How will our love grow?

Our 8th UU Principle affirms and promotes journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse, multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.

In order for our love to grow, we must be able to recognize racist and discriminatory thinking within ourselves. We tend not to notice these thoughts because they have been so normalized in our culture and it has, in the past, and perhaps throughout your life, been very comfortable for you to think and speak in these ways.

But, the world is changing (as it always is, and as Octavia Butler writes, god is change and we can shape that change), and we are recognizing how these old patterns of thinking, which of course have actions that follow, are hurtful and oppressive to people who don’t live in the privileged center of our society (yes, people outside of the white, heterosexual, cis-gendered, able-bodied, middle class norm are people who are marginalized and experience oppression. The further away from this center you are, the more oppression you experience because of the intersections of the multiplicities of your identity.). The positive change that is happening around all this certainly is divine, as it moves towards the liberation of all people.

So, how does one know when one should examine their thinking because some sort of discriminatory thoughts just popped up? I would say that when you feel uncomfortable and defensive, it’d probably be a good idea to take a step back and examine your thinking, get curious and do some reading about the issue you are addressing (there’s lots of online resources, including on UUA.org, about dismantling oppression and working towards equity and liberation for all).

And then notice how your understanding and perspective changes. That is love growing. And, it was hard work, because love is hard. We do it anyway.

When love grows, the discomfort and defensiveness can drift away and the beauty of the moment fills us up. When we are able to drop the walls of defensiveness and anxiety, we can notice the growing of a diverse, multicultural Beloved community. We can welcome into the center those that have traditionally been left out by white supremacy culture.

Unitarian Universalists have a long tradition of drawing the circle wider and wider and centering the voices that others greet with hate, anger, and fear. Root yourselves in the work of our ancestors and continue to let love grow bigger and bigger until it gives birth to the spiritual wholeness that our 8th Principle names.

Spiritual Practice from 30 Days of Love on the UUA website: (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5449513ee4b025f84fddfa72/t/589a111ae6f2e12f2261232c/1486491931495/30+DOL+Week+4.pdf):

“Social justice campaigns are battles of the imagination.” adrienne maree brown

As we organize, we must continue to vision, dream and imagine what we are building toward. What it will mean when we win. Use this prompt for yourself or alongside others as the framing for your next art project. Grab your favorite supplies – pens, markers, paint, cloth, paper – and get dreaming.

Imagine yourself sometime in the future. You are walking down a familiar street in a place you know (or maybe you are at UUCL!). What do you see and experience that let’s you know that freedom & liberation has come? That reparations, equity and justice have been woven into the fabric of your interactions and your environment?