Never Quit

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief

Do justly now

Love mercy, now

Walk humbly, now

You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it

                                                            A “gathering” of statements from the Talmud

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The world is in pain

Evil people are in power

With no compassion, no sense of other

They are legislating and promoting cruelty and hate

The “enormity” of what is happening

To the poor, to minorities, to the earth

To all vulnerable creatures and all creation

Is unmeasurable

And those who see the earth

And see the poor

And see the young black man

And see the immigrant mother who has lost her child

And see the person with an addiction

And see the person with mental illness

Those who look into the eyes of the suffering and say

I see you

Sawubona,

Grieve

We grieve about the damage,

The minimization, marginalization, oppression

We grieve to see so many wounded

With hope stolen

But we cannot stop

We cannot quit

We cannot let these people win

Who seem to have lost their own souls

Who seem to have lost their humanity

The divine spark

The Sacred presence

These empty ciphers cannot be allow to define the future

They cannot be allow to dictate how things will be

And we cannot, by inaction (or collaboration)

Compromise our own inheritance as Sacred Children

So we must each day see what is in front of us

All the beauty, all the ugliness

All the joy, all the pain

And we must walk

Sometimes in the darkness, where we stumble

And fall

And feel pain

Sometimes in the light

Where the way is more clear

But we must walk

Living justice (where there is no justice)

Living mercy (where there is cruelty and shaming)

Living humility (where there is arrogance and power lust)

Letting the Spirit rock and roll in our souls

And living love

And we must never quit