Silencing Me Won't Work

I spoke to my mom on the phone this morning. “You’re not very quiet,” she observed. 

She’s right. I’m not. I’m pretty sure I don’t know how to be.

I find that there’s immense opportunity when we are transparent and have the courage to share. The opportunity exists to leverage every difficult situation for the healing of ourselves and others. I also feel the power of being able to inspire people to see things differently, consider a broader perspective and perhaps even to motivate them into actions, big and small.

I know this raw, direct honesty often brings humans way out of their comfort zone, especially when we are speaking about power structures and supremacy. People absolutely freak when those shadows are brought into a spotlight.

Some weeks ago, someone I considered a friend did her best to publicly silence me on a group thread we were both on when I expressed my desire to openly process the experiences of harmful behaviors I’d witnessed within the group. It was interesting to witness her efforts to shut me up. I watched as a couple of voices surfaced in support of me, and I tracked the silence from others.

The situation was painful, but I found that I remained wholly undeterred. If anything, it strengthened my resolve to take my process to perhaps a much wider audience.

I consider myself a leader within many communities, and I’m quite present and aware of the power of my voice. I use it to teach and support as well as hold others accountable for their actions. That’s not going to change.

Ask my mom, if you don’t believe me 

I’m sitting with the potential impact that I can create. I’m organizing my thoughts, and looking forward to leveraging my 18 month experiment out west to create change in this world. I’ve got stories for years, people. Some of it will burn the hair inside your ears.

Stay tuned, I’m writing. Lots of good chapters for the memoir here.