"Real talk on living joyfully and truly coming home to ourselves-with reflective self-care practices to help us on our interconnected journeys of liberation Join three friends, three Black women, all teachers in the Plum Village tradition founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, sharing their experience of how mindfulness nourishes their sense of belonging and connection with ancestors. Listen to three voices in intimate conversation, touching on the pain and beauty of their families of origin, relationships and loneliness, intimacy and sexuality, politics, popular culture, race, self-care and healing-no subject is out of bounds in this free-flowing, wide-ranging offering of mindful wisdom. Authors Valerie Brown, Marisela Gomez, MD, and Kaira Jewel Lingo share how the Dharma's timeless teachings support their work for social and racial equity and justice in their work and personal lives. The book offers insights in embodied mindfulness practice to support us in healing white supremacy, internalized racial oppression, and social and cultural conditioning, leading to a firm sense of belonging and abiding joy"--
Valerie Brown is a Buddhist-Quaker Dharma teacher and executive coach. A former lawyer and lobbyist, she is co-director of Georgetown's Institute for Transformational Leadership as well as the founder of Lead Smart Coaching. She is an ordained Dharma teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition.
Marisela B. Gomez, MD, is a community activist, public health professional, and physician-scientist. She received her MD-PhD and MPH from Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Drawing on 17 years of activism-research in East Baltimore, her writings address mindfulness practices in community organizing and development.
Kaira Jewel Lingo lived as a nun for 15 years from the age of 25 under the guidance of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Also a teacher in Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Vipassana Insight lineage, today she sees her work as a continuation of the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh as well as her parents' work with Martin Luther King Jr.