welcome to the first day of this moonth of fleeting february, the first day of black history moonth when the family and friends of Tyre Nichols are burying this beloved being beaten to death by the police on his way home and the third day of a season of peace… a moment, a day to begin anew and call in the spirits asking to be with us in these turbulent times as we witness so much collapsing all around us… in this fleeting moment, let us breathe deeply from our earthmother who loves us so as we float along the river of life less traveled… a river inviting our wholehearted presence, our wholebeing essence, our complete trust, our suspending doubt when in places unknown and in uncertain circumstances and travel way into the deepest recesses of the holy vessel, temple of love we are, everything is…
let’s amplify the first day of black history month with re-membering the greensboro sit-in, a courageous moment that grew into a revolutionary movement…
in the late afternoon of Monday, February 1, 1960, four young black men entered the F. W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina where the friends could feel the invisible line of separation between the shopping area open to everyone and the dining area that barred blacks from taking a seat.. they knew, as all blacks in the South did, that stepping over that line might get them arrested, beaten or even killed but all four moved together in silence and sat down at the lunch counter to take a stand…
“It took a few moments for anyone to notice, but the change within the freshmen was immediate. The Greensboro Four, as they would come to be known, had not embarked on a deep study of Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha, his method of nonviolent action, but they experienced the first change it intended to create—a change that takes place within the people taking action. Just as the African American community of Montgomery, Alabama, following Rosa Parks’ arrest in 1955, discovered their power, the Greensboro Four experienced a transformative strength.”
the four students politely asked for service and were refused with the white waiter suggesting they go to the “stand-up counter” and take their order to go, which was the policy for black customers… by now there was no sound in the dining area, the voices of white patrons were hushed with just the clink of silverware audible as the four sat in silence as if they were in friends meeting or at a church service… eventually, a police officer entered the store and spoke with the manager and then walked behind the four students and took out his billy club pacing back and forth behind the activists, hitting his night stick against his hand but he didn’t speak or escalate… the activists began to understand the power they could find in nonviolence as they realized the officer didn’t know what to do, and soon left..
the last person to approach the Greensboro Four on that first day was an elderly white lady, who rose from her seat in the counter area and walked over toward them and sat down next to the four students and told them she was disappointed in them saying, “I’m disappointed it took you so long to do this.”
by simply taking a seat at the counter, asking to be served, and continuing to sit peacefully and quietly, the Greensboro Four paralyzed the store, its staff, its patrons and the police for hours that monday afternoon… when the flummoxed manager announced that the store would close early, the young men got up to leave feeling victorious and would be joined in the coming days by hundreds of students sitting down to take a courageous stand…
let us follow the beautiful examples of Tyre’s mother calling for peaceful protests as the way to honor her son and the elderly white lady and commit our energy to… being there for each other in peace and love trusting in beloved to carry us across the wild deep blue sea to a shore we cannot see, trusting beloved to carry us into the true refuge of great mystery’s unfolding grand design and to act from that grounding in the love we are to create a world of justice…
in this moment of new beginning, will you join me in weaving into now a just world of love and peace? i also invite you to engage in peace and love with daily ultradian healing breaks, sacred pauses to come home, returning to the deep restoring breaths that reset our being back into balance… thousand fold thanks…
