We are connected

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“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

 

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

          Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” –

          Brené Brown

 

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”    John Muir

 

“All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We do not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” –

          Chief Seattle

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we are in this together

souls bound by Sacred Presence

 

we may not know it or understand it

we may not ever want it

 

but bound we are,

by something deeper and more powerful

than that which divides

 

we are Sacred Children, precious souls

each carrying within us Sacred presence

a little piece of the divine

 

and so the Sacred in me bows to the Sacred in you

bows with reverence, humility, and respect

Namaste

 

we are connected, you and I

woven into a Sacred fabric we call community

 

there are communities defined by time and place

by creed, values, or function

by blood

 

families, churches, mosques, synagogues

a workplace, the local bar

the local park or playground

 

in those communities, we share joy and compassion, pain and struggle

it can be beautiful

 

When we share a joy, and our joy explodes and dances

from person to person, growing strong with the laughter

and the shouts of joy

 

when we share our grief and it gets lighter

with every touch of the hand, every tear

every murmured prayer

 

but community goes beyond those smaller circles

we have chosen or stumbled into

 

for we are bound also to those who are far away

to those who do not think, believe, look, or act like us

we are bound to that child in Gaza, who stares at the sky in fear

to that trans person who has been told they are hated

to that BIPOC person who is told daily, in many ways, “You are less”

 

they, too, are our brothers and sisters, and they matter

for when another is wounded, we are too

when another is excluded, we share in the pain and fragmentation of that exclusion

we share it all

and yes, when they experience success and joy, we should share that too

 

we must understand, we must, what happens to others happens to us

 

and what we do to others, we do to ourselves

 

when we hurt another, diminish another, oppress another

we hurt, diminish, and oppress ourselves

in a way that is, perhaps, far beyond our understanding

 

hate turns in on itself

 

in this time of great pain and chaos

when community is assailed

when people would intentionally divide us

when the common good is abandoned for partisan egocentricity

 

we must remember

experience

and live

that bond of love

created and maintained by the One who is love

 

for we are all in this

together

and we get to love, hope, joy, and peace

together

or not at all