Spread Calm

We can all get really shitty really fast when we’re afraid. I get it. I’m using deep breaths along with my personal mantra: ” Try to be scared without being scary.” Feel free to borrow both - they can help….

Stay awkward, brave, and kind. Love each other. Spread calm.

                                                                        Brene Brown

___________________________________

I sit here

on a snowy March morning

contemplating

ruminating

the snow is a bit like a blanket

covering

isolating

even protecting

because it is an angry world out there

it seems so beautiful and calm here

in the high country of northeast Oregon

where high valleys nestling under

the brooding gaze of high peaks

where stoplights

McDonalds

And Walmarts don’t exist

and yet even here

where we often see people at their best

we sometimes see people at their worst

yesterday noon

after a morning of connecting with

special folk

I was headed home with Sirius on the radio

And the sound of the Troggs echoing

When I was met along the way

by one of those aging, jacked up

little 4X pickups (Toyota)

of nondescript color

and out of the window stuck a

bare, wiry arm

rigid and emphatic

raised in a one fingered salute

I didn’t know the car

Perhaps they knew mine

Perhaps this person really didn’t like me

(I am a public figure, and outspoken

 and I suspect there are people who don’t like me,

 and I suspect I have done things at times to earn disdain,

 I am sadly human)

Or perhaps this was just a random

Act of hostility

But it seemed

Somehow

like both a violation, and a symbol

It kind of felt like that one act

symbolizes America today

We are all just kind of roaring down the road

angry

flipping off the world

as we pass by

we all get shitty really fast

when we are afraid

or angry

when events and leaders

stir the pot of enmity

that exists in all our souls

but it is in these times

as we fear Corvid-19

as we are told to distance

as events were cherish are cancelled

as we are forced into tough choices

as schools and churches close

it is in these time

that we need to find within ourselves

that spark of the divine

that Sacred Presence that transforms

and gives us the capacity

for kindness and generosity

for forgiveness and calm

That presence that allows us to do life

A different way

And enables us to look past ourselves

To others

And do the right thing

The healing thing

The protective thing

So as Brene Brown so beautifully says,

“Stay awkward, brave, and kind. Love each other. Spread calm.”

Peace to all of you!

Stephen