Dear Listener,

I remember meeting Leah for the first time. She had, and still has, an ethereal quality. I remember thinking of her as willowy. Like she could billow away like fairy dust. Physically, she is lovely. I always imagine that people that are physically attractive are met with this at a full stop. She is lovely….and….there is so much more.

She is a graphic artist, extremely talented as an artist. She is loving, a friend that cares and asks authentically. She is open and brave. So very brave. She is also funny, warm, and very observant.

When I first started getting to know Leah, it was clear very quickly that she was not safe. I remember conversations in which she would share something small about her relationship, and it would sound my internal alarms. I remember wondering if she came across as ethereal and willowy because she was not safe. As if she was trying to take up less space, appear less than to avoid harm. I cannot answer this. I know I have been unsafe in my own life and can relate to that thought, that feeling.

Leah shares the smallest pieces of a few paragraphs in her life with me and you. She is safe now. She is making steps forward to heal.

This session could be cueing for you. Take care of yourself first. 

I will not use any common terminology for what Leah has experienced, for she is not to be labeled as anything other than the pottery barn Wizardess who saved Herself. The bravest act of all.

Warmly,

Aisha  

Dear Reader,

I met Alina Potrzebowski at what turned out to be the last position I held in the non-profit sector. She stood out to me immediately. I attended a training she held for staff, in which she was discussing white supremacy and the culture it perpetuates in non-profit work.

This was not my first discussion around this area; however, I could tell that for some what she said was hard to hear. There are a lot of white women in the non-profit sector. A lot of good intentions. And..a lot of harm is done. That is for another day.

I have gotten to know Alina more over the past two years. The gift that has stayed with me is that our friendship has strengthened over time, over both of us leaving this non-profit, over uncertain bonds formed in very traumatic spaces, and over what was initially and entirely virtual.

A huge bond we shared initially and continually is our desire to be anti-racist. The Anti-Racism journey for both of us has demonstrated to us that we are each capable of change.

What is within one human is within all of us.

The piece that is often not discussed, that should be, is that we can cause great harm. Not only can you NOT cause great change but you can cause great harm with intentions. You can have the best intentions in the world AND cause great harm.

So be quiet. Listen. Remember you do not have to have an opinion. Sometimes, it’s not our space or within our right to share every opinion….shocking I know. It’s okay to say, “I don’t know enough to have an informed opinion on this.” Then we can just listen…

I will end this introduction with what Alina says in this conversation that has struck me since. This is what I am sitting with after this exchange.

“We have to believe people can change. We have to believe we can change. If we don’t believe people can change, then we’re stuck here too.”

“If I can change, and if I changed, than others can change too.”

And…what is within one human is within all of us.

Warmly,

Aisha

Aisha reads a personal letter, Little Old Me. She writes of her journey, healing, and language around “Inner Child”.