Have you ever received a divine message? There was a time in my life when my time was filled with work, organizing, and attending events. My worth was based on what I could do with perfection and how reliable I could be to show up for others. I rarely made space for moments with myself to connect with my spirit, the land, my ancestors, or even the universe. This quote was the first major download I received in the healing ocean and cleansing rain while meditating in a tide pool in O'ahu. So deeply grateful to mama aina. 🙏🏽 If you feel called to, share any divine messages you received while in a state of #connection. Let's share some #medicine with each other 👇🏽 🌱 ✨ 💞 P.S. #TrustTransmuteTransform are #spiritual downloads and breakthroughs in my own personal #HealingJourney as I embody the energy and #spirit of the #TransformativeYouthOrganizing #ButterflyPedagogy that I birthed in my #dissertation. Instead of letting these messages be captions in my posts, I felt called to share them in this way. https://www.instagram.com/p/CGLj8Z1AeQu/?igshid=1dkf1jw8bjoel

It was truly an honor to hold space for such a thoughtful team who has the courage to create the space to critically self-reflect, ask each other the hard questions, and push themselves and one another to be culturally responsive leaders in their schools and communities. Looking forward to all the great work to come @projectsuccessorg ✨ #repost @crsl_institute • • • Throughout our incredible 5-Day CRSL Academy with @projectsuccessorg, they have shown commitment and passion for students and racial equity work in education. We are honored for the opportunity to work with their team. #edchat #education #equity #K12 #learning https://www.instagram.com/p/CFPp6lwgUS9/?igshid=1n57wjfuwu8r2

🎤 @um.awit taught me "Minamahal Kita" by Mike Velarde Jr. & Dominador Santiago in 1937. [not pictured: my ukulele] 🌱 I so deeply appreciated the opportunity to remember and be in touch with the types of lullabies my dad (born in 1934) would sing to me as a child when Melissa played the song and to also connect with other Pinays in a collective remembrance of our ancestors in the process. ✊🏽 It was also really cool to learn how this song is a "harana" (romantic courtship serenade) and, because of the history of Spanish colonization, connects this Filipino style of music with Cuban habanera. Hope you enjoy the song as much as I did 🥰 https://www.instagram.com/p/CD5LgD-g8Am/?igshid=gtwd6mg2f0lr

♡ Being "called-in" is an opportunity to grow. Being willing to sit with the discomfort of your harmful impact on another honors the truth in their feelings and honors your capacity to be better and do better. ♡ Thank you to @itsnerika, @lisaoliveratherapy, @blairimani, & @profmelissanievera for sharing critical information on #BlackOutTuesday #AmplifyMelanatedVoices & #TheShowMustBePaused so that we can honor the critical ways #BlackLivesMatter helps inform our communities & mobilize our collective action ✊🏽 https://www.instagram.com/p/CA7k3QVgcIs/?igshid=1ucs926g3lkjb

All lives matter when Black lives matter.⁣ ⁣ I live on land looted by white European settlers whose greed for profit through extraction, genocide, and displacement had no regard for the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. All in the name of "God," "modernity," and "progress" --colonial constructs used to savagize and justify the desecration of land and mass destruction of life. ⁣ ⁣ The wealth of this stolen land was built on the blood and backs of enslaved Africans who still found ingenious ways to resist dehumanization and repression to sustain the dignity of their lives and roots. The amount of legal, political, social, and economic institutions, policies, and practices created to protect the profit and power of rich heteropatriarchal European male settler colonists is a sickening and disgusting cycle that continues to manifest in the white supremacist violence waged against Black lives today like #AhmaudArbery #BreonnaTaylor #GeorgeFloyd #TonyMcDade and so many others.⁣ ⁣ My ancestors come from a land that is also entangled in this web of Western European imperialism, a home to so many riches found in the lands and the people. My very existence is a testament to the ways this country's capitalist interests drain resources and labor at a global scale and disposes people once our precious knowledge, labor, or land has been maximized for their interests. ⁣ ⁣ This is why my freedom is deeply tied to so many interconnected struggles for land and liberation. "No one is free until we are all free." - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.⁣ ⁣ I am a Pinay for Black lives.⁣ ⁣ #BlackLivesMatter #SayTheirNames #FilipinxForBlackLives #FilipinosForBlackLives⁣ art by @kalamendoza⁣⁣ https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2ZkmagZI5/?igshid=ieq9p2d6unf6

♡ When collective faith helps us stay hopeful. These times are opening the portals of the power of the divine human spirit. ♡ #TrustTransmuteTransform #DownloadOfTheWeek #DLOTW 🎨: @alfienumeric https://www.instagram.com/p/B-urdb-gF0e/?igshid=9jzaoj5g2onl

