Solidarity

Today is Sunday, November 1st, 2020, with only two more days until “Election Day”. It has been a LONG TIME kgetting to here, with many words being slung back and forth.

At this point in time, I have many conflicting feelings circling through my mind and spirit… ANXIETY over who will be the next President; ANTICIPATION and GRATITUDE that soon all the ads (positive AND negative, the back-stabbing, and rhetoric will disappear; FEAR over what will come afterwards; HOPE that there will be an opportunity for change and healing; and DREAD, that the differing factions on both sides will be unwilling or unable to come together ¡for the good of the country.

This election has caused me to do a lot of soul-searching, perhaps more so than ever before… I have been voting in every electIon since I was 18, and that is a LONG time, and sometimes I felt that I was probably voting AGAINST someone, more than FOR a candidate. so, I have wondered, what makes THIS such an important election, or as everyone seems to be saying, “it’s the most important election in our history”?

It does seem that this time, there are such marked divisions that have polarized each side, and it has been very hard to keep from taking one side or the other… it is the old adage that “if you aren’t for me then you are against me, There seems to be no middle-ground, which is very disturbing.

I have always hated being put in the position of having to choose because I know that there is no way that is perfect, except God’s way. I have grown up with the belief that every life is sacred and valuable, but lately I have really had to question that idea… in my ignorance and privilege, I have never really recognized, until the last few years, how people have not been treated in that way… for some, the deck has been stacked in their favor, while for others those same rules and opportunities have not been available. I have come to see that.all things have not been equal. What was written in the Declaration of Independence has not been truly lived out….

This year has brought into focus some stark differences that our country and people have not really wanted to acknowledge because, in many people’s minds, to give to another means that we must give up what is ours… I have been reminded that “there, but for the grace of God, go I”.

This really became evident when I worked for a time at a Pregnancy Counseling organization, where I heard many stories of how some women became pregnant… it was not all hearts and flowers, and often they saw abortion as their only alternative. I also came to see, firsthand, how some churches who were the biggest Pro-life believers were really there, in name only, because when it came to helping one woma;n, who was in desperate straights financially, the help was not there. It took an individual person, who stepped up, and made it possible for this woman to keep her baby and prepare to be able to care for that baby.

I have even come to realize that my faith has even been compromised for the sake of keeping things the way they are…as I have grown older, I have come to see the commonality in all beliefs, instead of focusing on the differences, and that has been a blessing for me. I am seeing that if I “stand by” then I am not “standing with”…I must try to understand the other person, and their circumstances, before I make a blanket judgment.

I have been seeing the word SOLIDARITY used lately… gathers simple meaning is UNITY or AGREEMENT off feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; it is the MUTUAL support within a group.

In my work with incarcerated women, I also began to understand that often their actions were consequences of the situations they grew up in… they didn’t think there was another way. With all things being equal, their decisions and actions might have been very different. Instead of just locking them up, and throwing away the key, are we willing to help them envision a different way of life?

So, as this election is decided, I am wondering if it will be possible for us, as a nation, as communities, as families, and as individuals to lput this behind us and stand together in solidarity? Can we join together, in peace, to reach over to the “other side”, and work together to make things better FOR ALL OF US?

Can I do my part to see things as they are, in truth, instead of seeing things the way I want them to be FOR ME?

This is what I pray for on THIS Election Day….

Hearers and Doers…

With all of the technology around us today, we are bombarded with “information”… for myself, it can sometimes feel as if I am getting assaulted with words and distractions. It can be very hard to really LISTEN and actually hear what is being said… I find myself feeling “lost” in the sea of words.

This morning, I read the Scripture from the Book of James that talks about listening and doing… he compares these two things to someone who looks at themselves in a mirror, then walks away and forgets what they look like. It is as if the message does not get from the eyes to the brain to register what has been seen or said. Sometimes it is hard to shut out the distractions and really take in what we are hearing.

The other part is that we all have thousands (if not millions) of thoughts and information that come to us in a single day… sometimes the words, and the message, flow in and right back out again. It takes a good amount of concentration to honestly HEAR, and then, of course, we then have to make a decision of whether or not we will ACT on what we have heard.

