I was raised with the phrase ‘don’t waste your tears’. My mother lost her voice 10 years before she died from ALS, but she was able to laugh! When she did, tears of joy were like sparkling rivers flowing down her cheeks, and soon anyone near her was also laughing and smiling, wrapped in her joy.
Thank you for sharing this with us. This hit the bullseye of my soul. I instantly thought of George Floyd and my mom when I thought of tears in action, emitting emotion intentionally.
Your words shook me and allowed me a moment of belief in the fact that our tears have power. I cry a lot these days. And I’m often compelled to not show it. This gave my tears new meaning. I shared it with my beloveds and insisted, I pray it sinks in, and I hope our tears are powerful vessels of prayers for peace described below.
I believe love can change the world, so love without boundaries, totally and completely.
I don't usually read these but I knew to take a moment and dive in. Glad I did.
I appreciate the use of "maybe" in this reflection...so often we say things as "fact" or "truth" or absolute unwavering decisions...but so often we can also feel that we are not sure if what we are praying for or doing in our lives is "working". Doubt seems like a daily thought for all of us in some regard or about some topic or action in our lives. Always refreshing to remember we all are figuring out this world together at the same time...!
I would even like to add a prayer for us to take more action after we pray...after meditation, after reflection, after "sending out" love or kindness as a vibrational thought or feeling...to add the action to perhaps even push that vibration further to help people feel it better and more directly so we don't have to have that "maybe" feeling...or lose hope...in the best way...and gain certainty.
I'm also at a my new writing spot right now so I may be feeling extra insightful and reflecty, but I just felt compelled to share all that.
Thanks for the inspiration and to add another prayer to today: may we all learn how to hold love in our words and actions when we are settling differences & injustices, may we keep finding healing for every people on this planet, every human being, Palestinian, Israeli, Hindu, Muslim and Myanmar resident, every Sudanese and Congolese, Chinese whether Hong Kong, migrant or mainland, every shade and personality, every religion and ethnicity...within the Americas and every other single country, village, region, land, heart, all over this planet...I still have much to learn about them/us all and look forward to building more bridges and respecting more cultures~ #Unity #Healing #BridgeBuilding
So welcome! Your spot at Array was definitely on my list of fav writing spots as well! Keep up your great writing too please! Looking forward to more stacks on stacks! Peace!~
Thank you for coming to Substack! The talk you had with Joy Reid was a great gesture because some would say her career had taken quite the turn, and all in all after witnessing your work I think I know the depths of your thinking, far ahead, far and wide, deep, deep as the power of a tear. Thank you for sharing your brilliance. Substack is about business, and we must all grow but some of us give so much and the depths of you seem so profound even the slightest gesture is like when Atlas Shrugs. Thank you. I am now able to witness, and perhaps be witnessed.
I needed to read this. I questioned my faith last night in despair of all the suffering right now. This helped a lot. Thank you for sharing and amplifying Dr. Carter’s magical words with your own.
Another beautiful and profound share, Ava. I truly love being in this space with you. 💛💛💛🙏🏾 Congratulations again! A wonderful and well-deserved honor. Also, this part, is A Whole WORD by itself...Kierkegaard wrote “the function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” 💯 #Every #Thing 💖💖💖
Thank you so much for this. These words touched deep in my soul. Last night while watching a documentary on Nazi Germany, one of the historians said “Even those who aren’t religious need to pray sometimes”.
Sister Ava you experienced what a lot of us from Atlanta experience at Morehouse graduations. I have 5 generations of Morehouse men in my family. I remember one year when the late, great Opera star Jessye Norman was, like you, receiving an honorary doctorate.
As the incomparable Morehouse College Glee Club began to sing, Jessye stood up, turned her chair toward them and sat facing the glee club so she could soak up all of their majesty which remains a sweet reminder that we, as a people, have something fixed and unshakable in our bosoms, if we only embrace it.
"The energy I emit with intention matters" and a tear is a prayer are my main takeaways from this, so thank you kindly. I like it because it means we do not have to pray if we are not religious but still feel powerless over conflicts and want to do something. "Blessings not just for the ones that kneel, luckily"
“With Rev. Carter’s prayer, I realize that when our tears join a larger force they are muscular. They can change and charge the air. And if enough people, allow our hearts to open and experience the emotion of justice - not the action of it, the emotion of it - it has the power to, as King said, bend the arc of the moral universe. Maybe.”
