share your spiritual biography in 10 words, or less:Relationship with earth and each other is everything that matters.
where are you turning for soul nourishment / joy / aliveness?
Right now I’m leaning into the practice of presence, presence, presence (it’s hard)–whether stopping to really hear the sound of the wind blowing on a stormy Iowa morning to breathing while in a difficult conversation at work. I’m choosing to deeply live into adrienne maree brown’s wisdom that what we give our attention to is what we grow and my therapist’s wisdom that the medicine we need can be found in listening to the pain (instead of listening to the conditions that cause the pain). I’m finding those practices nourish my soul and enable me to be in touch with deep joy–despite all the realities we’re all in right now. And not only are they enabling me to feel aliveness, on occasion they put me in contact with a sense of something far more alive than my own finite, limited life, which is pretty cool. Oh yeah, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t name that parenting my two badass, curious, courageous, creative, wonderful teenagers is a source of nourishment, joy and ALIVENESS that I’m always grateful to get to turn to.
what is a text you hold sacred?
The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
what is a spiritual practice currently sustaining you?
Morning pages (in the vein of The Artist’s Way) followed by meditation.
how would you describe the work you feel called to do in this world (even if it is not the work you get paid for)?
To courageously walk and live, as a white person, (in daily, measurable ways) against white supremacy and in disruption of the socializing, racializing pressures of whiteness. And, in that to also explicitly, visible companion other white folks in that journey, always in relational and justice-committed solidarity with BIPOC peoples.
knowing that none of us “has it all together,” what is one question you are wrestling with, or bit of wisdom you are struggling to enflesh in your daily life?
I feel as if I’m constantly asking how to live my values–which mean striving to choose against complicity with the everyday systems that make up “daily life” that are so drenched in violence, while also accepting (or maybe being at peace is a better way to put it) the reality of being a human. For example, I need 8+ hours of sleep, I can’t always shop or cook from CSA goods, sometimes I do end up needing to order stuff online! How do I (how do we) choose and practice against complicity even in a time and context where there is NO pure, non-complicit ground? What does that living look like in the day-to-day?
who is one elder / ancestor / mentor whose guidance you draw from? what is one piece of wisdom they have offered?
Melanie Morrison is an elder and mentor (she was a mentor of mine before she knew me!) whose life lived in deep, intentional white anti-racist being and work in the world was unfolding long before the visibility of collective white anti-racist striving was anything like it is now. Her life continues to be one that offers so much wisdom–in particular (for me) the modelling of how important it is to practice moving so slowly and care-filled-ly in order to always prioritize multi-racial, inter-racial relational accountability as we journey for justice. The arc of her beautiful queer life witness, and the writing she has done and continues to do, is a real legacy for the many of us needing white elders. She has carved and created a visible path beyond a life determined by the death-dealing constraints of whiteness and in that faithfulness has generated so many networks of transformative connection–actual people, know to each other (even when we don’t know each other), who are expanding and continuing to generate a different legacy for the next generation. I’m grateful for her life every single day..
what’s one oppressive untruth you are practicing unlearning / divesting from?
I’m practicing unlearning/divesting from the need to see the fruits or “outcomes” of my lived commitments in order to “know” whether I’m living in alignment with my call and values. Instead–I’ll say it in the affirmative since we grow what we pay attention to, I’m learning to listen deeply inwardly instead. I want my interior set of knowledges and sensibilities (maybe even wisdom, on occasion), which are of course nourished through practices and relationships, to become the space to which I am able to turn and check in to sense my alignment or re-align myself.
what is one thing you wish were required listening / viewing? (please link to the song, poem, art piece, podcast, etc.)
Any of the podcasts Prentis Hemphill has produced or is a guest on. Their wisdom and offerings are VITAL (required) right now.
[Check out their latest podcast ‘Becoming the People’ or listen to their prior podcast ‘Finding Our Way’]
any of your website and/or social media handles you’d like us to include / highlight?
@drjenharvey (Insta);
Jennifer Harvey (FB)
jenniferharvey.org
[at the bottom of her her website, you can sign up to “receive resources, news, and tips on practicing antiracism to create the world we want” annnnnd, check out her new book on white anti-racism below!]
Antiracism as Daily Practice: Refuse Shame, Change White Communities, and Help Create a Just World
Antiracism as Daily Practice illustrates the many ways white Americans―those newly waking to the crisis of racism in 2020 and those already aware―can choose behaviors in our everyday lives to grow racial justice. Full of real life stories, this book shows how vital it is for white people to engage in and with our families, through our social networks, in our neighborhoods, and at our jobs to make antiracism a daily living commitment. Check it out here.