Sing Children Sing

To love someone is to learn the song in their heart

And to sing it to them when they have forgotten it

                                                   Arne Garborg

_______________________________________

In this time

when it feels like we are trudging down the road

to the apocalypse

when the very world seems to be dysfunctional

In this time when there is such division

It is easy to dredge up outrage

To find things that make your

Heart ache

And your soul burn

It is equally easy to become

Critical

To be a messenger of rebuke

To point out the lies

To challenge what we think (in our great brilliance)

is wrong.

To seek (with all humility) to help others back on the path of truth and righteousness

And yet, I wonder

What we accomplish with our witty remarks

And our clever repartee

Do we help, or hinder?

Do create change or entrenchment?

Do we show concern, or share disdain?

It has occurred to me

As I have engaged in verbal tirades and battles galore

That all these efforts to be an ‘influencer’ and to

move people into a new space

buy the use of coercion

by trying to overwhelm with words

even if those words contain facts, and hopefully

sometimes logic

do not work

because people are where they are for a reason

they, just like me, have been influenced

by parents, teachers, pastors

news outlets

pundits

they, like me have been shaped by life

by the culture they grew up in

and they like me

are complex

they are good and bad

wise and foolish

informed and mislead

When I look in the mirror

It is painfully clear that even though I am a Sacred Child

Even though I carry divine DNA

And the presence of the Sacred (the Spirit)

The divine image is dreadfully blurred in me

and that my greatest need

is to get in touch, once again, with my true self

I carry the song of compassion

And kindness,

And forgiveness

And generosity

I carry the song God gave me at my birth

And the song Christ awakens

In my heart

And my job is to find the notes one again

And sing that song

And from time to time

Someone comes along, who sings the song to me

Sings it with beauty and love and compassion

And helps me get back in touch with myself

So this day, as I walked in the rain,

and looked at the blurry outline of the mountains

It hit me

my role is not to tell people their song is wrong

or even off key

my job is not to overwhelm them with my song…

my role is to listen

to learn the song in the hearts of others

to hear that song of pain, and loss

to hear the song of fear and anger

to hear the song of hope, and love

and to help those around me

sing their song of love

to help them find it, if they have forgotten it

to sing it to them, if they have forgotten it

and to sing it with them

when they are tired, afraid, and alone

sing children

sing