a poem a day: day 13

protest

Friends,

Today’s word will stir up a lot of things for a lot of us. It’s a political word, a social word, a spiritual word. I hope you’ll sit with it, open your heart, see what’s happening there.

Protest.

Now, I’d like us to pause here, because I know that we have lots of ideas of what this word is right when we see it. I’m sure you’ve got some feelings bubbling up.

Here’s a little more about the word, from dictionary.com:

The first records of protest come from the 1300s. It derives from the Latin prōtestārī, meaning “to declare publicly,” from the root testārī, meaning “to testify.” The pro- in protest doesn't mean “in favor of” or “supporting” as it does in some other terms—instead it's used to indicate a sense of outwardness.

And some simple definitions:

: to make solemn declaration or affirmation of

: to execute or have executed a formal protest against (something, such as a bill or note)

: to make a statement or gesture in objection to

So, as we move forward, let’s just hold some of this, and like we do with our resistance, with our activism, with our contemplation or our spirituality or so many things, look at it from its different facets and ask what it has to say to us.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Protest

To protest is to make a public
declaration, to proclaim
that something, perhaps,
is not as it should be.

So what do we protest?
What do we name to be 
not exactly as it should be
in the world around us?

What exactly do we say
that we are protesting,
when we flood the streets
or name the difficult things?

How exactly are we showing up
when it's all so heavy and
we don’t fully know the way
forward anymore?

Perhaps a protest
is a sacred point of contact
between what is and
what should belovedly be.

So, let us protest.
Let us name what hurts,
and move together
toward radical, precious healing

together.