It was such an incredible honor to be part of a beloved team who documented our experiences with the subaltern #DecolonizingInterpretiveResearch methodology created by #AntoniaDarder. Coming into the doctoral dissertation journey, I carried the hopes, dreams, and struggle of my ancestors and the communities I represented and served. When wrestling with the various ways in which institutions sought to sustain the settler colonial project in knowledge production, it was truly a healing experience to be able to engage in a research methodology that honored the wisdom and experience of the communities that have helped me earn the privilege of deepening our collective understanding of transformative youth organizing. I highly recommend this labor of love to those engaged in the doctoral dissertation process, both mentors and students ✊🏽 #InterpretiveResearch #ResearchMethodology #DecolonizingResearch #DoctoralStudies #EducationResearch https://www.instagram.com/p/B18SiZPgfnY/?igshid=d7g3yhdgfn57

Feelin like a #FlyPinay rockin these @gintoseeds earrings designed by @bukobomba while sharing an intro to my #ButterflyPedagogy 🦋🦋🦋 https://www.instagram.com/p/B0T0U7hAmkM/?igshid=hheq9ajmxnol

"Commencement - the act of starting out, or blazing a new trail" So much gratitude to all the incredible educators and young people whom I've had the privilege to witness build communities grounded in love and a commitment to justice. Congrats to the class of 2019, so excited for all that's to come ❤✊🏽 https://www.instagram.com/p/BzUPrKsAPdb/?igshid=nd0tldfbrxtl

So dope to witness Arabian Prince drop some 💎💎💎 at @hsra_la today. The students got schooled on some west coast hip hop history, got put on to the realities of the publishing game, and even got to test out a dope wearable sub! So much respect to @ogarabianprince for being so generous with his time and wisdom 🙏🏽 https://www.instagram.com/p/BxdluzFFlQe/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1u1oj1mnlcqes

Love & respect to @nipseyhussle #themarathoncontinues 🏁🏁🏁 https://www.instagram.com/p/BwfWULklkOq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=pm865xktfg0b

It has been an incredible honor to be part of a community of dissident scholars and intellectuals who unapologetically counter the continued coloniality of our educational and academic institutions. Building community and having the courage to reimagine radical possibilities gives me hope that we can collectively "speak it into existence." #AERA2019 #DecolonizingInterpretiveResearch #DecolonizingEducationalLeadership https://www.instagram.com/p/BwEHy7PgxAW/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=14znr8jclalep

In solidarity with my former teachers and my homie teachers who inspire me to be my best self for our communities ✊🏽 ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ #Repost @utlanow ・・・ UTLA March For Public Education!!! Look at this brilliant work by Ernesto Yerena Montejano featuring the amazing educator Roxana Dueñas 🔥 See you Saturday, Dec 15 @ 10am at Grand Park! Let’s show that banker Austin Beutner that UTLA isn’t backing down. #UTLAStrong #Repost @ernestoyerena ・・・ I’m really excited to announce that I had the honor of creating one of the posters for @utlanow featuring a portrait of my friend and Roosevelt High School Teacher Roxana Dueñas @_day.len ! #WeStandWithLATeachers • • • • • • #StopStarvingOurPublicSchool #📚 #📖 #📝 ##utla #utlastrong #utlanow#redforeducation #teachertribe #igteachers#teachersofinstagram #teachersofig#teacherssupportteachers#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinsta#teachersofthegram #teacherlove#teachersupport https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq1Iwvylscn/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=3uq9abispr4x

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 rest in love & power ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ Repost @womensmarch: On this day of trans remembrance and resilience, we mourn the far far too many trans lives we have lost this year. To the non-conformers, the goddesses, the sisters—those with us and those no longer with us—we see you. We love you. We keep each other safe. #TDOR #SignOfResistance by @amir.khadar with @fwdtogether . . . [IMAGE DESCRIPTION three African American trans women holding hands in solidarity. Text reads, We keep each other safe Nonconformers, Goddexxes, Sisters.] https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqafe7qljHP/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=147awl66k774q

Was blessed with this ancestral wisdom during a meeting today. So thankful to be surrounded by so many magical people in my life ❤ https://www.instagram.com/p/BqJqRwGF_26/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qc6h5ay18lud

Nevertheless, she persisted! As @osopepatrisse said, "Vote today, organize tomorrow." In dark times, we gotta bring out the light. Power to the WOC and our allies, we got this! ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ #Repost @woc4progress An election filled with FIRST’s!We are so happy and grateful for all the women who have chosen/chose to run for office, the women who offered their time and support and to those who stepped up to lead campaigns. You are all OUR inspiration. Let’s continue to make 🌊. There is no off-time just reset time. ▪️ ▪️ #politics #elections #civicengagement #women #womenempowerment #womenofcolor #representationmatters #intersectionalfeminism https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp50_Xolknn/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4widf1npyzbp

Office Altar to keep me grounded when on the grind. Gratitude to the @flourishagenda team for gifting me with tools for my healing praxis #HealingJustice #RadicalHealing https://www.instagram.com/p/BnyDR08n4Vs/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1pk7lbjfu25ew