community healing

We are the holders of hope

We are the holders of hope
Not imagined and wishful
Not ephemeral or wistful

We hold in our hearts the reality and wonder of life
The beauty and treasure that is here 
Every moment
Every breath

We know this 
Just as we know its opposite
The places of fear and despair
Of violence and suffering
Of hopelessness

We have lived with such emptiness
We have touched the terror of the deep dark 
We understand its cultivation by the very society we have been raised in
And yet we are still committed to being here
In this life 
With this life

We know this precious life is stronger
Softer and stronger
Tender and stronger 
Brighter and stronger
More powerful and expansive than the tiny world created by those who would try and blind us
By those who would like us to forget

We know the light of the sun of the day and the stars at night
We know the light of our heart and our spirit
The light that guides through the deep dark
The light of liberation 
Of change
Of life itself

This is what shines in each and every one of us
This is what keeps us seeking the way home 
To remember the wholeness of who we are
To feel the rightness of what life has for us
What the trees have for us
What the ocean and bees
The birds and mountains
The children and elders
The rivers and dragonflies
The wind and rain and snow
What all of our relatives 
Our ancestors
Our communities 
Have for us

We know 
Even when most are running head first towards an illusion
To a nightmare of death and destruction
Of numbness and consumption
To a house on fire 
Where instead of seeing what is real and what is not
Instead of listening to the whispers of their hearts 
They run towards a dream they have been sold 
But is not and never was theirs to have
Where they fight over which room is the finest 
With the best view
The biggest tv
The softest sheets

We know instead
To keep holding on to this precious life
This precious light
Cupped protectively in our sometimes shaking hands

We know 
To sing and live and share it as we can
To keep it alive 
To place it with reverence deep into our hearts
Like weathered fingers planting seeds into fertile soil
For that is what it asks us to do

We stood huddled in a semblance of a circle

We stood huddled in a semblance of a circle,
leaning against our neighbor or standing alone together,
honoring all that had died in her passing.

Rain wept from a gray shrouded sky,
and though we thought we were protected 
beneath the thick canopy of maple and hemlock,
there was no solace to be had. 
Heaven’s grief still reached us 
with heavy drops touching shoulders, thighs and stone.

We were a mess.
Eyes blazed red.
White tissues were soaked with salty tears and mourning snot
or were twisted and wrung to keep fingers busy.
The world cried with us as we spoke to her, 
to each other, 
to ourselves.

Reluctantly, we buried a part of her with overturned trowels.
A small hole for a large spirit.

Finishing what we never wanted to start,
the circle tightened.
Hands and hearts and hips touched. 
Heads bowed.
No one alone.

Singing of her gifts, 
her spirit reminded us of our own wildness, courage, tenderness and presence, 
and planted a seed in each of our hearts
to nourish.

The circle unfurled and we lived on.

EVENT -Dec. 8 at ConnCAT- Healing with our Ancestors, Speaking from our Hearts

“We come to this life with deep roots that connect us to those that came before us. Just as there may be much suffering, sadness and pain in our lives and lineages, there is also great beauty, strength and joy. With these roots we can draw sustenance, support, and wisdom from our past to send healing throughout our being in the present.”

Greetings.

On Tuesday, December 8th, from 8:30am-3pm at ConnCAT in New Haven, I will be conducting a workshop on connecting with our ancestors in order to heal in the present and to unfold the beauty of our lives into the future. This is being sponsored by CEIO and is a part of their Deeper Change Forum series. The first part will involve presentation, discussion, reflection and engagement. The second part, after lunch, will be a participatory healing circle facilitated by me.

Click here for more detailed information and registration(there is no cost to attend).

I hope to see you there.

Parent/Caregiver Support Group at Common Ground High School

On Monday, February 24th from 5:30-7 I will be conducting a support group for parents and caregivers of Common Ground High School students.

“This will be a group for parents and caregivers of Common Ground students to share experiences and concerns about current and upcoming transitions of their children to being young adults and the stressors that may emerge. This will address issues of graduation, their future and safety, and feelings of grief and loss especially in light of the recent death of a fellow student. We will address general issues of coping with our children growing up as well as particular fears and concerns that are affecting parents and families.”

Community Healing Network

Last night I attended a talk and presentation of the work of the Community Healing Network at ConnCAT here in New Haven. The Community Healing Network is committed to the emotional emancipation of people of African descent here in the US and globally. The founder, Enola Aird is a brilliant and inspirational speaker able to build a foundation on personal and historical stories and facts towards a vision of liberation that has the potential to address our whole personhood in the context of our communities. ConnCAT is also a wonderful organization doing much for young people and adults here in New Haven. Keep an eye on their events and programs.

The short version of one of the outcomes of this presentation is that Healing and Liberation Counseling and the Community Healing Network will find some ways to work together in the future. Our vision and experience sync up nicely and together we can be much more effective than apart. This is also one of the key ingredients to liberation: collaboration and community. It is in our isolation that our worst internal critics find footing and our worst external critics feel strongest. When we are with others we get to shed light onto these critics and can at least make clearer decisions on how to effectively address or ignore them. It can be powerful to simply name that which is holding us back while standing in the community of our supporters(which sometimes we have to learn to find and trust), and then, with others, craft our solutions with our eyes wide open. Sometimes, it is not a matter of dismantling something we dont like, but building something else that is a fuller reflection of ourselves and letting the other sit, rusted and unused in an abandoned field, waiting to be reclaimed by the Earth.

Blessings,

Enroue
Therapist and Babalawo
203.584.0121

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

-Howard Thurman

© Enroue Halfkenny and Healing and Liberation, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Enroue Halfkenny and Healing and Liberation with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Event tonight at ConnCAT- “Emotional Emancipation”

I hope you are all keeping warm these days.

Just a quick notice.

I will be attending an event tonight at 6pm, titled Emotional Emancipation:The Crucial Unfinished Business of the Civil Rights Movement: A conversation with Enola G. Aird, founder and president of Community Healing Network, Inc. (CHN) at ConnCAT at in New Haven. Click Here for more information.

I will provide an update and reflections afterwards.