imagining a new earth

Today I sat with the story of the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole, and other Indigenous Peoples from their homelands in the Southeast.

Families were torn from their homes at gunpoint, they were stripped of their land, their belongings, their dignity. Thousands died along the way, from starvation, disease, and exposure to the elements, and the path west became soaked with trauma and grief. Sound familiar?

They marched hundreds of miles on foot but it wasn’t just a march. It wasn’t just “relocation.” It was erasure. Theft. Genocide.

And here’s the truth: the Trail of Tears isn’t over. It echoes every time families are pushed out of their homes by corrupt landlords or broken systems. It echoes every time survivors are silenced, every time mothers and children are left without protection, every time people are forced to start over because those in power decided their lives were expendable.

It echoes in the detention centers run by ICE. It echoes in every immigration raid that rips a parent from their child. It echoes in the way Mexicans and others who are Indigenous to this continent are criminalized for crossing imaginary lines carved into stolen land.

Borders aren’t real. People are. And every human being deserves dignity, safety, and belonging.

So when someone tells me displacement or deportation is “just the way it is,” I will remember the Trail of Tears. And I encourage you to remember that injustice is never an accident. It’s a choice.

I offer respect, love, and homage to the Indigenous peoples whose tears, lives, and lands were stolen, and I will carry their story with me as a reminder that silence only protects the oppressor.

We remember. We grieve. We rise.

Part III ~ Redefining Global Leadership & The Sacred Council of Earth