<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[TURQUOISE AND LAVENDER]]></title><description><![CDATA[TURQUOISE AND LAVENDER]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 26 Jul 2026 21:33:44 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Looking For Kindness ]]></title><description><![CDATA[I am very sad about the amount of unkindness that I witness almost everyday. The major expression of this is through the abuse of power by dysfunctional persons who choose to abuse their power in order to feel better about themselves. Many stories of this absence of kindness can be heard in all facets of our lives.  This beautiful poem by Naomi Shihab Nye is instructive. I hope that you will be inspired by it as I have been for a long time. May it encourage you to be a little kinder today. I...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/looking-for-kindness</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fef19e76070b60dc84bfc</guid><category><![CDATA[2024]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:48:29 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_ae6d8200838243e7a0aa8bc1688d5cfd~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Is That About Power?]]></title><description><![CDATA[As we try to hold onto our sanity while watching so many ego driven people wield their false sense of power in ways that harm those who they claim to care about, it is important to think about the power expressed in this story. Where does true power come from? What does it feel like to be in the presence of a truly powerful person who knows how to embody that gift? This is a story of a very powerful 96 year old woman. Her story will make your heart glad. Peace and grace, Click the link below:...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/what-is-that-about-power</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691feebd4380ae0a508be6f2</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:47:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_18b75800e9c448509d8bad2496702085~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Looking For More Than An Ally]]></title><description><![CDATA[If you were dying, who would you prefer to be accompanying you, an ally or a fellow pilgrim? A fellow pilgrim is one who holds you in their heart and shares your pain and joy to the very best of their ability, no matter what it requires. This person is willing to walk a mile or two in the shoes of others in an effort to understand the lenses through which they see the world. The fellow pilgrim's commitment is to holding to the difficult, regardless of what it cost to do so. There is no...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/looking-for-more-than-an-ally</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fee6b9e2226b1d41ccb63</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:46:14 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_e46ed9858cf74a428acb0cfbc09f0960~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_452,h_218,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[An Invitation]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing is returning to the building on July 20, 2021. We join thousands of others who are cautiously returning to their physical workspaces after many months of absence due to Covid-19.   Covid-19 brought many challenges, but the most profound one for us at the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing was the invitation to reinvent ourselves. For several months pior to Covid we talked a bit about moving some of our work onto a virtual platform. I was not in...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/an-invitation</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fee4a9e2226b1d41ccafd</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:45:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_c5e8deda71e24550b193f76f9f841f83~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_770,h_372,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When Your Heart Is In It]]></title><description><![CDATA[“When your heart is into whatever you are doing, you make it work,” says one of the members of the  Dads On Duty group at Southwood High School in New Orleans. This group of forty dads, uncles and concerned men decided that they had to do something about the violence and other problems at their school. Southwood High School like so many across America was deeply plagued by gangs, violence and many other challenges that helped to create a poor learning environment for the students.   The...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/when-your-heart-is-in-it</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fee0ce76070b60dc849a5</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:44:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_19fc5fd3762248adb12708583c5249a3~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_363,h_333,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stop Praying...]]></title><description><![CDATA[...Until YOU Are Willing To Act!!!   All of us who have our hearts and heads in the right place have had enough. We are past being sick and tired of our innocent and unsuspecting youngsters going to school and not coming back home because, yet another massacre has taken their lives. The people who have been elected to lead us need to get to the business of doing whatever it takes to change this horrible pattern that is running wild in the streets of our country. And if they cannot or will not...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/stop-praying</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fedb5e76070b60dc848ce</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:42:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_c1f278966cf74688b4f992dcd1361244~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_535,h_348,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Good Journey]]></title><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/a-good-journey</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fed859e2226b1d41cc93d</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:41:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_0c21a0cfa9e3492dbbbd40a1a68c462e~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_1000,h_770,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Let's Talk About Healing Before Reconciliation]]></title><description><![CDATA[There are many of us, African American, Indigenous, Asian American, Latinx and others who experience oppression, who are weary of the reconciliation conversations that continue in many circles. There is no doubt that those who engage in such conversations have good intentions and hold onto the idea that reconciliation between all of the oppressed persons in this country can be wiped away by reconciliation.   