First We Remember

First we remember - then we tear down and reorient and reimagine and rebuild.

For if we try to tear down and reimagine and rebuild using a foundation of that which we are not - then we will only construct something else that will yet again, call us to remember.

So first we remember.

Have you ever tried to recall a dream or a thought that you just had? And you try to force it back to you - you try to wield your mind to make the thought return only to accidentally send it away?

And then later, perhaps on a sleepy afternoon with not much going on, have that same thought revisit without much coaxing at all.

That is what it is to remember.

It is not an act of force or an act of mind - it is an act of presence and openness.

And if you revisit history with this perspective then you’ll be overwhelmed by the courage and the might of those who remembered. Those who refused to adhere to someone else’s memory of what it is to be human. Those who knew the truth and acted on that knowing. To know their stories is to be changed forever - for their existence reminds us that it is for us to remember.

It is because of them that we rise and it is because of them that time promises that we remember ourselves.

Find the place in you that knows this to be true, and allow it to change how you move.

Our courage has been practiced

and refined over time.

Our words have been molded

through many mouths and many pens

Our worlds have been shaken

by many fists thrust in the air;

And many palms placed on the dirt.

Time promises that we remember ourselves.