This week our blog is short. We want to encourage you all to be intentional now about the stories you’re telling and the stories you’re making with your family.

Sheltering at home and social isolation has been difficult for me. COVID-19 has brought about myriad lifestyle adaptations I’ve had to make over the past month. While acknowledging the plight of others may be more acute than the experience I’ve endured, I can only speak from my own experience. Some of the lifestyle changes I’ve endured are physical isolation from friends and family, wiping down my groceries with Lysol when I get home, and not having access to a gym.

Social distancing has created a void in my day. I miss the energy that people, and crowds bring into my life. I have tried a range of different social media platforms to connect with people—Duo, Zoom, Facebook Messenger, and FaceTime. While these have certainly helped, I still have a yearning for more. Each day I try to fill this void with a home improvement task, or even work, but my energy level is still low. It feels like the scene in Superman, when he first faces the green colored crystal that absorbs his energy. That substance is Kryptonite.

I’m calling out to you world! This is really weird. Have you ever experienced anything like this? I’m sitting here trying to be normal (and I’m not doing such a bad job!), while the news changes and updates, and the world basically closes up shop. I mean…this is really weird.

Who remembers the TV public service announcement growing up? “This is a test of emergency broadcast system. This is only test”. A long, annoying sound and then… “if this had been a real emergency you would have been given information and instructions”. I always wondered as a child what a real emergency was and what the test would be preparing us for. I didn’t know that the system was tied to what was perceived as the largest global threat in the 60s, 70s, early 80s — Nuclear War. Thankfully, nuclear war didn’t happen. The real emergency never surfaced, and we weren’t given instructions to head to the nearest bomb shelter (wherever that might have been).

What we know and live as Be Strong Families is that we live in an abundant and deeply kind universe. We know that when challenges arise, they are tests and opportunities to live our values: family, love, liberation, vitality, authenticity, excellence, collaboration, and spirit. So, in the midst of this pandemic, we came together as a team with creativity and dedication, asking: How can we assist?

True white allies are more than willing to extend the conversation about black history beyond a designated month. They engage at a deep level that requires time and understanding of the tragedies and triumphs, the trauma and resilience, and the ingenuity and genius of people who have continuously been reduced to the “other”. The thorough investigation of black history leads to a more powerful, historically-informed lens of equity to understand present dynamics of structural racism, generational poverty, and educational/health disparities.

“Equity" has become a hot topic in organizational spaces. But how deep does that commitment actually go? This reflection on the origins of Black History Month and the ongoing marginalization of African American history is a challenge to white allies to go further than February and further than comfortable.

Robyn Harvey has hosted exchange students from six countries, adopted two Latino sons, and spent years thinking carefully about what it means to honor cultures that aren't her own. Cultural appreciation (rather than cultural appropriation) requires continuous learning, humility, and the willingness to ask uncomfortable questions. Robyn asked them, and what her colleagues told her changed how her family spent Black History Month.