1101: Live at the empty heart of paradox. I'll dance with you there, cheek to cheek.
Day 1101: Wednesday, March 22, 2023
‘Find the real world, give it endlessly away, grow rich flinging gold to all who ask. Live at the empty heart of paradox. I’ll dance there with you – cheek to cheek.”- Rumi
Much like Women’s Herstory Month, the mobilization for change that led to the inspiration of Homeboy Industries is attributed to the efforts of women, mothers, and grandmothers—the señoras of Boyle Heights—that organized alongside Father Greg.
35 years later, our female and femme staff make up a majority of the Senior and Core Staff at Homeboy Industries. We have also seen an increase in the number of female and femme clients we walk alongside. We pay tribute, honor, and acknowledge women’s labor, wisdom, and heart-work that continues to guide our mission and community in kinship.
At Homeboy, we are focusing this month on inspiring and educating one another by uplifting female and femme voices and stories, to celebrate their contributions. We continue to work towards creating space and place for those at the margins, acknowledging that the US has the top incarceration rate of women in the world, increasing 837% in the last 40 years (Prison Policy Initiative, 2019).
To all our women, and of course this includes our cis, femme, and trans-family–we see you, we love you, and we stand with you. We will continue our work imagining no one standing outside of the circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will one day be erased.
Fr. Greg's Thought for the Day - The Cumbia Dance - welcome to the human race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfnylbZgSrA