life is hard, be kind

Folks, I’m telling you,

birthing is hard

and dying is mean

so get yourself

a little loving

in between

                     Langston Hughes

_________________________________

 

we come into the world crying

smack, squall

take a deep breath, turn a little red

and the journey begins

 

it’s a heck of a journey

this thing called life

just when we think we have it all figured out

we learn we don’t

 

just when we think everything is coming together

and we can coast for a while

things fall apart

 

just when we think we have progressed

we prove to ourselves

in unmistakable terms, that we have not

 

three steps forward two steps back

or is that two steps forward, three steps back

 

back into those old patterns of hate and violence

back into those old scripts

where we convince ourselves that domination works

and if we add a side order of cruelty

it works even better

 

we hold a vigil

to remember life

to say that “all lives matter”

to cry for justice

 

and someone says

“I’m coming and I’m bringing my gun”

And another echoes

“Just kick the shit out of them”

(comments on Facebook related to a small “Black Lives Matter” protest)

 

and so the haters hate

and intimidate

and perpetuate violence death

 

life is hard

and we see that violence begets violence

and hate begets hate

and greed begets hoarding

and hoarding begets poverty

 

it is a vicious cycle

that goes round and round

and grinds people into the earth

and drives them to their deaths

 

and we are call to break that cycle

 

“do not overcome evil with evil but overcome evil with good”

it is time to do a little loving

here in between birthing and dying

 

so put aside that gun

let go of those old biases, that racism

clean out your soul

and make room for Love, for Sacred Presence

 

and do a little loving

 

For we were called to freedom, brothers and sisters;

Let us not use our freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence

but through love become slaves to one another.

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment,

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

If, however, you bite and devour one another,

take care that you are not consumed by one another (Galatians 5)

 

we can do this!

or rather the Christ in us can do it

 

and that after all

is the secret

 

Christ in us, the hope of glory