Pressing Forward: On Ancestry, Tradition, and the Collective Journey Toward Freedom

We Are the Product of Our People and Our Traditions

We are who we are because other people were.
For better or worse, rightfully or otherwise, we exist because someone held on long enough for us to arrive. Our names, our breath, our survival, our brilliance — all of it sits inside an unbroken lineage of people who pressed forward so that we could stand where we stand today.

This week, I was reminded of the quiet, powerful truth of perseverance:
Not only are we no longer where we started —
we are exactly where we were always going to be.

Pressing Forward Is a Tradition

None of us got here by accident.
None of us walk alone.
None of us evolve without the courage of those who pushed through everything meant to stop them.

We are here because someone kept going.
We are here because the story didn’t end with them.
We are here because forward was the only direction their spirit would allow.

And so pressing forward is not just an act — it is a tradition.
A responsibility.
A sacred inheritance.

Community as Continuation

I love all of our FlowWell Yoga classes, but the ones at ACT XXIV are something special.

There, the practice feels like a living altar — a place where movement, breath, and embodiment become offerings to the ones who made our becoming possible.

We gather not only to stretch or strengthen, but to continue a work far older than us.

When all is said and done, we stand in a tradition of pressing forward so that others may follow.

We go forward so others may continue.
We continue so others may arrive.

The Work of Becoming Free, Healed, and Whole

Your presence reminds us that healing is communal, that joy is generative, and that freedom becomes more possible when we build it together.

Our charge remains the same:
To get as many of us free, healed, and whole as possible.

Forward. Together.

May we continue.
May we press on.
May we move forward — with intention, with gratitude, and with each other.