Time To Rise
Let your strength give us strength, let your hope give us hope, let your faith give us faith, let your love give us love….Bruce Springsteen
This has been a week of hurt, violence, sadness and recognition. A combination of events has pulled on the heart and soul of our country and brought us to our knees. From East to West we have watched or participated in outrage, anger, and demand for a better way. For over 25 years my work has been about change, about recognizing how we create our experience moment to moment, and how we transform that experience into the life of the Beloved Community. This week has felt like we have not come far in transformation of hearts and minds, and built systems that honor equality and bring love and care to our fellow citizens.
And yet, chaos theory tells us that that it often takes a cataclysmic event for transformation to occur. Some have compared this to the past= the Vietnam war, the loss of JFK, MLK and RK, a recession, an insidious flu (that turns out killed 1 million people worldwide and 100,000 here). If it is true that if we don’t learn from history it will repeat itself, – it would look like we haven’t learned much.
And yet, what if these last 4 months have shown light on the fact that we are all one – that we are all in this together – that it is time for humane action to replace reaction -that we are about to birth the golden age – the just society – the world that works for all. And what if that requires that we rise up – as a community in every community and listen with our hearts instead of our heads, look for the new thinking that is required to solve a problem created by the old thinking – that every person takes responsibility for the hate and exclusion we hold in our hearts for someone. Perhaps it is isn’t color – perhaps its political view – perhaps its gender – perhaps its if you are from the South as opposed to North…perhaps its I am right and you are wrong (dead wrong).
A dear friend sent me a dialogue that took place between James Baldwin and Margaret Mean in the late sixties – it could have happened this week if you looked at the content. It was called a dialogue on Race between a minister/poet and an anthropologist. What caught my attention was James Baldwin’s suggestion that things won’t change until we all take responsibility for what is happening – that we move from perpetrators and victims (can you tell which is which) to totally committed to changing our own contributions to the consciousness that appears in our midst.
Where do we begin – how do we move forward – where do we look to forgive ourselves and all others…Forgive Everyone Everything (Father Greg Boyle) ..begin within – search for the places that still hold resentment-entitlement-and blame – and look to the higher ground – be a model of peace – be the love that you are (its natural) and hold fast to the words of the modern poet – The Boss – let your hope give us hope.