It seems necessary to think and talk a bit more deeply about this idea. In order for...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/let-s-talk-about-healing-before-reconciliation</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fed524380ae0a508be398</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:40:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_b1707c128ccd41218769ef07106bc6bf~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_420,h_235,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Exploring Whites Fear of Blacks]]></title><description><![CDATA[Bobbi Wilson is African American who had the police called on her by a white neighbor. She is nine years old. She was trying to participate in her city’s campaign to rid itself of lanternflies. She learned about a spray that she could make that would help her to immobilize the lanternflies on the trees and then she could capture them. She made the spray and went out into her neighborhood to use it. She was spraying the lanternflies as she found them and catching them.   Gordon Lawshe, her...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/exploring-whites-fear-of-blacks</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fed1f9e2226b1d41cc862</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:40:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_da84e089ef2844ea92a96989d69fe845~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_568,h_758,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Critical Race Theory Is Not On Its Way ToYour Local Public School Today]]></title><description><![CDATA[The negative chatter about CRT( critical race theory) needs to stop. It is not a body of scholarship that is on its way to the local public school or college for that matter. Unfortunately, many of the loudest proclaimers of its dangers have no idea what actually constitutes CRT, nor do they know how it originated. This is verified by the manner in which they speak about it as if every elementary and high school student is about to be inundated with this weird thing called CRT.   There is a...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/critical-race-theory-is-not-on-its-way-toyour-local-public-school-today</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fecfe9e2226b1d41cc816</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:39:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_11ed76ee39af4f2289d171dcc4a0dedf~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_347,h_231,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jealous, Who Me?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Yes, you and me! Jealousy is an energy that is no respecter of persons. Most people who are willing to tell the truth can bear witness to this notion. While the major dictionary definition of jealousy is rather simple, its impact is deadly. The essential meaning as stated in Merriam-Webster is “ a feeling or showing an unhappy or angry desire to have what someone else has.” Many of us have had the experience of fleeting feelings of wishing to have something that someone else has which comes...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/jealous-who-me</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fecbd9e2226b1d41cc77b</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:38:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_74828b448d4c4d46a358bf3f2b4a7058~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_567,h_330,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Where is it now?]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is an important question regarding the energy and outrage that we witnessed during the days following the George Floyd murder. Where is it now? Though we understood that folks were not going to be able to sustain public protest indefinitely, it is important not to lose sight of the need for continuing vigilance regarding the matter of police violence. The public advocacy group, Mapping Police Violence , reports that more than one thousand people have been killed by police since the death...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/where-is-it-now</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691feca135662176f69a2ac9</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:37:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_c36213d18e08407cbc5a646585d304b1~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_385,h_256,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Love Ethic]]></title><description><![CDATA[All of us who are working to create space that allows Beloved Community to come into being wish that we could find a one-time remedy that would achieve this quickly and easily. If there is any such energy to help with achieving this in the world it can be characterized best by Dr. Howard Thurman's understanding of the Love Ethic. According to Thurman, “the Love Ethic requires that we see people beyond all of their assets and deficits and that we give whatever we have to give to them without...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/the-love-ethic</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fec77e76070b60dc84617</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:37:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_ca682115832a419c8916a735c6646548~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_547,h_474,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What's Eating Us?]]></title><description><![CDATA[It has been said that a society that allows its children to be killed is ambivalent about its future. If that is true, then the United States is deeply ambivalent. One wonders how to think about our willingness to allow our children to be slaughtered while sitting in what is supposed to be one of the best spaces a child can be, their elementary school room. Instead of it being a good space for our children, it is a space that is subject to the worse type of violence and a great possibility to...