Most of us have good intentions, but somewhere in that transmission things get lost… I am sure that you have heard the old adage that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. it is so easy to get side-tracked or forget what we have heard… often it takes a certain intentionality on our part to follow through and actually DO what has been suggested. Otherwise, we forget or move on to the next thing we hear…

In my own life, I often have a list of things to do in a day, and it can vary… spending some time in the morning alone is one of the ways I use to LISTEN… sometimes it is very hard to rise above the rest of the worries or commitments, but I have tried hard to develop a practice of listening to that “still, small voice”. In the 12-step programs they describe this as Good Orderly Direction… I call it GOD. The challenge for me is then that, once I have “heard the message”, I must then determine to follow that message with an ACTION.

Do I always do that? I wish, but I find that if I start the day with this focus, I stand a better chance of actually DOING something about it rather than just letting the idea fade away into the abyss. Right now, amidst all that is going on in our world, both near and far, we are being inundated with words and issues and ideas… taking the time to LISTEN, to HEAR, and then to ACT can be a tall order.

The question for each of us is “What do I HEAR, and then, what do I DO about it?” something to think about….

Purpose…

I have been reading and thinking a lot recently about PURPOSE…

What is it that drives my daily life?

What matters to me?

What makes me want to get up every morning?

If I am honest, the thought doesn’t cross my mind that often, especially on the days when I am not working or have something in particular to do… on those days, I seem to just move through the day without further thought. Perhaps it is that, now that we are retired, there doesn’t seem to be the emphasis on what we DO or ACCOMPLISH as we did when we were working, but I believe that is not the way it really should be…

The dictionary defines PURPOSE as “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”… “ to set as an aim, intention, or goal for oneself”. I can vividly remember how it felt years ago when I spent all day cleaning the house, and within an hour of our boys’ arrival from school, looking around and wondering why I had spent so much time polishing the furniture and setting up the stuffed bears!

The other night, I saw the announcement that Chadwick Boseman had died after a long fight with colon cancer… he had chosen to continue working as long as possible, and never really focused on his battle. Though I had not been really aware of him before, as I read about his life, and his acting career, including his portrayal of Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall and the Black Panther, I heard that he had become a role model for young black men, and how he encouraged others “to find THEIR purpose.”

In a speech he gave at a college graduation, Chadwick said this, “purpose is an element of YOU. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up up in the things you are here to fulfill. Whatever you choose for a career path, remember, the struggles along the way are meant to shape you for YOUR PURPOSE.”

At this particular time in my life, sometimes it seems that one day flows into the next, and suddenly I realize that the week has gone by, and I wonder, “have I accomplished anything of importance?” Without appointments and schedules that used to fill my calendar, I can feel guilty that I haven’t really DONE anything useful… I tend to forget the message of John O’Donahue that “We seldom notice how EACH DAY is a holy place.”

It is true that, as one gets older, our circle of influence can change, and we may no longer be right out there in the public eye… this has also become very true in these past several months, when so many people have been isolated because of the Covid virus. So many things stopped, or slowed down to a crawl, which really caused a hardship, of many kinds, for many people.

So today I wonder, “What IS MY PURPOSE at this time of life? Do I HAVE a purpose? What do I have yet to fulfill? Since I am no longer attending meetings, or giving presentations, or preaching sermons, how can I offer anything of value?

Today, as I welcome people into the campground, I can offer a welcoming smile and make them feel that we are glad they have arrived safely… I can listen to the man who has been unable to come as often as he would like because he is now caring for his father who has dementia. I can help another person on the phone who cannot find a place to stay for the night… these may not seem to be as big or as consequential as what I used to do, but they matter, nonetheless.

I may make a call to a friend who is grieving the loss of her soulmate, or I may write a note to an elderly couple who are living in a nursing facility… even though I am not there, in person, hopefully they will know that they are not forgotten. I have even come to understand that a purpose that I have never been very good at doing is taking care of myself… when I am really tired, I am learning that it is ok to take a nap!

Each of us has a PURPOSE… a reason we are on this planet at THIS PARTICULAR TIME. No matter how large or small, sometimes we may be the one person who will truly understand the other person because we may have “been there”… we can offer whatever we can to lighten another person’s burden.

As I look to find purpose in my own life, perhaps now is the time for YOU to consider “What is MY PURPOSE?”

The EYES to see… the EARS to hear

I have always heard that persons who have a deficiency, in one sense or another, often make up for that deficiency with an increased ability of one of the other senses. For example, if a person cannot see, then they may have a stronger sense of hearing to compensate for the deficiency… I remember reading about Helen Keller, and how she FOUND her VOICE, and I marveled at how her teacher worked with her. Anne Sullivan worked with Helen until she found a way to communicate with her, and then opened up the world to her young charge.

