Kaitlin B. Curtice - Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day

Were you born to resist

Or be abused?

The Foo Fighters,
Best of You

Dear Reader, Feeler, Explorer, Un-learner, and Friend,

I want you to remember something really important as you read this book: you are a human being. You have not yet arrived, but you are continually arriving. The thing about being human is that we are born, we live, we grieve, and we celebrate, and one day we pass on, becoming ancestors and guides to those who come after us.

One of the most painful things I notice in my work is that people are scared to start the journey of transformation because they dont know when they will be done. They think a week of reading the right books will get them there, only to find out that is not enough. They believe that following the right people on Instagram and Twitter will alleviate them of ignorance, but it doesnt. So they give up. They stop reading the books and they go back to whatever status quo they held on to, assuring themselves that change isnt really possible or that the effort isnt worth it in such a hopeless world. We forget that living is our actual adventure, the flesh and blood and spirit with which we journey the Earth together into the life that waits after this one. It all matters. So take a deep breath as you read this next line:

You are a human being. You are always arriving.

The timeline of your life is not a straight line, after all; it is a series of ebbs and flows, backs and forths, heres and theres. You are nowhere and everywhere all at once, and that means that most of the time, the best you can do is be present to the moment, be open to the unlearning and the learning, and trust that youre doing the work of Love.

As you read this book, you may get overwhelmed. When you do, come back to this page and read these words again. Repeat them to yourself as a kind of medicine : I am a human being. I am always arriving .

Now, lets get started.

Today the old one inside you is collecting bones. What is she re-making? She is the soul self, the builder of the soul-home. Ella lo hace a mano , she makes and re-makes the soul by hand. What is she making for you?

Clarissa Pinkola Ests, Women Who Run with the Wolves

Where does resistance begin, and where does it end?

Perhaps we need to stop thinking of our processes as linear and embrace them as a journey that is at best cyclical and often labyrinthine, with twists and turns, entrances and exits. Maybe resistance overlaps in the different realms of our life, realms that are real and connected to one another.

This book is titled Living Resistance for a number of reasons. First, resistance itself is a living, breathing beingwhen we enter into the flow of resistance, we enter into a sacred, embodied, connected way of being that brings freedom and wholeness.