Morning Pages, Black History, and Hope For Our Future

I've been doing morning pages for over a year now. For those unfamiliar with morning pages, they are essentially diary pages that you write as a stream of consciousness for 3 to 4 pages each morning. It helps you get ideas and thoughts out of your head. Most times mine don't make sense, other times it's just a todo list, mostly, it clears my head and helps me start a productive day. One of the general rules about morning pages is that you don't share them. It's your safe space to just write whatever comes to mind. I usually write them and never read them again but today I did. I surprised myself with what was there and thought it was worth sharing (unedited from my rambling mind). Maybe it will inspire someone else.

Here's what I wrote...

This month will be about learning about Black History. It will be interesting because I don't know a lot. Just the basics but now I'm going deeper. Seeing the overlap. Seeing how much has changed and how much has not. We owe it to ourselves to better understand. I'm a privileged white male. I don't know what it's like but I can try. Doing what I've always done is not an answer. We as people, we as a nation, deserve better. It starts with education. It can end with healing. The scars may not be scars but still open wounds in our countries history. We just cover them with bandages and call them healed. So anxious to move on, to push our own agenda, our own needs, we never address the underlying problems until they boil up again and again. Too late, the damage is done. Lives lost again. The dance not over, just slowing until the crescendo builds once more, and it will. Ignore the pain, ignore the suffering, ignore the fear. Push it back, blame others, change the story.  It's what we do. How can we ever get better, do better, be better if it's all just words. I have no answers but maybe I can be an answer. I'll focus this month on learning about Black History. I'll share what I learn, and going forward, I'll keep it in my heart, my mind, as I hope to help others learn from our shared past, to one day lift everyone to make our shared future better.

Thank you for reading and please find time this month to learn about at least one of the people, events, or places from our Black History month page. We can all do better and it starts with education. Be the light.