“I am confused by people who say they love us but are never upset when we are treated unjustly. The two simply can’t co-exist. A love that’s aloof isn’t a love I have any use for. I need a love that is troubled by injustice.”
On New Year’s Day, a friend (who happens to be chronically ill with long COVID) sent me a cartoon of two characters talking. The first one says, “Aren’t you terrified of what 2024 could be like? Everything is so messed up.” The second character says, “I think it will bring flowers.” The first says, “YES? WHY?” The second says, “Because I’m planting flowers!”
So here we go, heading into a new year of planting flowers together- metaphorically and literally. If our energy or hope is flagging, right around the corner we get the inspiration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and the movement he led at another time in history when the world was “messed up”. That story is a reminder of what can happen when a messed-up-world meets collective, tenacious, pervasive Love. Change is possible.
Back then, King took on segregation and anti-Black racism, poverty, the military industrial complex and the Vietnam War. Today racism and poverty continue to hound us, and the terrible wars in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza/Israel and their impacts on civilians are weighing on many hearts, leaving some to ask “What can we do beyond giving to humanitarian relief?” We may not be able to change world events, but we can support folks coming to our valley who’ve fled violence elsewhere. We’ll share some opportunities with the young people this month to “plant some seeds” of love.
The Soul Matters theme for this month of January is “the gift of liberating love”. What might that look like, feel like, sound like, act like?
Curiously and tenaciously yours,
Rev. Lee