathing exercise or just allow the breath to land naturally in the body. Take a few seconds to read this excerpt from treasured ancestor, poet and author Toni Morrison from their famous work Beloved.

In this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don't love your eyes; they'd just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it. And O my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face 'cause they don't love that either. You got to love it, you! And no, they ain't in love with your mouth. Yonder, out there, they will see it broken and break it again. What you say out of it they will not heed. What you scream from it they do not hear. What you put into it to nourish your body they will snatch away and give you leavins instead. No, they don't love your mouth. You got to love it. This is flesh I'm talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I'm telling you. And O my people, out yonder,

hear me, they do not love your neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up. and all your inside parts that they'd just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them.The dark, dark liver--love it, love it and the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize.

A part of decreasing the silence and neutrality of social injustice, is first reckoning you're worth and the worth your body and breath have. I often tell myself that my breath is bigger than the bs going on around me. That soon begins to bring a true transformation that I must not only be aware of myself, but of all that is spinning in my head and in front of me. I know we often feel like this, especially when we are navigating the difficult relationships of work, friendships, family, but most importantly the relationship we have with self. The important understanding one should take away from this piece is the nature in which self love causes us to really begin to change how we engage with others. By becoming in-tune with our true realities, we often may see how we have been an active silent partner in how people interact with us. Silence amongst people who have learned do deal with daily trauma only generally leads to more daily trauma to face. I know, its hard. Weare all trying to aim for a better life and sometimes that reality does not seem as clear as taking a few simple breaths does. So how are you breathing now?

We live in fear of not being nourished or validated. Often these measures to silence us deal in past generational trauma of trying to save us. But when has silence ever saved anyone. If you do nothing else from this space. You have learned that even your breath is loud. Even your food steps when you touch the ground

rapidly as a bird's wings. Your body is awakening to a new understanding of what breaking through silence can be. It can be an appreciated stillness of recognizing how loud life can be. So when you return from breathing, your voice will ring louder than any cathedral bells could. Stay hydrated y’all! -B