SELF JUSTICE

If you travel on a road made by your own hands each day, you will arrive at the place where you would want to be.

The embodiment and practice of justice is another one of the principles of MAAT.  Embodying and practicing the principle of truth assists us to move into a deeper understanding of the other principles – justice, balance, harmony, order, reciprocity and propriety.

As with any spiritual, moral or ethical principle, inviting others to live them requires that we do so ourselves first.  From where I sit, the principle of justice is a clear value for the women I know.  Because of our social location as citizens, as leaders, and participants in society, there is always a need for more justice for the marginalized, forgotten and abused.  Many of us are on the bandwagon for the homeless, the imprisoned, and the battered.  We insist that hey deserve justice, protection and healing. And indeed they do.  We make the journey toward justice each day, usually making the road with our own hands. In other words, we are very clear about what is needed, how to get it, and who to wrench it from! In today’s world those who believe in justice have no desire to rest - `until it come` - like Sweet Honey and the Rock says.

Justice is conformity to truth, fact, or reason.  It has to do with fairness and equity. Part of the role and expectation of those who are leaders, whether in your family, community or in a broader context, is that we will be just.  Being a leader does not always mean having a title.  It means going ahead, showing the way, setting an example. You know who you are! 

So we travel the roads we make seeking justice for those who need it.  And this, I believe, is a wonderful thing to do.  Because I am convinced that if enough people continue to work for social justice, at some point a critical mass will be reached and a cosmic shift will occur that will cause wrongs to be righted and the oppressed set free.

Yet, some of us do not even think about addressing the ways in which we are in need of justice. We allow others to make the roads we travel each day. Benignly unaware, we find ourselves marginalized, made invisible, or having our voices silenced.  Some of us are even experiencing one form of abuse or another at the hand of an institution, a group or an individual.  We are in need of self-justice - of making the road we need to travel ourselves.

I am of the belief that Auset understood the concept of, and embodied not only justice for her people, as a MAATian Queen would have to do.  I believe she embodied self-justice as well.  She made the decision to travel a road made by her own hand each and every day. She chose the road to find her husband -twice!  She chose to use her words of power to bring her husband back to life. Auset chose to travel the road she made by asking for help when she needed it. These things and others were acts of self-justice.  Auset conformed to truth, fact and reason. She did what was just and fair for herself. It did not mean, that she ignored her responsibilities, or spent her time, gifts, energy or powers, getting rid of her brother-in-law.  Rather, self-justice involved attending to her own healing, and doing those things she needed to do to be whole.  From that place of strength, she could do what was hers to do – for herself – and on behalf of those for whom she had responsibility – e.g. her son, and her people. She traveled each day on a road made by her own hands and as a result, fufilled her Divine destiny.

Traveling a road made by our own hands requires Spiritual wisdom and Divine guidance.  We need that Inner Guidance to be clear about what to say, when to say it and when to keep our mouths shut. That Inner Guidance makes it clear what actions are ours to take and which are not, and when to take them.  Self-justice doesn’t look the same for every person, nor every situation, even for the same person.

So, what does self justice look like today? 

For me, sometimes conformity to truth fact or reason has meant to correct an incorrect perception someone else has had of me.  Just as often, conformity to equity and fairness have meant that I have to correct incorrect perceptions of myself.  For example, my family of origin was/is very patriarchal.  I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and the era of Motown, hippies and the Civil Rights movement,

Sexism was real in my family through the beliefs of my mother as well as my father’s family. Traveling a road made by my own hands has meant not only working with other women that they might claim and use their own inherent gifts and power, it has meant an ongoing practice of doing the same myself first.  Traveling a road made with my own hands has required that I claim and celebrate my own femininity, gifts and power and use them all in the ways that no one else on the planet can use them except me!.

It has not always been easy or pretty, but being just to myself has allowed me to have a certain sense of integrity – not a life of perfection or one that has been mistake free, but a life which allows a sense of inner integrity.

Traveling a road made with our own hands is an amazing expression of self-justice that blesses our souls and gives us more and more capacity to do good in the world. I beleive thats why we are all here, regardless of the social, poltical and physical storms that dance with the miracles and beauty of life. I believe love is still the most powerful force in the galaxies. When it is the foundation on which we lay the road we travel each day, there will come a day all of humanity will arrive at a place of jusice, equity and peace.

What do you believe? Share some ways you are traveling a road made by your own hands or expressing self justice in the comments section!

Please feel free to share in the comments section below.