Dear Friends:
You can Wear Sky Blue to show your support for the movement for emancipation from the lie of Black inferiority, yes.
You can read one of the books on the Community Healing Network's list of essential reading for community healing, yes.
You can start a Community Healing Reading Club, yes.
But the most important thing you can do to celebrate Community Healing Days, this coming weekend, October 14, 15, and 16, is to treat yourself and other Black people with extra special care.
Consider the words of Dr. Na'im Akbar, leading African American psychologist and author of Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery: "It is through self-celebration that we heal our damaged self-esteem. ... To free ourselves, we must comfortably celebrate ourselves."
We invite you to set aside some time this week to reflect upon and decide how you will celebrate yourself and other Black people next weekend.
Here are three suggestions:
*Start by meditating on the all-important fact that you are beautiful, lovable, capable, intelligent, and worthy of all good things. And then write a love letter to yourself. This is a letter that must contain only positive and encouraging words-- words of love, care, and respect for the unique and wonderful human being you are. Include a section called "a promise to myself" with three things you will do to take extra special care of yourself in the year to come. Mail the letter so that you will receive it after Community Healing Days. Keep it and refer to it often.
*Make it a point to smile, compliment, and say encouraging words to all the Black people you meet. Help them to see how beautiful, lovable, capable, intelligent, and worthy of all good things they are. Encourage them to take extra special care of themselves-both during and after Community Healing Days.
*Be especially loving, caring, and attentive to the members of your family, particularly the children in your life. Help them to feel that they are beautiful, lovable, capable, intelligent, and worthy of all good things. Take the time to write each of the children in your life a love letter telling them how special they are. Be very specific about all the things that make them unique in all the world and special to you. Include a section called "a promise to you" with three things you will do in the year to come to help them reach their full potential as human beings. Mail the letters so that they will receive them after Community Healing Days.
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It's not too late to put "time for healing" on your agenda. Mark your calendars now to celebrate Community Healing Days next weekend on October 14, 15, and 16, 2011, and encourage your family and friends to join you. Visit www.communityhealingnet.org to say "yes" to Dr. Maya Angelou's call to Wear Sky Blue to show your support for the movement for emotional emancipation. And, for more on what you can do to help build the movement for emotional emancipation and healing, please click here.
Thank you.
Enola Aird, Jill Snyder, Dottie Green, Natalie Roche, Tarice Gray, Wizdom Powell Hammond, Sheila Warren, Ric Jennings, Gretchen Vaughn, and all your friends at Community Healing Network, Inc.
P.S. We need your help to make this the decade for the emotional emancipation of black people. CHN is a low-overhead, volunteer-run, 501(c) (3) grassroots organization. We are supported entirely by charitable donations. Your gift of any amount will help. Please donate today using the secure link below, or send a check to Community Healing Network, Inc., 111 Whalley Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, Attention: Jill Snyder, Treasurer. Thanks again. |