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your experience and Dr. Carter’s powerful words 🙏🏽
I remember a verse from J Cole on the track “To Summer, From Cole (Audio Hug)” where he gave Summer Walker so many poetic flowers but also spoke that he's been crying so much “since he had these kids” - I experienced the same reality as life was being created in the womb and these first 16 months since his arrival…
Your words have always carried a different weight but these made me feel lighter. I will continue to allow them to flow knowing that they're on a path to the Most High 🙏🏾✨️
You are a gift to us all. Through your work, words, and soul, you share what is needed. The weight of the tragedy around the world, including the violence and attempted erasure and policing of trans and queer people, of women and the female body, of all BIPOC people around the world suffering under the weight and destruction of white supremacy... hope is hard to hold onto, but without it, there is no grace, no space to dream. And so I hope that all our tears, our words, our stories, histories, actions, and thoughts- can change us all on a cellular level and take us to a kinder place.
Thank you for being a beacon when it’s hardest to see the light. Your talent, your courage, and your relentless belief remind me—and so many of us—that hope is an act of resistance, too. I’m endlessly grateful for all you’ve given me through your work and your voice, and it inspires me to keep writing, to keep dreaming, and to keep trying. Thank you, Ava.
Forgive me this long comment. I appreciate you more than I know how to express.
This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I’ve heard that when we see spots or orb-type specks on an image, it’s an ancestor, someone who has passed that’s with you. I wonder who was with you, Ava. I see these “orb” type lights at the bottom of your robe. Love.
I was raised with the phrase ‘don’t waste your tears’. My mother lost her voice 10 years before she died from ALS, but she was able to laugh! When she did, tears of joy were like sparkling rivers flowing down her cheeks, and soon anyone near her was also laughing and smiling, wrapped in her joy.
Thank you for sharing this with us. This hit the bullseye of my soul. I instantly thought of George Floyd and my mom when I thought of tears in action, emitting emotion intentionally.
Thank you for sharing this jewel of a memory with us. 🩶
I’m am wholly failing on not Fan Girling on your comment. Thank you for taking the time to share your words with me.
Mummy, look! We have shared a brief connection with THE Ms. Ava DuVernay. Cartwheels all day!
🫶🏾
Your words shook me and allowed me a moment of belief in the fact that our tears have power. I cry a lot these days. And I’m often compelled to not show it. This gave my tears new meaning. I shared it with my beloveds and insisted, I pray it sinks in, and I hope our tears are powerful vessels of prayers for peace described below.
I believe love can change the world, so love without boundaries, totally and completely.
Medaase for sharing, you are a powerful soul.
Beautifully said.
I don't usually read these but I knew to take a moment and dive in. Glad I did.
I appreciate the use of "maybe" in this reflection...so often we say things as "fact" or "truth" or absolute unwavering decisions...but so often we can also feel that we are not sure if what we are praying for or doing in our lives is "working". Doubt seems like a daily thought for all of us in some regard or about some topic or action in our lives. Always refreshing to remember we all are figuring out this world together at the same time...!
I would even like to add a prayer for us to take more action after we pray...after meditation, after reflection, after "sending out" love or kindness as a vibrational thought or feeling...to add the action to perhaps even push that vibration further to help people feel it better and more directly so we don't have to have that "maybe" feeling...or lose hope...in the best way...and gain certainty.
I'm also at a my new writing spot right now so I may be feeling extra insightful and reflecty, but I just felt compelled to share all that.
Thanks for the inspiration and to add another prayer to today: may we all learn how to hold love in our words and actions when we are settling differences & injustices, may we keep finding healing for every people on this planet, every human being, Palestinian, Israeli, Hindu, Muslim and Myanmar resident, every Sudanese and Congolese, Chinese whether Hong Kong, migrant or mainland, every shade and personality, every religion and ethnicity...within the Americas and every other single country, village, region, land, heart, all over this planet...I still have much to learn about them/us all and look forward to building more bridges and respecting more cultures~ #Unity #Healing #BridgeBuilding
All the best yall,
Upward and Onward~ 💚🌍✌🏾😌🙏🏿✨
Your new writing spot is really working for you! Wonderful, warm, welcomed reflections. Thank you. 🙏🏾
So welcome! Your spot at Array was definitely on my list of fav writing spots as well! Keep up your great writing too please! Looking forward to more stacks on stacks! Peace!~
Thank you for coming to Substack! The talk you had with Joy Reid was a great gesture because some would say her career had taken quite the turn, and all in all after witnessing your work I think I know the depths of your thinking, far ahead, far and wide, deep, deep as the power of a tear. Thank you for sharing your brilliance. Substack is about business, and we must all grow but some of us give so much and the depths of you seem so profound even the slightest gesture is like when Atlas Shrugs. Thank you. I am now able to witness, and perhaps be witnessed.
