I am pretty sure that I never learned about the Tulsa Massacre in 1921 that took place in Oklahoma. I wasn’t the most attentive student in history class but just last week, when I learned about Tulsa, I was overtaken with emotion because I can honestly say that I had no idea that this took place. Maybe we covered this in school and I wasn’t paying attention. Today is June 19th and because of what happened in 1865, today is known as Juneteenth. Again, I must have been absent in class because this is the first year that I’m hearing about Juneteenth. Education is power.
History is for us to learn and grow. When history is shared with emotions, we feel it, we hear it. We feel the pain, the hurt, the challenges. We honor the struggles that previous generations went through. I remember visiting Anne Frank’s hiding place in Amsterdam. Being in the space gave me the chills. While I cannot begin to understand the struggle, I felt the realness of it.
We cannot erase history but we can learn from the past and move forward for a better future, for everyone. Knowledge is the key to growth. This virus taught us that humans are highly adaptable. In the beginning of quarantine, everyone wanted life to go back to normal. Yet life is fluid. The yoga culture teaches us that the only thing constant in life is change so going back to normal will inevitability look and feel different than what we expect.
As a person, I need to keep growing. Let’s keep the thirst of knowledge going and let’s open our perception. Not everything is as it seems and the more we learn, the more we grow. We are living in an interesting time and if anything, I hope we can learn and grow together.
Love,
Kate
