When Violence Finds Our Visionaries: A Sacred Pause for Melissa Hortman & Mark Hortman

This week, my heart cracked open.

I have never considered myself a political person. But I immediately looked up these two human beings that were murdered today on June 14.

Melissa Hortman—beloved former Minnesota House Speaker, a fierce advocate for children, families, women’s rights, and environmental justice—was killed alongside her husband, Mark, in their home. It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t random. It was an act of targeted violence—an assassination of a public servant who dared to lead with heart, vision, and progressive courage.

I didn’t know her personally. But I feel her loss like a thunderclap in my chest.

When leaders like Melissa are taken from us, something ancient stirs. The ancestors whisper of times when oracles were silenced, when sacred voices were hunted down for daring to speak truth to power. And still—here we are. Witnessing echoes of those times… in this time.

It is easy to become numb.

It is tempting to scroll past, to say “that’s terrible,” and move on.

But I will not. And I invite you not to.

We must pause.

To grieve.

To rage.

To remember.

To pray.

Melissa fought for policies that mattered—for families, for dignity, for clean air and water, for trans youth, for people who don’t often have a voice in government. Her legacy was love in motion. And her death calls us into spiritual responsibility.

What do we do when the world feels upside down?

We light candles and we cry.

We speak names and we tell stories.

We gather our communities.

We keep going—but with deeper intention.

To the soul of Melissa Hortman:

Thank you.

Your work was not in vain.

We will remember you.

We will speak your name.

We will tend to the garden you planted with our actions, our advocacy, and our sacred refusals to become desensitized to violence.

To my community:

Let us not shrink in fear.

Let us rise—fiercely tender, spiritually armed, and rooted in love.

Let us protect one another as Melissa sought to protect us.

This is not the end. This is the call to remember who we are.

🕯️ A Prayer for Melissa & Mark Hortman

Great Spirit,

Divine Mother,

Ancestors who walk with us—

We call on you now.

Wrap your arms around the souls of Melissa and Mark Hortman,

who were taken too soon,

whose light was extinguished by violence,

but whose legacy will never dim.

We honor Melissa’s courage, her vision,

her devotion to justice, equity, and care.

We honor Mark’s love, his partnership, his presence.

We ask you to walk with their family now—

their children, their community, and all who are grieving.

Let your comfort be a balm for broken hearts.

May their names be remembered not just in sorrow,

but in the sacred actions we take moving forward.

May we speak boldly, love deeply, and protect one another fiercely.

May we keep the flame of their work alive in our hearts and in our hands.

And may peace—true peace—find them

in the lands beyond this world.

We bow our heads.

We open our hearts.

We rise in their honor.

Aho. Amen. Ashé.

And so it is.

#RememberMelissa #SacredResistance #SoulVisionSpeaks