Illuminating Hearts: Healing as a Pathway to Justice

04/04/2025

I know you are watching over us from the other side of the veil, but we still miss you so much!

06/26/2024

05/29/2024

Emotions are neither good nor bad. They are simply messages from our mind, body, & spirit. It has taken me years to understand the why behind the messages I'm sent through my emotions. My emotions let me know when I'm in my flow through the joy that follows & when I'm out of alignment with my Truth through anxiety, anger, rage & depression.

It is not surprising that when I try to adhear to societal narratives/norms (most of which were NOT made to support/benefit any of my identities) I quickly find myself NOT in alignment with my Spirit's Truth & in a cycling spiral of emotions letting me know to release these societal norms & narratives that do not serve my Higher Self.

What societal, cultural, or familial narratives & norms are your emotions telling you it's time to release?

03/25/2024

None of us exist in a silo. The journey of personal & collective healing gets rough at times. Especially in a society that has been founded on theft, genocide, slavery, greed & forced assimilation. As I do my own personal work of healing intergenerational wounds & the collective work of reckoning with the Soul Wounds of Turtle Island (colonized America), I want to give a deep bow of gratitude to others who are also doing healing work & who's words have helped to buoyed me during rough times this month.




curtis79

05/10/2023

04/20/2023

Indigenous wisdom teaches us that we are all interconnected. The violence we turn a blind eye to or condone against one community will come back to affect us all. Can you see it now?

04/11/2023

In moments when fatigue is riding you the hardest, remember you are not alone. Allow yourself to be uplifted by those who came before you and those Spirit has place in your life to walk alongside you on each portion of your journey.

04/07/2023

Staff who work in Community Health Centers often carry an undue stress burden due to systems embedded in racism and micro-aggressions. Many clinicians and other clinical staff have left the profession for many reasons related to burnout and trauma, which can then contribute to staffing shortages, as well as limited availability of staff of color-which can negatively impact health equity for patients. This full-day session is designed to create a safe space for staff to explore the health implications of such burdens, and ways to address oppressive systems while prioritizing their own personal and professional wellness and supporting patients. Through discussions and interactive activities, participants will also have the opportunity to build a network of support for their own justice work, both within the sessions, and beyond.

https://web.cvent.com/event/9f6b77fb-b29f-4152-bb1f-27f599170985/websitePage:d1e5c1c0-2dad-4f02-8c95-f1fa2af93aff

11/01/2022

Today we celebrate the life of our departed loved ones. I cherish their memories & know they live on in my heart. I miss you!!

07/04/2022

The years leading up to & beyond 1776, The Indigenous People of this land were fighting genocide at the hands of America's colonizers. Africans were fighting enslavement. And White women were the property of their fathers & husbands.

Today women of all races are fighting for reproductive rights AGAIN & the LGBTQIA+ community is next on the chopping block. Indigenous People continue to endure erasure, marginalization & theft of their lands. African Americans & Latinx are incarcerated at a disproportionate rate compared to whites who are charged with the same crime. Asian Americans are being actively targeted simply based on race, a practice that has long been normalized in this country.

The hierarchy of whiteness aka white supremacy feeds the multiple layers of oppression that has resulted in the souls wounds we see around the world today (racism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, ageism, religious discrimination, ableism, homophobia/transphobia and sexism).

Today is a celebration of colonizers succeeding in freeing themselves from the control of the empire that sought to control them only for those very colonizers to turn around and oppress all who occupy this land & are outside their self constructed hierarchy. A hierarchy that places the white, Anglo-Saxon, middle age, Christian, able-body, heterosexual, middle class, male at the top at the expense of everyone who falls outside of its gaze.

07/01/2022

Shout out to the awesome & engaging participants of this workshop I facilitated last month at the NHCHN Conference in Bellevue WA.

Workshop Description: “Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many frameworks erase what happens to people who are subject to all of these things. Intersectionality can get used as a blanket term to mean, “Well, it’s complicated.” Sometimes, “It’s complicated” is an excuse not to do anything…we want to move beyond that idea.”

I aim to delineate embodying anti-racism as an agent of change in healthcare organizations breaking through the many challenging layers confronting our patients and staff. I will demonstrate the role of intersectionality & a healing-centered approach in moving organizations & staff towards embodying anti-racism at the interpersonal, internalized, institutional & structural levels

06/28/2022

Had the privilege last month to give a talk on Health Literacy to Nurse Practitioner students.

Health Literacy is a two-way street. As health professionals, we must be work on our own literacy. We must educate ourselves on the legacy of harm that is woven throughout the American medical system. And acknowledge the ways those harms continue to play out daily for members of marginalized communities. We must be mindful not to victim blame as we work with patients, there are many factors outside a person's control that influence & impact their health. Part of our literacy work is to understand how those factors manifest in our patient's life & work with our patients to mitigate these effects.

This will be even more crucial in the days ahead as state after state continues its attack on the civil & human rights of women & the Trans community.