Tending the Garden

 

A Reflection

Author unknown

A second grade teacher posed a simple enough problem to the class.

    “There are four blackbirds sitting in a tree. You take a slingshot and shoot one of them. How many are left?”

    “Three,” answered the first 7 year old with certainty. “One subtracted from four leaves three.”

    “Zero,” answered the second 7 year old with equal certainty. “If you shoot one bird, the others will fly away.”

As an equity educator, facilitator, and justice consultant, this poem speaks to the very essence of my soul and what continues to drive my journey of learning and living in this world. In reflecting on this simple poem, I am so moved by the response of the second child—so profound in moving away from individual to collective impact…making me reflect about what we are doing in the world and how we are fostering this type of thinking in each other.

How do we plant seeds to cultivate a sense of belonging, community and collective commitment to ourselves and our world?

I wake up daily to another account of tragedy—shootings, unfathomable laws and actions looking to impede people’s rights, man-made and natural disasters, etc. Honestly, I don’t intend to spend much time in this piece talking about what has brought us to this point, but I think it critically important to examine how we respond.

• Are we fleeing, looking at those suffering and simply protecting ourselves?

• Are we simply numb to the countless tragedies and just moving on as we’re left untouched?  or

• Are we stopping to absorb the fact that what impacts one of us, in reality impacts us all?

For those of us in equity and justice work, so much time and energy is spent unpacking how we got where we are as a society, hoping to educate those with privilege and unburdening those who live in oppressed and marginalized identities. This approach follows the line of thinking that if you know how your reality has been informed by discriminatory laws and practices, then you can decrease your own self-hate and resist the continued attacks in real time.

Yet where we collectively need strengthening is in building pathways forward. We must plant seeds of hope, joy, and possibility should we want to see a world with less tragedy everywhere. Our minds are powerful, and we generate more of what we focus on in our thoughts. So if we plant seeds of hope, possibility, growth, and joy, and we focus these energies, we will have more of them for a brighter future.

Unpacking our past is critical for understanding our present, but if we spend more time focused on the inequities and injustices, we will generate more of them. This also leaves us depleted and with less mental and emotional bandwidth to focus on pathways forward. We have to take stock in where we’ve been to cultivate growth for the seeds we plant daily with our words and actions. Will those words and actions be mainly focused on hurt and trauma, or can we claim and own our power and joy by planting seeds of gratitude and hope with patient, kind, and words and actions?

As someone who enjoys seeing a pretty garden in my backyard every summer, I have to understand the prior season before I arrange my garden for the current year and make plans for future blooms. At the beginning of the spring season, I review how the prior year went for our plants and flowers. I think about sun and shade and where each variety grew best. I make note of those spots that will need more care, cultivation and attention to thrive. I then embark on infusing joy and excitement into my process. I plant the seeds, water the plants as needed (some daily, some less frequently), and ensure I am cultivating their growth by protecting them against threats of bugs and critters that might want to destroy their roots from taking hold. With this care and joyful cultivation, I envision my garden full of vibrant colors and fragrances. And because my focus is on that vision and forward pathway, it manifests beautifully.

What would happen if I did not learn from prior years and adjust to move forward? If I only focused on the threats and challenges of gardening and not on the beauty that would come from cultivating growth with joy, excitement, and love?

Eastern Market, Detroit, Michigan

I feel just as I plant seeds for my garden, we must plant seeds for our world. We must learn from the past to then create space to envision a future that is brighter and more joyful. We must cultivate with love and attention our children, our resources and each other should we want to thrive and grow in the future. And when the threats and tragedies come, we can’t simply remain individualistic in our approach by either turning a blind eye or retreating. We must stand with others who have been harmed to heal together…to help rebuild…to plant the seeds of humanity, for now and for generations to come.

Consultant, Facilitator, Leader, Advocate

www.creatingfiresforjustice.com

(She/Her)

Naomi Khalil. Ed.S. consultant, facilitator and change agent has over 25 years of experience leading and learning in diversity, equity and justice. In addition to her educational experience as teacher, school administrator, and district leader, Naomi, of Arab heritage, has native fluency in Spanish and has lived and traveled extensively abroad. This vast experience, coupled with her own identities, allows Naomi to bring a unique, yet powerful perspective to the world of diversity work. Naomi is an agent of racial and social justice, civic literacy and civic engagement, and leads both youth and adults on a journey of self-discovery as they explore their own words and actions in relationship to others. Her life's passion is to celebrate unity through diversity, and she is always willing to push the status quo in order to help us live into that passion.