Rippling out

After Reading Steven Charleston

Last night we gathered at the Community Table. A small group hoping to find some calm in the storm. Each of us facing our own blizzards this winter. Each of us wanting to believe that the unimaginable is possible. That we matter. Each sharing the ways we believe we can make the world a kinder and more gentle place for the most vulnerable among us.

This morning I ponder how I can make a difference in the world. How I can stop the flow of outright meanness. The Community Table posted this small piece by Native American Episcopal Priest Steven Charleston, and I wandered.

“You have heard of collateral damage. Now hear of collateral renewal. Every time we act in kindness, in mercy, in love: the impact of our actions radiates out to touch many more lives than the ones in our immediate vicinity. Others we do not know will be affected. The reverberations of our compassion will circle the world. Collateral renewal – healing rippling out, never ending.”

Steven Charleston - in Dancing Faith

Invitation: “… rippling out…”

Amid the wind blowing hard the the trees and the peace flags this morning I think of the effect of the butterfly flapping its wings. The interconnectedness of us all. How everything I have touched has been touched by someone and something else. That my glance upon the mountain and its reminder to breathe - will ripple out in my day.

Wrap the anger in the wind and let it blow out in a gentler way. Breathe in the renewal of the beauty right in front of me. Let me not enter my day wrapped in the anger, fear, and sadness of not knowing how to stop the proverbial crash.

Let me catch my breath and ripple out the compassion and kindness. Ripple out the unimaginable possibility that I must believe to bring it to fruition. That is hard work. To believe in the world I dream of as chaos and anger, dismissal and violence swirl. Fear and doubt are blaring loudly.

One step at a time. One brick. One phone call. One kind phrase.

The sky looks like a carrousel - the clouds parading by. The earth and sky will outlast our human foolishness - our polarizing and thoughtless words, the mining, the blast, the destruction of forest and water.

I listen to the wind howl, it is not personal - it just is. Howling against the house and trees in its path.

May the generosity and compassion I hold go out with it today. Howling, laughing, singing. Ringing the bells, sounding the alarm, and dancing arm in arm when we can.