The Heart is the Matter

I'm 42. I've been organizing informally all my life. I was born into it. However, I received formal training in 2003. My mentor taught me techniques that were from, "La Escuelita". I've been raising hell ever since. No matter what my job is at the time, I manage to pour my activist self into it. And, now, as it has happened so many times, I am between actions. As a friend put it, I'm on the bench.

My friend taught me that being on the bench is a good thing. It's a safe place where one can regroup, recuperate, and dream of the next big campaign - for truth, justice, and sometimes just the right candidate. But, being on the bench can feel strange. It can bring on what we call, "the dark night of the soul". This happens when we must die and rise again to meet the new challenge.

Dying isn't really as bad as it sounds. One of the best parts of dying is that you learn who your friends really are. Because in the next phase, those people go on with you. And/or they are always there with you - cheering you on! Dying also helps us to get rid of all the negative energy that surrounded us as we worked for said truth and justice. It allows us to open to all the possibilities and select/be selected by the next work that will encompass the organizer's life.

All of this death and rebirth facilitate the necessity of strength. That is what my friends have helped me to realize in myself. They have helped me to see the beauty of who I am. Their words and their love keep my heart open even when I am most afraid. They are my treasures. I keep them glowing in my heart. This is what allows me to speak, to act, to be who I am. And, in that - I am very fortunate.

"Some prisoners spent more than ten years buried in solitary cells the size of coffins, hearing nothing but clanging bars or footsteps in the corridors. . .[they] survived because they could talk to each other by tapping on the wall. In that way they told of dreams and memories, fallings in and out of love; they discussed, embraced, fought; they shared beliefs and beauties, doubts and guilts, and those questions that have no answers.
When it is genuine, when it is born of the need to speak, no one can stop the human voice. When denied a mouth, it speaks with the hands or the eyes, or the pores, or anything at all. Because every single one of us has something to say to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others. "
— Eduardo Hughes Galeano

I send you my love, my friends, compatriots, and allies. I send you my gratitude for keeping me warm on the bench. I send you my thoughts and my words as you keep my heart glowing! Thank you!