Origin Story
Internal Social Justice’s™ humble beginnings.
In Seattle’s largest metaphysical bookstore, I stand facing a wall of top sellers.
Even though I have been here many times and have read a large portion of the books the store contains, an unexplainably new feeling comes over me, a dawning, a synthesis.
As I look at the wall of book titles in front of me I simultaneously feel the content of the thousands of books in the room behind me - so many written words about personal liberation, evolution, and transformation… yet not a single book addresses race. In this moment, I experience a synthesis of the tributaries of my life, aspects that I previously considered disparate, coming together in one river of calling.
As a practitioner of medicine, spirituality, and social justice, I am gifted, in this moment, with clarity. Medically there is a disease that is not being looked at. Spiritually there are many gifts and practices that are not applied to racial healing.
The blatant omission of race from the tomes of self help books needs to be addressed. And maybe racial healing can come from direct application of spiritual practices to the darkest shadow of our socialization. In order to truly evolve, transform, and liberate, the darkest, most unconscious parts of self must be addressed. Omitting dialogue around racism from entire bodies of work - from all doctrines of faith and spiritual practice - is not only a sign of a society in gross denial, but a substantial disservice to humanity, and an ultimate obstacle to the liberation these books profess to offer.
Spiritual or personal growth is not a path of bypass and denial, it is not a path of omission. All wisdom traditions inform us that transformation comes when we have the courage to look at that which we are most afraid to see. Growth happens from tending what lies underground.
The seed for this book was planted at the moment, 25 years ago, that I stood in that bookstore. Many things have changed and literature now exists connecting race and spirituality, and in the meantime, I have been tending to the clarity that came through me.
Diligent in the development of the content, ensured that it is backed with experiential learning, practiced techniques, and an embodiment that results from taking time with things. A seed was planted in a moment of insight, and the publications represent the root and rhizome, the trunk and branches of what has been tended. May the fruits of my soulful and very personal journey with this content ultimately serve you in your process of mining the shadow to find the gifts.
