In order to address any unhealed generational trauma, forgiveness has to be on the table.
Hello everyone, I’m Olivia S. Benson, and if you’ve been here before you know I’m the author of two books. One is called Answers from Within, and it’s about finding answers to work-life issues from a spiritual perspective, and that’s this book, and it’s available on Amazon. And the other one is For the Love of My Father, which is a spiritual guide for healing from the absence of a father. And this one, the pink book, is also available on Amazon.
And today I want to take some time wrapping up from the month of February and Black History Month, and all the different learnings that I’ve had and that I continue to work on with regards to black history and living in America and all the different things that go along with that.
Forgiveness, a pill to take like your life depends on it
Now, if you have been here before, you know that at the end of the day, for me and in my life experience, everything goes back to spiritual truth and to what I call GEFS, which is God, energy, force, spirit. Everything ultimately is about that, despite what physical appearances might want to tell you.
And the other thing that is key is that in order for us to live a more complete life, a healed life, forgiveness is — there’s a chapter in the book that says “Forgiveness, a Pill to Take Like Your Life Depends on It.” And that’s in For the Love of My Father, because your life and the quality of your life actually does depend on your ability to forgive.
Not a single person responded
Now, it’s funny, because I think it was a couple years ago, but I actually put a question — I think it was on Instagram or Facebook — and I said, what would it take for you to be, if you are a person of African descent particularly, or to some extent of African descent particularly, and you are unhealed — because obviously there’s some people who are completely healed from that drama and that trauma, but if you are unhealed, what would it take for you to be willing to forgive slavery? That was the question. And believe it or not, not a single person responded or made a comment about that post.
But the question that I want to leave with you today is, if you believe that forgiveness is a key to healing in your life, would you be willing to at least work on forgiving slavery as a general kind of thing? Because there’s so many things that go into that, but the bottom line is that in order to address any unhealed generational trauma, forgiveness has to be on the table.
So would you be willing to consider forgiveness, and forgiving those who committed the heinous, heinous, heinous, heinous wrongs of slavery? Not just kidnapping people from the west coast of Africa, bringing them over like animals in the bowels of a ship, enslaving them for 200 plus years, breeding them like they were animals. There’s a long list, and everybody — well, not everybody, but many of us — have already seen the awfulness of the story.
You can’t cover the sun with a finger
And in fact, I hope you’ve had a chance, if you are familiar with my work, to look at my website, OliviaSBenson.com. I wrote an article, and the article is called “Because You Can’t Cover the Sun with a Finger,” which is basically addressing the fact that there’s some who would like to pretend that some of the things that did happen did not happen. And the bottom line is that the truth is obvious. Even when you try to cover the sun with a finger, the light all around shines and tells the truth.
And in that article I talk about some of the awfulness of slavery, and the ultimate thing is that despite everything that happened, people of African descent in America have overcome the injustices, the abuses, and have continued to contribute to this country. And there’s a list of names, and if you’ve seen any of the posts — not just mine, but posts for Black History Month — you would see the names of all the people. Despite the awfulness of not just slavery but the post-slavery abuses, people, humans of African descent have continued to overcome. They continue to rise, they continue to make contributions, and that in and of itself is extraordinary. So despite what anybody would want to say, the truth is the truth.
The massacres in U.S. history
And I don’t know, you know, I would encourage you to go back and look at my post on Facebook and Instagram, and to look at the article. But one of the ones that I did is about the massacres, the black massacres in U.S. history. I noted 21 of the notable, from New York to Rosewood, and these were massacres where hundreds and thousands of the people of African descent were massacred.
And I find this list interesting. It’s not new, but many times people will say, well, we don’t understand why people of African descent in America haven’t advanced. And in some of these cases, for example Rosewood, the residents, the people of African descent, had advanced, had built their own community. And what did the people who were angry at their progress do, other than burn the town to the ground? The whites who were angry, the white humans who were angry at the progress that the blacks had made, the black humans had made, basically murdered, looted, plundered and burned their town to the ground. And this happened multiple times.
So when people ask that question about, oh, you know, we don’t understand — well, you should. The list is there. I have 21, and there were more, and we’re talking about the death of thousands of people of African descent. And so I made a post that basically is in memory of the victims of those 21 — and like I said, I know there are others, but of those 21 massacres.
A huge karmic burden
Now I would like to point out that recently the government has — well, not recently, they haven’t done it yet — but the government of Ghana will soon introduce a resolution at the United Nations asking that slavery be declared a crime against humanity, the transatlantic slave trade from the coast of West Africa be declared a crime against humanity. And we all know that it was, and has left, you know, indelible marks on the descendants of those formerly enslaved, or those enslaved West Africans.
