New Beginnings

So, I just realized that I still have this blog. Go figure. I sat down, intending to figure out how to restart this whole blog thing, and there it was. Wow.

Life, God, the Universe, the Divine...has a way of delivering a message, and sometimes, they hit you hard (or stare at you from your computer screen) and affirm this is what you needed to do.

Looking back on my first/last post (9 years ago!), so much has changed. My kids are older, more independent, and they are beginning to settle into themselves and who they are becoming (as much as a 16 year-old and 11 year-old can be at their ages). For me, I am trying to figure out what this season of my life is now. It's not one of those "mid-life crisis" things (at least, I don't think so). Rather, it's a: "I left a job that I (mostly) enjoyed and was very fulfilling, working with elementary students and their families, doing something very visible that was working against the atrocities caused by the current federal government administration". I felt good that I was doing "my part" to fight racism, hate towards immigrants (documented and undocumented), patriarchy, colonialism, and the religious churches. But then I had to leave my job, because I realized that the daily microaggressions I was dealing with were too much and the best, healthier thing for me to do was to leave... even if that choice tore at my soul.

Microaggressions.. I didn't even know what the fuck that word was, until a few years ago. Things that I can now label as a "microaggression" used to be just how life was. When a white person subtly dismissed/disregarded/ignored/spoke over me, I just got used to it, expected it, and "got over it" - which really means I would vent about it later to another POC, feel justified, not do anything to change anything, and then go right back to the same environment and prepare myself for the next round of abuse.

I'll probably have more to say about this topic of microagressions, so I'll just save that for another post.

OK... let's post this.