This service will be led by Amy Howard, Assistant Director of Campus Diversity Initiatives, MTU
Preferred pronouns, they, them, theirs
Contemplate, Celebrate, & Act
Amy L. Howard
As the days get shorter and the weather cooler (despite our recent unseasonal 70 degree November), we approach a time of quiet rest, introspection, and a season of celebrations from Native American Heritage Month (November), to Thanksgiving (November 26), Bodhi Day (December 8), Hanukkah (December 10), Winter Solstice (December 21), Christmas (December 25), Kwanzaa (December 26), and a host of new year celebrations and new beginnings with the start of the 2021 year. Regardless of how we celebrate the shifting of seasons and years past, the unifying opportunity throughout these celebrations is in our collective power to reflect. Through our contemplations – of what we are celebrating or what we are leaving behind in 2020, we can rise to being awakened, aware, and mindful of how we move through the world.
In the midst of these celebrations, we sit with the memory of the documented 34 transgender or gender non-conforming members of our US community that we’ve lost to the hands of violence in 2020 with the Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20). We can also acknowledge the complicated history of Thanksgiving (November 26) in North America and the ongoing struggles for rights and land faced by our Indigenous brothers and sisters, as we sit for a meal with our community.
The inequities of our community are not absent in times of celebration, but it is our responsibility as a collective to act with great purpose and create the future we all aspire to live in. While we’re with our families, chosen or biological, we can recognize that there is much to celebrate, however, as our new “normal” begins to take form, we have voice and action that can make that future look clearer for all, so that all may have something to celebrate.
Please join me on Sunday, November 15th, 2020 for more discussion on how you can use your Spiritual Social Justice in Remembrance and Action.
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9789104627
Meeting ID: 978 910 4627
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Topics: Compassion, Inherent Worth, Spiritual Growth