Day 2
Words have been my favorite for as long as I can remember. Infusing me with pleasure and power and purpose. And because I love words, I believe I have the responsibility to engage with them. To be curious and skeptical about their use. One of the words that I have become more curious about, when it comes to conversations around race, is the word “work.” Are you doing your work? We are asked and challenged, constantly.
About work, Merriam-Webster first says: “to perform work or fulfill duties regularly for wages or salary.” Then: “to perform or carry through a task requiring sustained effort or continuous repeated operations.” And: “to exert oneself physically or mentally especially in sustained effort for a purpose or under compulsion or necessity.” And, of most interest to me here: “to function or operate according to plan or design.” Not even to discuss the fact that work is regularly ascribed to things we do to receive money, the thing that strikes me is the idea that it might follow a plan. And I find myself skeptical of the idea that any of our interior work can follow a particular design. Or even that it should.
I’m interested, then, in the idea of “practice.” Practice has become one of my favorite words because of Yoga. Merriam-Webster says: “to CARRY OUT, APPLY,” and “to do or perform often, customarily, or habitually.” I think there is more room for nuance here. Room to be curious, to be confused or uncertain, room to learn, to apply what you have learned, to decide that that didn’t quite work out, and to learn some more. There is no design, only the promise - to yourself and to others - that you will continue to show up. I think practice is about love and space and compassion.
Maybe these are just words. Maybe calling it practice, instead of calling it work, changes very little. But today, let’s pretend that words can mean everything.
A Practice for Today:
Travel as far back as you need to, and consider your personal associations with the word work. Do the same with the word practice. What are some experiences of work? What are some experiences with practice? How are they different and the same?
What shifts are invited in, when you consider your engagement with race as a practice, rather than work? Does it change what you expect from yourself?
