Teetering on the edge of eternity

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Tomorrow I travel

It is not a trip to Disneyworld

or to a beach somewhere far far away

 

It is to an area where there is enmity and strife

And perhaps a little danger

 

This journey, this pilgrimage has a purpose

And I am called to go

And so I will

 

But I feel my mortality.

I walk through my home seeing it

As if for the last time

Hugging what is precious to me close

And wondering what this space would feel like

With me gone

 

I see my spouse, my land, my animals

The mountain I love in a new way

The unbearable beauty

Of the earth

And of love relationships

 

I teeter on the edge of the unknown

The abyss of the new

 

It is not lost on me that tomorrow is also

Election day

 

And I feel the power and danger

What will happen

I think about my freedom,

I think about the nation as it is

 

Incredibly imperfect and flawed

And yet still

At this moment, my country

 

I think of the core values that drive me

Those my mother taught me

Who was a person who served

And my father who was a healer

And even my church, which (Presbyterian) fed me a steady diet

Of love and hope

Rather than hate and fear

 

I think of the values that shape this nation

(how every imperfectly those values are embraced and lived)

 

I think of freedom, safety

Equity, equality, justice, abundance

 

I am an idealist, I know

But I think of a nation that takes care of its vulnerable

And welcomes refugee and immigrant

 

A nation where one’s vote counts

And one can speak up (even, as we have seen, what is said is hateful and false)

Where children are educated AND protected

And women are not second-class citizens

And people have the freedom to worship how and whom they please

(not the freedom to impose their faith system on everyone else)

 

And I feel the mortality of our country

Its fragility

 

God knows we have never been

What we have aspired to (or even claimed)

But this has been a nation I have loved

With all its flaws

 

And I realize that even for nations

Life is fleeting

And there are moments of danger

When, in a moment, all can be lost

 

We stand precariously on the edge of the abyss

Will we slide into the darkness

Tumble into hate and fear, greed and inequity?

 

I feel all of this

In my throat, my chest

My beating heart

My breath

 

How precious is life

How cherished are the blessings we have received

As individual soul, as communities, as a nation

 

Nothing lasts forever

But there is so much worth living for

Risking for

Voting for

 

Blessings my friends

You are precious souls

God loves you

 

Believe it

And be not afraid