When I think of this year, I think of disruption.
Much has been disrupted. In both good ways and in really hard and harmful ways.
Our time was seemingly disrupted.
Our schedules.
Our pride.
Our ignorance.
Our busy.
Our ways of gathering.
Our ways of being.
Our ways of teaching.
Our ways of celebrating.
Our ways of grieving.
Our ways of comforting.
Our ways of healing.
We had to be – Creative
We had to – Listen
We had to – Slow down
We had to – See humanity –
In all of its ugliness
And
In all of its beauty
We had to –
Shift , Pivot, Change, Adjust, Adapt
We had to – Remember –
Ourselves
The distractions faded. The schedule slowed. We could no longer operate on auto-pilot.
We had to actually look in the mirror.
Once we were home, the masks were off.
And, we all were home a lot more than we had known.
Oh, to see yourself again.
We had to
See –
Our need
Our neighbor walking by
Our idols
Our brokenness
Our beauty
Our need
Our need
Our need
We had to – Connect –
If not through a hug,
Than through a screen
We had to – Respond –
To the injustice
To the violence
Against Black bodies
To our own silence
To our own ignorance
To the oppression
Suppression
Depression
We had to – Confront –
Ourselves
Our loved ones
Our nation
We had to – Question
We had to – Sit –
in the discomfort of
No clear answers
We had to – Disrupt –
The disruptions
We have to
Let the disruptions
Disrupt us
To see
More clearly
That this life
Is never easy
It is never certain
It is never all we want it to be
But, it is richer
Than we give it credit for
Than we see
Than we experience
Than we know
If only we
Surrender
To the slow
To the seeing
To the listening
To the humbling act of being in need.
If only we
Remember
Time is merely a construct
Enslaved to our schedules
And deadlines
That can change
Let it change
It’s okay
Slow down – You have time
Listen – To Creation –
It’s in no rush
And Create –
space for disruption
space to breathe
space to simply be
space to see
Yourself
Your neighbor
Your community
Your need
Their need
Our collective messy humanity
Create space to Remember
You are not alone
We are not alone
The disruptions often lead us back to know
Resiliency runs through our bones
