Kate MacDonald: 2020 was a wild year. Now what?

2020 was a wild year…
Now what?

We took the streets over and over again.
Screamed names of those Black folks stolen from us.
Gathered by the thousands.
Chanted for liberation.
Called on the young to come carry the torch.
Leaned on our elders for wisdom.
We danced, we cried, we sang, we argued, our hearts broke.
Now what?

I got really tired near the end of 2020. Not sure I could handle more bad news. Not sure I could handle picking myself back up. Watching footage back from the Spring, Summer, and into the Fall I have no idea how I had the stamina to show up, how I had the air left in my lungs and fire in my chest but man, I did. As I discussed on a panel once upon a time with some community members it’s a calling and responsibility to community, it’s a love letter from the universe asking you to stand up if you can. For me, that’s how it is anyways. 

But, seriously, now what? We have entered a new year, with the same ailments and same societal structures and systems…how are we going to create a new world? What are we doing differently and with more intention to disrupt? What bad habits are we leaving behind? What things no longer require permission? Where is our joy? Where is our action? 

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I am moving forward. I’ve been sinking my teeth into new learnings and different practices in order to support my own evolution. I am constantly thinking about how to be the most efficient and how we may be able to tap into a new momentum. But I don’t have any answers. I feel like I’m digging and sculpting a path with an unknown destination. I’m looking all around me, above and below me for clues and wisdom I may have missed. Knowing this path is uncertain. 

I feel proud of the noise that Halifax and Nova Scotia made this past little while. We have drawn on energy centuries old to support us now. We only are where we are because what has been before us has already been. I am thankful for my ancestors. I am thankful for the communities that keep our stories and knowledge alive and are gracious enough to share. I am because you are. 

The only thing I know is I don’t play with mine. So that’s what I can bring with me. That’s my forever bag. 

The dream is one day to not have to take the streets for injustice and state sanctioned murder. It’s a dream. Truly. A place we must believe in so deeply that we feel it in our every fibre. That’s a lot of hope and a lot of faith. This activist shit is almost like a religion, not organized but a practice you have to commit to and recommit to and lose your way on the path and then find a new path with deeper understanding. Shit’s hard.

ALL THIS TO SAY…The time for a battle cry will come again and I hope chants past echo into your sphere and you show the fuck up, ready to fuck shit up. This marathon (rest in eternal power, Nipsey) is far from over and we must keep going. 

And now you should ask yourself, now what for you?

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See also: Kate MacDonald: A different journey