I needed to read this. I questioned my faith last night in despair of all the suffering right now. This helped a lot. Thank you for sharing and amplifying Dr. Carter’s magical words with your own.
🫶🏾
Another beautiful and profound share, Ava. I truly love being in this space with you. 💛💛💛🙏🏾 Congratulations again! A wonderful and well-deserved honor. Also, this part, is A Whole WORD by itself...Kierkegaard wrote “the function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” 💯 #Every #Thing 💖💖💖
🙏🏾
Thank you so much for this. These words touched deep in my soul. Last night while watching a documentary on Nazi Germany, one of the historians said “Even those who aren’t religious need to pray sometimes”.
"I've never prayed but tonight I'm on my knees" = I love that lyric
Sister Ava you experienced what a lot of us from Atlanta experience at Morehouse graduations. I have 5 generations of Morehouse men in my family. I remember one year when the late, great Opera star Jessye Norman was, like you, receiving an honorary doctorate.
As the incomparable Morehouse College Glee Club began to sing, Jessye stood up, turned her chair toward them and sat facing the glee club so she could soak up all of their majesty which remains a sweet reminder that we, as a people, have something fixed and unshakable in our bosoms, if we only embrace it.
Wow! What a story about Queen Jessye Norman! Imagine being one of those singers. Gulp! So beautiful though. What a generous gesture from her. Love it!
My cousin Carolyn Grant is named for her paternal Great Aunt also named Carolyn Grant who was Jessye Norman’s voice teacher at Howard University.
The energy I emit with intention matters.❤️
xoxo
"The energy I emit with intention matters" and a tear is a prayer are my main takeaways from this, so thank you kindly. I like it because it means we do not have to pray if we are not religious but still feel powerless over conflicts and want to do something. "Blessings not just for the ones that kneel, luckily"
Absolutely! ✨✨✨✨✨
Wow
exactly
Our tears matter.❤️
“With Rev. Carter’s prayer, I realize that when our tears join a larger force they are muscular. They can change and charge the air. And if enough people, allow our hearts to open and experience the emotion of justice - not the action of it, the emotion of it - it has the power to, as King said, bend the arc of the moral universe. Maybe.”
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your experience and Dr. Carter’s powerful words 🙏🏽
Blessings!!!
xo
I remember a verse from J Cole on the track “To Summer, From Cole (Audio Hug)” where he gave Summer Walker so many poetic flowers but also spoke that he's been crying so much “since he had these kids” - I experienced the same reality as life was being created in the womb and these first 16 months since his arrival…
Your words have always carried a different weight but these made me feel lighter. I will continue to allow them to flow knowing that they're on a path to the Most High 🙏🏾✨️
Proud Of You Ava!
Thank you for your words and for this picture! What a cutie patootie! And 13TH! Yasss!
You are very welcome Ava! He's growing up so fast 🙈✨️🙏🏾
He will know about all the dope humans that inspired his Pops and The People 😊✊🏾
You are a gift to us all. Through your work, words, and soul, you share what is needed. The weight of the tragedy around the world, including the violence and attempted erasure and policing of trans and queer people, of women and the female body, of all BIPOC people around the world suffering under the weight and destruction of white supremacy... hope is hard to hold onto, but without it, there is no grace, no space to dream. And so I hope that all our tears, our words, our stories, histories, actions, and thoughts- can change us all on a cellular level and take us to a kinder place.
Thank you for being a beacon when it’s hardest to see the light. Your talent, your courage, and your relentless belief remind me—and so many of us—that hope is an act of resistance, too. I’m endlessly grateful for all you’ve given me through your work and your voice, and it inspires me to keep writing, to keep dreaming, and to keep trying. Thank you, Ava.
Forgive me this long comment. I appreciate you more than I know how to express.
With respect,
Jo V.
Thank you for sharing from your heart. Yes, hope is indeed hard to hold. But we hold on. 💕
💜
This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I’ve heard that when we see spots or orb-type specks on an image, it’s an ancestor, someone who has passed that’s with you. I wonder who was with you, Ava. I see these “orb” type lights at the bottom of your robe. Love.