One of Helen’s quotes has always struck me deeply… “the only thing worse than being blind is having sight, but NO VISION” In today’s current situation, we seem to see a lot of this… I also think we are also realizing that the only thing worse than being deaf is hearing WITHOUT REALLY LISTENING.

In some ways, I think that we have become persons that are DEAF and BLIND. We have become so polarized in what we see and hear, and we siphon out those ideas that we don’t agree with, or understand. It has become almost impossible for persons to communicate with others who may have other ideas or opinions…

There seems to be so much separation between people, in all perspectives, and the division becomes wider and wider all the time. We cannot HEAR each other, much less SEE another persons’ viewpoint, and the division grows… it is easier to close ourselves off or throw up our hands and give up.

To quote Helen again, “we may have found a cure for most evils, but we have not found a remedy for the worst of them all… the APATHY of human beings.” Our country, especially, in many ways is at a crossroads… we are facing issues that have been under the surface for many, many years. The issue of race has always been there, but we have pushed the can down the road for so long, that we now seem to be in a “crisis mode”.

We have become a nation of the “haves and the have nots”… we cannot, or DO NOT want too, look at the other side, and the old Indian adage of “putting ourselves into the moccasins of another” no longer seems to apply. It is hard, and apparently of little interest , for those who have everything to recognize and acknowledge those who have little or nothing. It is easier for us to remark that, “they are too lazy or don’t want to work “, than for us to see that we all have not had the same opportunities… we can make excuses that will make us feel better rather than acknowledging that some are “privileged” and others are not.

Until we become persons who can be honest, who can open our eyes to SEE, and LISTEN to the cries of the underprivileged, things will not change. Until we see EVERY person as our NEIGHBOR, we will remain BLIND and DEAF.

In the last quote from Helen Keller, she states “until the great mass of people become filled with the sense of responsibility for each others’ welfare, social justice will never be attained”… her words were true years ago, and they are still true TODAY. Until we accept the fact that we are “our brothers’ keeper’, the status quo will continue… may we OPEN our EYES and hear the CRIES of the POOR.

Dreams….

Every once in awhile, I will wake up idly remembering a dream that brings an insight, an awareness, a reality to mind that I need to pay attention to. After working with, and ministering to, many persons who have reached their “golden years”, I have countless memories to fall back on which tell of the realities of getting older. This morning, I awoke with such a dream… one about a woman that I knew several years ago, and while she was the “subject” in this dream, I later came to realize that she was only a representative of MY REALITY… one that I don’t like to think about.

Though I cannot recall her name, I can SEE her vividly, and I can remember my interactions with her. Very likeable, nameless, I first met her when the nurse and social worker came to me, exasperated, because they could clearly see that she was no longer safe to live alone, but, upon discharge, she was adamant about returning home alone. Since I had “a relationship” of honesty with her, I was asked to talk with her and help her to see that she really needed to change her living arrangements as she was “no longer safe alone”.

As we talked, she agreed that her life, and her abilities, had changed… she needed more “help” and assistance. She now had challenges that she used to see in others, but she had not recognized that those SAME challenges had now become HER reality. Though she could look upon, and empathize with others in this place, she now was faced wit it being HER reality, which was an entirely different thing! The same stubbornness and inability to face the facts was now upon her…

This was the point in the dream where I recognized that I had now switched the roles, from being the person who was speaking REALISTICALLY about what was needed, to the woman sitting there listening… it seemed as if SUDDENLY I was that woman, having to face the “truth” of the situation… I was now the woman who was refusing to acknowledge the REALITY of the here and now.

What seemed to be suddenly, she was now hearing those same things that she had heard, and even said, to others… in the hopes that they would understand, AND ACCEPT, this new reality. I could feel the frustration and short tempered feelings building between myself and the woman… “Why was she not listening, and seeing the urgency. Why was she being “so difficult”?” Why was she not accepting this place in life that she had arrived at… the place that would now place limits and restrictions upon what she could do or not do?”

This was the place where the dream faded away, and in the wee hours of the morning, I awoke with this awareness that I was either at, or heading towards, that place in life where the reality I had seen so clearly for others,, now was upon ME… I was seeing MY future, and the time when I would be faced with THIS conversation. I was seeing things NOT from the perspective of the “helper”, but from the other side of the one who was being “reasoned with”…

This was the point when I awoke from the dream, in the wee hours of the morning… it was as if I had a glimpse into what I was headed towards, and I could feel the uneasiness, the fear, the grief that had settled within me. It was now ME who had to come face to face with this SUDDEN REALITY that I had now arrived at a new juncture in this journey of life.

