Not sure if you saw this news tid-bit, but the US Senate is currently debating about confirming Deb Haaland as our new Secretary of the Interior.
(Coach Will here! Stay with this one, I promise it connects to your relations with your bod… read on!).
If confirmed, she would be the first Indigenous person to serve in this capacity; in fact, she's the first Indigenous person to be nominated to a cabinet position.
Ever.
When I was reading this about her last week, I suddenly was swept over by a wave of heavy emotion.
Here, for the first time in the 400+ years that Europeans (and their descendents) have arbitrarily laid claim to this continent, someone of Indeigenous descent is being lifted to power.
I can't point to what (literally) chokes me up each time I read about her, but there's something about what it means to have her voice and her life experiences ("I'm not a stranger to the struggles many families across America face today. I've lived most of my adult life paycheck to paycheck.") leading the decision-making about one of our most precious resources: land.
As in, space.
Room for beings to be. All of 'em/us.
More and more, I am seeing how blocked humans become--emotionally, physically, spiritually--when they don't have room to move and explore and rest and start over and, and, and... be.
In fact, many Indigenous activists have come to say that the only way to start healing the deep wounds caused by the Eurpoean genocide of Indigenous people is by literally returning ancestral land to tribes.
It's already happening, in East Oakland (and elsewhere).
This upswell of actual, tangible steps toward 're-matriation' of the land (and thereby starting the healing of cultural relationships as well) are inspiring to me.
My identity (white, able-bodied, cisgendered guy from the suburbs) makes it hard for me--emotionally--to fully face the reality of what my life represents next to the lives of my Ohlone neighbors.
But watching healing occur, led by Indigenous folx like Haaland, actually opens the door for me to see a glimpse of the living nightmare that ran on repeat for so many Indigenous people, for so many decades.
It's this emotional block--which limits our ability to fully face what is going on around us--that resonated most with me, and reminds me of my work teaching people the magic of mobility-training.
I recognized the powerful but often unseen force that keeps us from fully seeing ourselves. It's seldom about pure 'information' or knowledge that is the gap.
In my experience, it's much more about gradually softening toward ourselves, and allowing for the idea that we ALL. NEED. SPACE. To exist.
We need space in our schedule to dream and do nothing.
We need space in our ego to allow for bright, shining achievements and failing.
We need space in our kitchen for nourishing food of all types, including the tasty shit that doesn't serve any purpose beyond making us happy.
We need space in our clothes to hold all of our bulky, bony bits, and extra room to allow for dancing.
We need that as individuals, and our communities need that as well.
So whether we're 'making space' in our joints, or in our schedules, relationships, or world-views, we can know that we are doing the very best thing for the overall system: allowing room for the magic to happen.
Here's to hoping that by the time you read this, Deb Haaland is overseeing that kind of transition for our country from the highest levels of our government.
Here's to finding your gold,
Coach Will