Sanctuary

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Sanctuary

This song was written after a conversation with my friend Parker J. Palmer. Something politically devastating had happened in my home state. I asked him, “What can we do when we are personally or politically heartbroken?” He wrote me a beautiful message saying, there are times when we march and take action. But there are also times when we take sanctuary. We gather with those we love, remember what we love and who loves us. He wrote of Brown Chapel AME during the civil rights movement of the last century. He spoke about how we acknowledge our grief and righteous anger. But we remember what we love, what grounds us and carrys us forward. We share stories, we get angry and weep.

Today, we take Sanctuary and help one another to gather courage and grounding for the hard work ahead. We are not giving up, we will lift our heads and organize and continue the work of the ancestors. We will continue doing the work of love, with hearts that are not just broken apart, but hearts that are broken open.

Dear Ones, This is a day that is hard as stone. We are grieving, angry, bewildered, unsure of what comes next. Dear hearts, You are not alone. We are not alone. You will get through this hard thing. We can do this together.

Rebecca Solnit wrote, “The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving.  You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love. The Wobblies used to say don't mourn, organize, but you can do both at once and you don't have to organize right away in this moment of furious mourning.”

We are not giving up. I am still who I am, you are still who you are. We will continue to keep gardening in the dark. These things we will do, but we don’t have to do it all today. It is ok to be not ok today. Today we give ourselves time to breathe, weep, yell in the car, go out in the woods, maybe break a few sticks or throw a few stones in the pond. Maybe hug a tree, or your dog or child or grandchild.

This is a day for tender care. Take some time to be silent if silence is needed. But also remember that part of self care is connecting with others, reach out and “be” with others in this hard moment with with a zoom, a text, meeting for tea or coffee or to walk together. We will organize and continue…but today we take Sanctuary.

Remember what you love. Remember what loves you.

I am sensing the cloud the ancestors, those who worked all their lives for the better, kinder, fairer, more connected world. The ancestors experienced steps forward and huge set backs. There will be those who will be immediately under attack, and we must be ready to organize, and so we gather our resources, because they will be life sustaining, hope sustaining, and because we are going to need them.

Rebecca Solnit continued with -People kept the faith in the dictatorships of South America in the 1970s and 1980s, in the East Bloc countries and the USSR, women are protesting right now in Iran and people there are writing poetry. There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good. You can keep walking whether it's sunny or raining. Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.

Yes, we are interwoven into a single garment of destiny, we are the threads that hold it together, and we are reweaving what has unraveled. We can do this hard thing….yes we can.

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This is a safe place to give one another that Sanctuary kind of care.

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Revolution, The Day After

Revolution is finding your horizon
And then walking toward it.
Knowing that you will be walking 
For a very long while,
Or always.
Because the process of getting there,
Because bringing in a better world, 
Will take more than your one lifetime.

Revolution is traveling light,
Leaving what’s dead weight
By the side of the road.
Like vengeance
And stone-cold hatred
That expands and gets heavier,
Like slow-drying cement,
In the chambers of your heart.

Revolution is holding close
All you love,
All you believe in,
All you hope for.
Everything that actually matters.

Because you’re going to get tired
    and discouraged
         and angry
 	and wander off course. 

You’re going to need
What you’ve gathered,
Embraced and endured.
Because it’s love,
Always love,
That will tug on your sleeve
And remind you to look up,
       Search the sky for True North.
Get a bead on something 
    Improbable
Shining and unstoppable

And keep walking.  
 
- Carrie Newcomer  (From Until Now New Poems