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Hello, loved ones!
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It's me, Sister Doctor Alexis Pauline Gumbs,
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and today is 21 years from the day
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that the great poet warrior mother black lesbian icon
Audre Lorde transitioned to become an ancestor.
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So to honour Audre Lorde
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and the fact that she is eternally with us
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this is the 1st edition of a 21 week series
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called Resurrection Sunday.
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Bringing us from Audre Lorde's death date,
back around through her re-birth.
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And we are going to bring Audre Lorde's work
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robustly into our lives
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through an examination of her poetry on survival.
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I feel especially excited about survival today,
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because I just completed a full circle doula training
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with the International Centre
for Traditional Childbirth...
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yaaaaaaay!
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And I'm so excited to support us all in birthing the next warrior poet geniuses onto the planet,
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and welcoming them with love.
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So, today we're gonna hear Audre Lorde's most famous poem on survival, A Litany For Survival.
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"A Litany For Survival
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For those of us who live at the shoreline,
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standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone,
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for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice,
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who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns,
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looking inward and outward
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at once before and after,
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seeking a now that can breed futures
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like bread in our children's mouths,
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so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours:
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For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
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like a faint line in the center of our foreheads,
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learning to be afraid with our mother's milk,
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for by this weapon,
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this illusion of some safety to be found,
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the heavy-footed hoped to silence us.
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For all of us,
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this instant and this triumph
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we were never meant to survive.
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And when the sun rises
we are afraid it might not remain,
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when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning,
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when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion,
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when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again,
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when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish,
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when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return,
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and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
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nor welcomed.
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But when we are silent
we are still afraid,
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so it is better to speak,
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remembering
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we were never meant to survive."
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So Audre Lorde famously wrote
in the Cancer Journals
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that if she did not speak her truth
every time she was afraid,
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she would be trying to speak her realness
from a ouija board from the beyond.
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She really encouraged us to speak our truth
despite our fear.
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And when I think about A Litany For Survival today,
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after being immersed in a beautiful,
African centred context
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of what it means to support the practice of birth,
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what it means to support the breakthrough,
of allowing life to happen,
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I think about what we want to give birth to,
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that we are now ready to claim, and push past our fear to achieve and bring into the world.
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So, I want to invite you to journal about that,
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to write about that, to name that and claim that:
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What is it that you are birthing into the world?
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You -never meant to survive- that is already a triumph because you can imagine it.
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And I would love it, love it, love it even more
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if you cuold share in the comments
that which you are birthing into the world,
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so everyone can see.
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And, if you want, I'll be making an oracle this week from A Litany For Survival,
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and you can check out the School of Our Lorde website at the link below
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to find out how you can get a custom email,
poem, blessing, one on one conversation,
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blessing, oracle, poem from Audre Lorde
for that project, that adventure, that reality
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that you are ready to birth.
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So excited to doula you into your dreams!
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Hope to hear from you soon,
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happy Resurrection Sunday.