Thursday, February 22, 2018

Finding a Way Forward Together

Sometimes, if we can be very still, eyes wide open, silencing the inner commentary for just one moment, we might see somethings we're missing.

Like the crazy beauty and unbelievable resilience of human beings,

The resurrection of the sun each morning,

How even those we oppose- those with "positions" different than our own- love their children.

Oh, I'm not hoping or wishing for endless harmony. I never really was a Kum ba ya girl.

But, I try not to protect my heart by pretending the children who are dying in the war in Syria, and schools in America, and the young indigenous man shot on a farm here in Canada are not all "our" children.

And what would we not do to protect our children?

There are times to stand up and shout, and times to be quiet and listen deeply. Of course I've sometimes gotten that wrong-  had something to say when I needed to listen; hesitated to speak up when something needed to be said, or shouted, or sung by a solitary voice or in unison by thousands.

At night as I drift into sleep something touches me- a larger Presence, the Beloved, the God whose Love I have known since always- and I know that in some way, deep at the core of Life, everything is and will be okay.

Knowing this, I can see without fear that here and now, in this shared world, there are things that are not okay, things that sacrifice children, things that we must change.

Decades of experience has eroded my certainty that I have the solutions, but deepened my conviction that we can find a way forward together. ~Oriah


Gratitude to Karen Davis at Open Door Dreaming for this image of the early morning light, illuminating the darkness.


Wednesday, February 14, 2018

A Gift for You

This link to a TED talk by Valerie Kaur is my Valentine's Day gift to you. In it Valerie reminds us-"Love is more than a rush of feeling that happens to us if we are lucky. Love is sweet labour- fierce, bloody, imperfect and life-giving; a choice we make over and over again." Her stories of being a mother, a person of colour, and a civil rights lawyer help us see that the love that refuses to exclude ourselves, others and yes, even those who oppose and hurt us, is revolutionary. That love can transform our shared world. 
May it be so. ~Oriah 


https://www.ted.com/talks/valarie_kaur_3_lessons_of_revolutionary_love_in_a_time_of_rage