remember love

We are endlessly forgetting and remembering

 

Forgetting love remembering love

Forgetting hope, remembering hope

Forgetting that we participate in something big, really big

Forgetting that we are one

 

That we all participate in “The Story” (Rohr)

Participate in God, and the rolling out of Sacred History

 

We think, somehow we are alone

Surrounded by other’s perhaps

But alone

 

Isolated individuals in a world filled with other isolated individuals

Who are threats

 

No wonder we are afraid

No wonder we must grasp all we can

No wonder we must use political power to bludgeon

No wonder we must carry guns

 

We have forgotten what is real (love)

And who we are (Sacred children)

 

And in our forgetfulness

We are toxic

 

Toxic individualism

Toxic masculinity

Toxic capitalism

 

We are so confused that a member of Congress (Madison Cawthorn)

has urged mothers to raise their sons to be "monsters"

 

a young man infamous only for fear and death-dealing

is seen as a hero

and perhaps the role model

 

we are constantly forgetting

 

and so we must remember

we must gather at table, and break bread and drink the cup

and remember servanthood and radical love

 

we must gather at table

and eat meals of thanksgiving

and remember we are part of a larger family

 

we must watch the sun rise, and the sun set

we must walk the dog

and pet the cat

 

we must dispel the myth of our separateness

and remember our oneness

 

that we are bound together

that we are embraced by Love

that we are part of something inexorable

 

If we do not remember,

If we remain in a fragmented, confused, and very unsafe world

We are doomed to fall into anger, fear, and narcissism

Into the monster masculinity of Cawthorn and Rittenhouse

 

This morning my day was halted by a cat

By a dumpster kitty, picked up off the side of a road in mid-winter

Who now years later

Is a messenger of God

 

Who persistently, insistently leaps onto my lap each morning

And drapes herself, as only a cat can

Across my arms

 

There is no reading, no typing

Just cat (a sacred creature)

 

Stopping me in my tracks

Love

Stopping me for a moment

 

Saying

Remember

 

Remember to breathe

Remember compassion

Remember connection

Remember love