House of Hazel Newsletter: Hope

June 29, 2020

I marched yesterday in the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and I came home filled with so many emotions. I felt joy at being able to participate in a Pride weekend that felt closer to the Queer future I dream of when I feel brave enough to do so. People brought their full beautiful selves and we marched together in solidarity chanting for Black Trans Lives, Queer Black Lives, all Black Lives, and demanding a future that does not include violent oppression or policing. These moments of hope and elation can be heady glimpses into possibilities and can also be abrupt reminders of the wider, pervasive current reality. The cops still showed up. The cops still pepper-sprayed and arrested and became violent. 

Hope is not a 'love and light' band-aid that erases reality. Rather, it requires full eye contact with reality. It is a defiant imagining of futures that we desperately need. In order to have hope we must also recognize that the current reality has some real shitty things that need to change. Hope requires adversity. Savasana is blissful because of the twists and trips that came before. 

Between COVID-19 and the current surge of conversations around white supremacy, there has been some language around hope, faith, and positivity as keys to healing. While I have no qualms about hope, faith, and positivity, I want to remember that my healing, our healing, requires that we slog through some stuff in order to gain access to the other side. Spirituality is not a teleportation device. It's a bike ride through a hail storm. 

More on this subject next week. There's a lot of hail out there. 

Sending you love and action, 

beccalove