Was this dream a foreshadowing of what is to come? Was this a warning for me of where my life is headed? Or is this dream another way of presenting me with the chance to think about what my response would, or even WILL, be when this time comes to be the REALITY?

You hear a lot about “AGING GRACEFULLY “, but what does that really mean? Will I age gracefully, or will I fight the truth tooth and nail? Will I come “to accept this part of my life, or will I fail to SEE life for what it really is… a transition from one stage to another?”

This dream has not frightened me of the future but it has something for me to think about AND pray about. Perhaps is is showing me a snapshot of a time when I will have to lean ANEW on my faith that God will “direct my path”… it has made me be aware that, once again, life is a constant moving from one phase into another. There are things that we can do to change, or at least postpone this reality, BUT, if we live long enough, this time will come, and whether conscious or unconsciously, we will have to choose which direction we will follow.

Perhaps that is where GRACE comes in…it stands between the vehement refusal to face the reality and the placid, “waving the white flag” of surrender to that reality. Though this is NOT particularly something I really WANT or dwell on, I think this dream has a purpose of letting me know that, while all of the “external” issues of life in the world today are pressing and important, there is also this “internal” issue that is to be considered… all the more important that I continue to follow the words of the Serenity Prayer…

God, grant me the serenity

To ACCEPT the things I cannot change

The COURAGE to change the things I can

And the WISDOM to know the difference.

Loss…

It seems to me that the more people you meet, and get to know, the more people you lose… in the past few weeks, I have heard about the sudden deaths of two persons: one, a very close friend, and the other, a gentle spirit we met last winter in Texas. Both of these persons were not what i would call OLD… in their late 60,s or early 70’s ( that gets younger all the time)

Marilyn was very quiet, introverted, but had a kind heart. She never traveled, stayed at home most of the time, and loved to quilt… she had a warm smile, that hid a lot of pain inside, and was someone that you could talk too easily.

Greg, was a rugged, outdoor type, with his long tousled hair, beard, and ready smile. He always seemed to be there whenever you needed a hand, and was able to make everyone around him feel welcome. He loved ‘happy hour’, wherever it was, and brought people together to have a good time. He was not boisterous… just a nice person that you enjoyed being around.

When I heard of his sudden death this morning, I was again reminded of the fact that each day is important, for it could be your last…how many days do I wake up dreading the mundane things ahead… do I wake up thankful that I even woke up, or do I see the next 24 hours as ‘just another day ‘ to get through?

Each person that we come to know, whether casually or as close friends, makes an map that on us, good or bad… they bring something to our lives, and when they are gone, there is a void that will not be filled by any other. Each person is unique, and makes an impact in the world, whether it is good, bad, or in between.

This morning is just one more reminder to me that “tomorrow is not promised”, so I had better choose to LIVE TODAY…for Marilyn and Greg, there are no more tomorrows, but I still have a chance to make each moment count. What I do TODAY will have an impact that will linger when I am no longer here… what kind of impact do I want to have?

WORDS

“There are some people who could hear you speak a thousand words and not understand you. And, there are other people who will understand—- without you even speaking a word.”

Yasmin Mogahed

There are lots of WORDS being spoken these days… in this day and age, with Twitter, Social Media, 24/7 News channels, etc., we are constantly bombarded with WORDS, OPINIONS, etc. At any given moment, one can hear WORDS non-stop… there is a constant barrage of WORDS from every direction.

So, what remains is the issue of not so much the WORDS, but rather it is the understanding of those WORDS that really makes the difference. I can remember when we used to value the WORDS in print, because it was a way for us to see different aspects of life and learn what was going on in the world, but today, WORDS are “fact-checked” to be sure they are accurate and not just some made up ideas.

So, how do we UNDERSTAND… can we UNDERSTAND?

I have come to see that, in order for me to understand, I first have to open up my mind and be willing to listen… if my heart and my mind are not open, than all of those WORDS will “fall on deaf ears”. I will simply be unable to hear what is being said… it will be as if the WORDS are coming to me in a different language. The channel must be open in order for the message in the WORDS to get through… it is only when I begin to REALLY LISTEN that I can come to some understanding of what is being said.

