In the past it felt like change was an experience that only I was having. With the way my family constantly moved and the way everyone else seemed to stay in the same place. Change never felt like a shared experience to me. Most often the reaction from others looking in on my lifestyle of travel and relocation was more of where I felt a bit like a circus animal. There was always a lot of oohs and ahhhs that would come in my direction. This of course does not even address the change that happens naturally in our lives as we age and our friends, and families change. As life seems to sweep around us and we try our best to hang on. That always felt like a lonely place to me as well. I seemed to lack being able to find others to connect with as if change was some sort of elusive animal.
I'm not sure that I would have ever thought that change itself would change. My feelings on change, the dramatic kind that whips your life into a direction you did not see, the kind that I used to know about. It no longer feels singular. It no longer feels like an unshared or misunderstood experience. Change has swept literally across the world. Everyone has felt it and it has rustled the leaves outside the tree of everyones window. Sounds poetic doesn't it.
It has left a mark in so many different ways. We get to glimpse this through the medium of social media as people share day by day their lives. Some trying to keep their aesthetic going while others are writing new stories. I have been cured of believing I am an expert on anything. Honestly the longer I live the more I realize how little I know. I once may have thought I had seen so much I now realize I have not seen enough.
Then of course I haven't even mentioned the change that has taken place because of the change already happening. What an incredible moment to see a world collective of people with an outcry for more change to happen because hey, we are already sitting in an uncomfortable place. I say that causally because for many being uncomfortable is a very new experience. But for others, they have lived that margin and have aged in it. Where the uncomfortable places have become their well known road. Something they walk on everyday. Many of us have not felt what it means to live under that kind of duress. Nor should we pretend that we have. For many of us we can not know what this is nor will we ever.
So my friends here it is change has arrived not just on my doorstep but its outside yours as well. What will you do? How will you walk past your threshold today? I'm no expert of course but if I can share anything from this last year, it would be don't get comfortable again. Going back will not move you forward. I don't have much to say in particular about world events because honestly more than ever it is a time for me to listen. People are speaking and I don't want to miss a single word. Never stop looking for those connections around you of others who are uncomfortable. Sisterhood, Brotherhood do you see it now? There is a need for connection that is not just born from blood. As you walk uncomfortably through this season of change listen out for your brothers and sisters who are calling. If you are not hearing it, then be quiet.
WHO IS THERE LEFT TO REMEMBER?
Who is there left to remember?
My parents, my brother, all my aunts and uncles gone-
My sister in another world.
In our imagination and prayers
The sky opens and souls enter
Singing praise
Our loved ones are saved forever.
But on the ground
Where we are now
All that they have been-
Who is there left to remember
The lives the world we had?
I alone am left to remember
And I alone will never remember enough.
Shalom Freedman
It's better to have a partner than go it alone.
Share the work, share the wealth.
And if one falls down, the other helps,
But if there's no one to help, tough!
Two in a bed warm each other.
Alone, you shiver all night.
By yourself your unprotected.
With a friend you can face the worst.
Can you round up a third?
A three- stranded rope is not easily snapped.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 MSG
