Walls

Why struggle to open the door between us

When the whole wall is an illusion

                                                          Rumi

Man was made to lead with his chin; he is worth knowing only with his guard down, his head up and his heart rampant on his sleeve.

                                            Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection

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They are appellations often used

Sometimes profoundly

Sometimes thoughtlessly

Brother

Sister

He ain’t heavy…

Brothers in arms…

A sister is a gift to the heart…

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God;

        and so we are (I John)

Keep on loving one another [then] as brothers and sisters (Hebrews)

There are brothers and sisters bound to us by blood

And brothers and sister bound to us by heart, values, mission

By the Sacred Presence we all carry

the great sin of those would stir up hate and division

of those who feed us lies

and stir up the embers of racism, hate, and fear

is not the ideology they propound

or the lies they tell

it is that they divide

they build fake walls

and the forces us to walk head down through the gauntlet of hate,

hearts guarded

it is that they destroy our sense that we are all

children of God

they make me believe I am a child of God

but you are not

they fill the space between us with memes and facebook posts

and labels and stereotypes

until we can no longer see

talk

touch

connect

communicate

until we are no longer family

but we are

we are

dysfunctional, messed up, fragmented

but family

bound by One who cannot be fragmented

bound by Love