Sometimes, when I am reading, I will catch myself drifting off, thinking of something else while I am reading the words… it is then that I must return to the beginning and re-read the words, to catch the gist of what I am reading. Sometimes, I can have a pre-conceived notion that the WORDS and opinions are wrong, so they fall on deaf ears and there is no way I am going to actually HEAR.

I have often heard the phrase “actions speak louder than WORDS”, and in many cases, I believe that this is true. When the WORDS are inconsistent with the way one acts, then the WORDS ring hollow and pointless. I have also heard the phrase, “for those who do not believe, there can be no explanation, but,, for those who believe, no explanation is necessary”. I do not necessarily think that we should blindly believe things to be true, but need to ask for the intuition and openness to find the truth in the WORDS…

Especially today, with all of the WORDS being tossed around, it is important that we discern what we hear, to see if what we hear is accurate or not. This can be a challenge for each of us…

What WORDS am I paying attention too?

Do I understand the WORDS that are being said?

Am I taking the time to listen and hear and see which WORDS ring true for me?

“It,s been a long time coming”…..

The other night, I watched a TV celebration honoring the life of John Lewis… it was a wonderful program showing his life and struggles for Civil Rights for Black people. I grew up in that era, when the rioting happened in the 1960,s, and I wondered WHY ‘those people” were burning and looting their own areas, businesses, and homes. I really did not understand, until over 50 yrs later, how one can feel so helpless, enraged, and angry, that that rage comes out in often destructive ways

Fast forward to 2018, and we are at this same point in history, but there IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT now… there are more persons UNITED in the call for justice, rights, and reform, regardless of race, creed, or color. Now, remember that the ones doing the violence and devastation we are seeing. Really have a whole different agenda, but there is a ground-swell of people recognizing, and willing to admit, that change needs to happen, so that ALL persons have the same rights, AND that ALL PEOPLE should be treated EQUAL, so in that aspect, 2018 is different. Hopefully, before he died, Senator Lewis saw a glimmer of hope, and urged everyone to KEEP GOING.

We CANNOT stop now, but must do all that we can to LISTEN, LEARN, and ACT for change to materialize, and one of the biggest ways we can is to encourage ALL PEOPLEt to VOTE, so that WAshington, and the world sees that “WE THE PEOPLE “ are behind this change.

What struck me especially during that program was the performance of the song, “It’s been a Long Time Comin’, but CHANGE IS Gonna Come”… Lewis once said that this was a STRUGGLE of a lifetime”, and I concur… it has taken commitment of a few to keep asking the same questions, and DEMANDING the same answers in a non-violent way, that change can and WILL happen… that change can only happen when the people are willing to SEE and ACKNOWLEDGE the truth, and then Join together to fight for that change…

In my own life, I am also aware that of that same truth, that change can perhaps only come about through struggle… we have to really WANT it, and be willing to persevere, in that struggle… I can see that message at work in my own family…

After living in Arkansas for 46 years, with family still in Buffalo, NY, we never lived close enough to actually “be close” with members of our immediate family… 1100 miles physically separated us, and it also separated us emotionally, as well. We were not a part of each others’ lives,so the ties between family became very thin. Of course, we were notified of emergencies, deaths, etc., but there was little to bind us together…

Communication often did not exist, or happened very rarely, and that distance served to further alienate us from the family unit… there was very little sharing between us, and the distance grew without the perseverance of BOTH parties making a concerted effort to stay connected.

I often envied families who were “close”… those who were there for each other, through thick and thin, in good times AND bad times, but I realized that only one person could not bbkeep the connection healthy and a priority. This was something that, for many families who have moved from the “Family circle”, fell to the outer edges of daily life, and that thread that binds us together became further strained, and sometimes broken altogether.

For me personally, this was the case, and it has only begun to turn around in the past several years… I remember my parents both saying, before they died, that they hoped that “you 3 kids would stay together as a family”… at the time, much water had flowed under that bridge, and for many reasons, the connection had pretty much vanished, or, at best, was seriously flawed, but, thankfully, we have been given the opportunity to rekindle that connection after our parents’ death.

Sadly, it has been through the struggles that we have once again recognized the value of this connection, and begun to really engage with each other , listen to each other, and,stand together WITH EACH OTHER… the struggle has led to a new-found understanding and commitment to stand together against the odds, which sometimes can be overwhelming.

It has been An LONG TIME COMIN’, but the change, both in our families AND our nation needs this so badly. Sometimes, it is only by looking backwards, that we can learn from, and correct, patterns and beliefs in the present… both in our family units, as well as our nation, we have the opportunity to relearn how to live together, so that the “CHANGE IS GONNA COME”, oh yes it is,

Trellis….

