2020 was a worldwide wake-up call and most of us decided that we needed to do things differently. As a Luminary community, I can see that we are healing. While we return to summer dresses and pants without elastic, I encourage us all to not forget the vows we made to ourselves during those quiet, long days in quarantine. A year after the world stopped to mourn the murder of George Floyd, let's continue to have tough conversations that push our community forward and challenge our own blind spots. 

 

I can't help but be grateful that conversations once exclusive to Black living rooms are now happening on the world stage. As painful as many of these conversations have been, it's a relief beyond explanation. And so I have also lent my ear to stories outside of my own; I've heard my Asian friends, I've listened to trans people, I've shared openly and honestly with my white friends. That is our way forward. Am I ready to stop social distancing? Absolutely! But I will gladly choose not to go back to the way things were before. 

 

The Luminary community makes me optimistic that feminism can have all women in mind. So this weekend, I will pay homage to my ancestors with friends at a Juneteenth cookout and hope that our small efforts towards progress will result in big, lasting change. Forward we go.