I want to be talking to you about something that has been a very intense experience for myself, and collectively as the Asian community. And so, the other day I actually went to an Asian market (this was my first time going to this grocery store after an Asian elderly couple was attacked in that area back in April). 

And as I approached the parking lot, and was getting out of the car, this sense of fear came over me. 

I can feel my entire body tense up. My brother even made a comment and said hey let’s get out of the car, you know, we don’t want anyone to like rob us. It was this heightened sense of fear that has crippled, my community. 

As I was in the herbs section, I noticed an elderly man and woman, someone’s grandma, someone’s mom. Someone’s dad, someone’s grandpa. I almost had a breakdown. 

Because the thought that was coming to my mind was: who could hurt these fragile precious individuals? Watching them picking up verbs, thinking to myself how fragile they are.

How, given the violent attacks on our elderly population, and how it could easily be my mom, you know.

I gripped the handle on the cart tighter. The collective trauma that our Asian community has experienced over the course of the last year– 18 months– has been crippling. 

Father God, I pray for healing in our community.

Lord, I pray for those who have experienced trauma this past year. 

Lord, bring your comfort and healing for all the victims.

I pray for every heart that is hurting. Every heart just needs to know that they are safe and that there are better days ahead. 

And I know it sounds so cliche, but we need to hold on to that hope. And we also need to do better. As humans, we need to learn how to care for one another– as a species, as humanity.  We need to have more patience with one another. We only ever see the surface of what someone is willing to share on their newsfeed, but we don’t know what lies underneath the highlight reels. 

Every day and every moment, we show up as the most healed version of ourselves. 

And for those of you who have not done any healing work friends, there has never been a better time to start. 

Society needs you to show up. We need you to show up. 

This world needs you to show up just a little bit more healed than you were yesterday. I think collectively if each and every single one of us shows up a little more healed, than we were yesterday, we’ll start seeing a better world. 

We’re going to start being able to love each other better, to be able to stand in unity and care for one another. 

Because here’s the thing friends, we are all so fragile. And I think we forget that. We forget that each and every single one of us has a story. 

And then what happens is we start fighting on social media. Oftentimes, what’s happening is we want our voice to be the loudest, because we don’t feel heard, and we don’t feel seen and don’t feel valued. 

But when we start showing up– a little more healed every single one of us collectively. We’re going to start seeing healing in our relationships. We’ll start seeing changes in our interactions in the way we treat and honor and respect one another. 

Here in the United States, it’s been a very traumatic year for different communities. 

I want to encourage you to keep loving each other, keep shining your light, keep inspiring people by how you show up, because when they see you show up, it gives them permission to show up a little bit more authentic, a little bit more genuine and to share when they’re not okay. 

There is no spiritual bypassing here. You know, we don’t just walk through a difficult season, and just talk about how grateful we are for everything and dismiss our pain and suffering. That’s not how we honor how we feel. And that’s not honoring our human experience. 

Instead, let’s work towards healing together. Let’s start sharing some of our challenges. Let’s be there for one another. Part of the healing process is that we identify our triggers and start working towards healing our triggers. I believe we can do that, collectively, but we have to be able to do that on an individual level first. 

I hope that this encourages you, by being aware that there is hope. And for those of you who have not started the healing process, start working on individual healing. And then cling on to the hope. I believe wholeheartedly that our Father in Heaven loves us, and that we’re going to get through this together. So with that being said, friends, I will catch you next time.

Because I truly believe that we can all be better humans, and we can heal, individually and collectively, I want to invite you to join me on this journey through my Cultivating Meaningful Relationships course. This is a completely free course to help you go deeper in your relationships, and bring mindfulness into your relationship with those around you. Sending you love. -Michelle