I have been away for a long time… kind of lost in many wayIn an effort to re-connect with God, myself, and anyone e”

Else, I am doing a Lenten study on “The Rule of Life”…. in today’s reading, they compare a “rule” as a way of living one’s life that reflects their values and beliefs. They liken it to a “trellis”, which gives structure, direction, and support to a plant. This analogy really appeals to me, and they explain that without structure, the plant just lays at the base and grows, Willy-billy on the ground.

This is the way I feel that I have been living for the past 3 months…I have just been lying on the ground, dormant with no direction. Whether it was because I have been grieving the lost of a very dear friend, or depression, or just plain sadness, I had stopped doing most of the things that have helped me keep from that pit of darkness… it doesn’t really matter, but what DOES matter is what I intend to do about it.

Doing my morning prayer has sustained me for many years, and by following the Daily Office, along with writing, my day started off on the right foot.Doing my daily readings had kept me focused on what was mine to do, AND what is not mine to do.

So, understanding what I need to do, the idea of forming my own Rule of Life.i look forward to this study during Lent, to once again rebuild that trellis of spiritual life…

“What do I stand for, and WHAT am I going to do about it?”

Listening to a conversation with writer, Joan Chidester, it was about where we are right now in society, not only here in our country but also in the world in general. There was a mention that “we seem to be like a boat without a rudder”, and that there is a fear that “we have lost our moral compass”.

This set me to reflect upon myself, and how I see what is happening around me… it is often very easy to look away… to think that problems only happen “somewhere else”, but I (We) need to realize that we are not immune to what is going on. Since then, I have had to do some hard thinking about the answer to the question, “What do I stand for, and what am I going to do about it?”

There is no doubt that many people seem to shrink their worlds to include just family and close friends… this is SAFE, at least we think it is, and we block out what is going on in our neighborhoods, our communities, etc. Oftentimes, I find my own self looking away from the “news” because it is scary and depressing.

I can vividly remember my first week of Clinical Pastoral Education in our University hospital… our ER was the place that was a Level 1 trauma center, so most gunshots, bad accidents, etc. arrived at our doors. It was an eye-popping experience, because things that I saw only on TV were now right in front of me, and I was in the position of having to help family members as they waited for news of the person who was injured… many times I was with the doctor when they delivered the news that the family member did not survive. It brought me face to face with the REAL WORLD.

Since that training almost 30 years ago, I have seen a lot…. some that is good but a lot that I wish I could forget. Way back then, I remember being with a family who had come to the ER, waiting for word on their loved one. She had been shot, and as I went back and forth from the trauma room to the family, the anxiety was all around. The doctors were trying desperately to save the woman, and the family grew in size, with all the adults talking, etc., but the one who caught my eye was a little girl sitting alone in a chair that seemed to swallow her up.

I walked over to sit down with the little girl, Nickolai was her name and she held up 4 fingers when I asked her how old she was. When I asked if her Mommy or Daddy was here, she pointed to a large man talking to the police… she told me that her aunt got hurt, and was brought here. She lived next door to their house, in a very poor part of town as I remembered. When I asked her about her house, she told me that she was always scared, especially at night, when she was in her bed and she could hear the sound of gunshots outside her window.

My heart sank as I listened to this child tell me how hard her Mommy and Daddy were working, so that they could move to a place that was quieter… at about that time, her father came over and picked up his little girl, telling her that everything was going to be alright. He thanked me for sitting with her, and the 3 of us said a simple prayer.

About 30 minutes later, I had to follow the doctor into the “quiet room”, while he told the family that they had done everything they could but could not save the woman’s life. He told them how sorry he was and then left, and the large man asked me again to gather us all together to pray… as they left the hospital slowly, the little girl looked back at me, and I can still see her face in my mind after all these years.

So, as I reflect upon what I stand for, I know that I stand against guns, and against violence… over the years I have tried, in different ways, to reach out to those who can find no way out of the poverty, the violence, the situations they come from, and I often wonder about Nickolai… I hope and pray that her family was able to get to a safer place.

But today, it seems to be much worse, as we hear of school shootings, children being innocent victims of violence… today I PRAY, and I try to speak out when I can about helping each other, across lines of wealth, race, or anything else that divides us and pits us one, against the other.

And I pray, that someday we will see peace….