Today my heart is broken

I woke up this morning with a broken heart.


Yesterday, the Oceti Sakowin camp closed as the Army Corps of Engineers ordered it evacuated by yesterday afternoon. Water protectors ceremonially burned the camp the night before so that law enforcement could not destroy it. Last evening, some water protectors were arrested. Over 40 have been arrested since then, arrested for protecting the land and the water all humanity needs for life.

Yesterday was the memorial mass for Juan Patricio Peraza Quijada, a 19 year old guest at Anunciation House in El Paso, who was killed in 2003 by the Border Patrol while taking out the trash at the shelter for migrants.

Yesterday, a local municipal government employee bragged that the city was close to demolishing a historic neighborhood filled with long-time residents, elders on very limited incomes. They are being displaced for an arena.

This morning I woke up with a broken heart. Sometimes it gets to be too much. Too much pain. Too much injustice. Too much.

Indigenous teachings throughout the Americas tell us that we are all connected. The only way to survive is to remember that we ARE all connected. To know this means we have to fight a system that lives off of dividing us into "them" and "us."  It is a system that uses schooling, the media, political rhetoric, and popular culture to divide us.

In the video below, the women of Standing Rock tell us, "We are here for everybody."  "We are here for our grandchildren. We are here for you." Their work in the face of militarized violence, an administration that favors profits over the future of our children, and even the unbearable weather is a testament to that connection.

Today, I woke up with a broken heart so I will light sage and copal and pray.  I will strengthen myself and tomorrow I will be ready to get back to the work on connecting and protecting.