Now the thing that’s interesting is that there are some countries who have apologized for the transatlantic slave trade. I think Denmark and the Netherlands, and also there’s a city in England, Liverpool, because they were a significant hub, apologized. Also the United States Senate and the House of Representatives in 2008 and 2009 apologized for the atrocities of slavery. The difficulty of that is that, you know, part of an apology is that you make it right, and there are those who would say that the United States government has not made it right. Okay? There’s still people suffering, there’s still abuses, there’s a long list of problems that still exist.
But as we look around, one of the things from a spiritual perspective that we know is that the things that America did — and America is not the only country, I’m speaking about America because that’s where I am — but the thing is that the country has a huge, what I would call, karmic burden, because of the awfulness and the ugliness of this episode in American life, and because of their failure to really recognize what contributions, which I talk about significantly in the article that’s on the website, “Because You Can’t Cover the Sun with a Finger.” They have not recognized the contributions, and have significantly sought to keep people of African descent in a subservient kind of position, and not recognized what I consider to be the divinity of who those people are.
And sometimes, you know, apologies can be superficial, and sometimes the wrongs are so big that it seems useless to even make an apology. And I think that that’s kind of where we are in some segments of the American, you know, psyche. How do you apologize for such an atrocity that lasted 246 years? But I think that it would be helpful to acknowledge. It can begin to lighten the burden, to acknowledge the wrong, and to give people, those people of African descent who’ve contributed to the development of this country, their place.
We have our healing work to do
Now, whether or not there’s ever an apology, here’s the thing: we have our healing work to do. People can do all kinds of things to you, and you may never see what their consequences are, but you can be sure that there are consequences. But the question is, what will you do for your healing, to make your life better?
And also, you know, you don’t want to be consumed by the anger. There has to be a time where the anger is processed and healed and transmuted into something positive. And this is very important, because I don’t want to have someone make me into a racist. You decide if you will allow the behavior of other people to make you behave the same way and become a racist yourself.
The other thing is that in the context of America, sometimes everything seems to boil down to race, but that’s not the truth about anything. There are good people of every kind everywhere at all times. Even during the struggles of slavery and the post-slavery era, and down to this day, there have always been good people of every race, of every religion, of every nationality, who in one way or the other have supported African-Americans in their fight for freedom and for equality. So that’s an important thing to always remember. Don’t let your vision, and the fact that others are judging you by your appearance, make you do the same thing. Humans are humans. We are all children of God, and that is the most important thing that you need to know. Don’t be fooled.
I wrote a post and there were three people that I named in the post, non-Black people who I wanted to make sure and acknowledge. There were three of them. One was Rachel Stern, the other one was Laura Chorus, and the other one was Victoria Garrigo, who were women who were not of African descent, who were very significant in my life, in my early, early career. So it’s important to put these things in context. We cannot always be angry. We have the option of deciding to heal and move forward, and that is not dependent on whatever happens outside, what the system is doing.
The creator of the universe doesn’t create garbage
Obviously the system was trying to keep the enslaved unaware of their divine nature. They wanted to make them feel like they didn’t have any gifts, they didn’t have any talent, and they had no value. And the truth, we know, is that each and every single human being on the planet has value. And today we are beginning to understand that, we are beginning to know that we are important, that we are significant, that we have a purpose, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, you name it.
The creator of the universe doesn’t create garbage. The creator of all the things that are in the universe and all the details that we see on the planet doesn’t create things that are not valuable. Every single one of us is valuable.
And also, the thing that we want to remember is that ultimately the work that we have is remembering who we are: that we are divine, and that anything else that anybody else might say is a lie. That we are all created equal, and to know this and to live in it without a question, regardless of what anyone can say. Again, the creator of the universe and everything in it did not create humans of African descent to be less than any other human. That’s insane to even think that. And despite the PR to the contrary in the world, you have to know this in your bones. You have to know this in your bones.
God, energy, force, spirit has no limits on what its creations can do, and it can’t be undone, no matter what you see around you. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be distracted by the noise. You are a divine creation, and in its creations there’s no limitation by race, color, gender, sexuality. And without a doubt, if anyone tells you something to the contrary, know that that is not true. You are valuable, you’re special, and God, energy, force, spirit took the time, so to speak, to make you.
I am Olivia S. Benson, and you can follow me on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. My website is OliviaSBenson.com. And I wanted to show you this cup, which, if you haven’t seen it before: “I’m willing to do the work to be whole.”
And that goes back to the whole purpose of Black History Month: to acknowledge what has happened, to celebrate the things that are worthy of celebration, and to remember not to look over there and not to be caught up by the distractions over here, but to remember who you are, and to be willing to do the work. Be willing to do the work to be whole.