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/what-s-eating-us</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fec344380ae0a508be0fb</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:36:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_72fbf65e7989444796687a228c2ec910~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_562,h_860,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Guns or God?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Who keeps you safe? Guns or God? If you are a person who professes faith in God and you feel the need to own and perhaps carry a gun with you, it might be helpful to interrogate that position. Because when you carefully think about what creates security in the modern world, guns are the least likely source.   For instance, guns are not useful when it comes to driving and being protected from car accidents. They are not helpful in making sure that the food that we purchase is safe to consume....]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/guns-or-god</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691fec129e2226b1d41cc5f0</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:35:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_dd6f26e1b12e4bfe80641a0404b1f419~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_256,h_385,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Reimagining Policing Is Still Waiting]]></title><description><![CDATA[What does reimagining policing require? It requires us to be willing to honestly review what we are doing, reform the use of police force, redefine public safety, and to address racism within law enforcement with the intent to combat  it.   It is not about wholesale defunding or diminishing police departments, which is not going to happen in this country as we all know. While that sound bite might have been helpful as a part of some type of past attention getting campaigns, it is not helpful...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/reimagining-policing-is-still-waiting</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691febe80acaec313275db7d</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:35:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_09269cbe5e9f427caf4239fc4cba3dee~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_783,h_349,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[“Them and Us” A Little Exploration]]></title><description><![CDATA[As a general rule, I work very hard to avoid thinking in terms of “them” and “us”, but the circumstances that exist at the moment lead me to reflect a bit about those categories. Thus, in this piece I want to explore those characterizations, the implications of them and the necessity for finding a remedy for them.   “Them,” is a term that can be used to describe any group at any time, and I am using it in this instance to describe a group of folks who seem to believe many things that hinder...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/them-and-us-a-little-exploration</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691febc30acaec313275db2c</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:34:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_c5c79c73e98145eab43400981f4e95a8~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_326,h_252,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pick Up the First Piece of Trash]]></title><description><![CDATA[If you don’t pick up the first piece of trash from your yard, you are likely to discover one day that your yard has become a garbage dump. In terms of race relations, we have created many garbage dumps but today I want to focus on a particular one which has been prompted by a few recent conversations.   The first conversation focuses upon the wonderful news of the release of Brittney Griner, the basketball player, from false imprisonment in Russia. While this is newsworthy and deserving...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/pick-up-the-first-piece-of-trash</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691feb9e9e2226b1d41cc4e1</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:33:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_9d60149e6f0e40b28a42fe159ed26781~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_676,h_946,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Our Circle Got Wider: Local, Regional, National, and International]]></title><description><![CDATA[There is no way to adequately cover the scope of the work that the Center for Racial Healing has completed in the past six years in a mere newsletter, but I will do my best to give you a good sketch. I am astounded when reviewing it, by the variety and quality of what we have accomplished. I am grateful to all the facilitators and program presenters who have worked very diligently over these past years to make sure that our programs and Eucharist Centered Dismantling Racism Trainings were...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/our-circle-got-wider-local-regional-national-and-international</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691feb5a0acaec313275da3b</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:32:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_31e73eefdc9e4f9a8071597a49961772~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_1000,h_440,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Just Looking For Peace and Tranquility]]></title><description><![CDATA[Carols Munoz said, “I journeyed here from Venezuela to give my four-year-old son the things that he didn’t have—a meaningful education, the freedom to express his opinions without fear of persecution, a job where he can earn enough money to afford food.” Munoz was studying electrical engineering before his country’s economy collapsed and he had to leave school. He hopes to go back to school and hopes to send his son to college someday. He went on to say, "I want peace, and tranquility.”   He...]]></description><link>https://www.turquoiseandlavender.com/post/just-looking-for-peace-and-tranquility</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691feb3535662176f69a2785</guid><category><![CDATA[Archive 2019-2023]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:31:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/684dec_0377094752524e24ab8680c97a1cbb6b~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_884,h_433,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Dr. Catherine Meeks</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>