Statement of Welcome, Acknowledgment, Hope & Nonviolence
Dear Wayfinders near and far,
A deep welcome to all that we are and can be. All gender expressions, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, ages, spiritualities, abilities and disabilities, body expressions and neurodiversities, and more, are welcome here.
I live and work on land has been stewarded by the indigenous Massachusett and Nipmuc people for hundreds of generations. I honor and pay my respects to them.
I acknowledge that the ancestors of the mindfulness and yoga practices I have been privileged to learn from are not my blood ancestors. I honor and pay my respects to them, and offer my gratitude for these strong teaching lineages.
I acknowledge the environmental trauma that has come from humanity living out of balance with nature. I welcome our remembering, our grief, our fierce compassion and our hope into the space of our hearts.
As the leader of the Wayfinder Institute, I acknowledge the injustices within our society and commit to allocating care, energy and resources towards rebalancing the impact of systemic discrimination, and to unlearning unkind cultural paradigms. I believe any kind of change begins with willingness to look, feel, and stay through discomfort, and that is what Wayfinder’s work is all about. I have taken the Antiracist Small Business Pledge to commit to building an equitable, anti-racist organization and have signed this open letter from the Boston Arts and Cultural Workers in Demand of Racial Equity and Social Transformation.
Compassion, nonviolence, antiracism, nondiscrimination, and stewardship of natural life are practices of lifelong learning and unlearning. We can pause, relax, and open to feedback. We can listen and make repairs when we make mistakes. I value compassion and growth and will attempt to keep my actions aligned with those values as I lead through the Wayfinder Institute.
Sincerely,
India Clark (she/her)