From Healing through Palestinian Jewish Solidarity: Hadar Cohen – Into Healing S1, Ep.4

“Mira: Why is it so important to decolonize our mind, our body, and our soul?

Hadar: Part of it begins with asking: what is colonization? It’s many things, but one way I like to think about it is that it creates a separation between the body and the land. It’s a rupture that happens between people and land. The connection between the body and the land is one of the most powerful connections a person can have. When you are ruptured at your root, you become destabilized — spiritually and ancestrally — and you lose your power. The land is your anchor.

I think this is part of the time we’re living in. We’re living through massive global displacement and colonization, with so many issues in our world. Part of this moment is a reckoning with the question: how does a body return to land? What does that process look like?

Sometimes in the Jewish community there’s a narrative that Jews were in exile from Palestine and then returned. I challenge that narrative. Is returning to the land enough? If your body is now on the land you’re from, is that enough to decolonize? I believe it isn’t. It’s not only about material conditions; it’s also about psychological and spiritual conditions. If we don’t address those, we end up in the state we are in now — an oppressive regime.

[…]I often think about Hannah Arendt. I think everyone should read her work. She predicted much of what is happening now. She was a German Jewish thinker writing in the 1940s. As the State of Israel was being created, she wrote letters to Jewish leaders saying that Jews were not psychologically ready for a state at that moment. She warned that if it happened under those conditions, it could turn into a disaster and a totalitarian regime.”

From Becoming A Mother Radically Changes Everything: Abbi Miller – Into Healing S3, Ep.8

From Becoming A Mother Radically Changes Everything: Abbi Miller – Into Healing S3, Ep.8

“Abbi: I’ve thought about that with Willa [my daughter]. No matter where she goes, we share values around this. We’ll always say, What makes you happy? Where do you want to be? [...] A lot of it is permission to change and permission to find your own path. It’s a journey, not a destination.

Mira: Yeah, for sure. It’s in the everyday, in all the little moments. It’s asking, What can I do now? What kind of choice can I make now that leads me where I want to go?

Abbi: Exactly. I changed my hours a lot once she started preschool. I only work when she’s at school. That informed a lot of decisions. [...] Motherhood has given me confidence around that. I’m clear: this is my time, these are the offers, and this is how we’re doing it. [...] It’s about creating systems, teams, and client expectations that aren’t divorced from the reality of being a mom.

Mira: That’s fascinating. [...] So the question becomes: how do we create systems that work for us while still allowing us to do the work we want to do in the world? Good work. That feels like the daily practice.”