We need to keep reading and hearing these words daily so that we remember who we are and why we belong. Those of us who are older know exactly where we’ve come from, how life has been for us in this country, but our young people, our children have not experienced it long enough and will be formed in their developing years by this evolving ‘new norm’. Your daily words help us to keep focused, and to stay strong. Thank you.
I believe that you are right, however, the daily drudge of negativeness makes it hard to see through to the other side especially when you see what it will take to get there. It is not just Trump and his administration, it is a total societal realignment.
Your words are part of my daily or almost daily "sustained assistance". I recommend your substack to everyone I know. Thanks for your faith, your exquisite writing and the inspiration I get from the reflection questions, prayers, and. practices. With gratitude to you and your team, Maureen
“So the question before us is not whether we grieve. It is whether we will let grief close us or keep us open. Whether we will let this moment teach us to harden — to decide certain people deserve our indifference, to mirror the exclusion back toward those who practice it — or whether we will refuse that transformation, even when it costs us.” Brilliant insight and prompt… I am struggling with this and find this very heart and gut wrenching
I turn on the news in the morning and five minutes later have to turn off...the feelings of sadness and fear already setting in. What keeps me from losing hope is knowing that we do belong to each other and to God and that looking for goodness in people or acting out of goodness will make a difference. I keep playing a short hymn by John Bell (Scotland):y "Don't be afraid, my love is stronger than your fear and I have promised always to be near "
I'm a fairly new follower of your daily meditations and I just wanted to say "thanks". They've become a spiritual lifeline in these incredibly challenging times!
Thank you, I resonate very much with this - "The grief we carry is not weakness. It is evidence of connection. It is belonging refusing to die." I would add that it may well be the gateway to compassion and the gift of life itself.
We need to keep reading and hearing these words daily so that we remember who we are and why we belong. Those of us who are older know exactly where we’ve come from, how life has been for us in this country, but our young people, our children have not experienced it long enough and will be formed in their developing years by this evolving ‘new norm’. Your daily words help us to keep focused, and to stay strong. Thank you.
I believe that you are right, however, the daily drudge of negativeness makes it hard to see through to the other side especially when you see what it will take to get there. It is not just Trump and his administration, it is a total societal realignment.
Belonging is holy.
But when belonging becomes partisan, it stops being theology and starts being strategy.
If “everyone belongs,” that includes the frightened, the angry, the ones voting wrong, the ones enforcing policy, the ones protesting policy.
Otherwise we’ve just drawn a softer circle and called it God.
The real test isn’t whether we feel grief.
It’s whether our compassion survives disagreement.
Tenderness that only flows one direction isn’t universal love. It’s preference.
Keep the circle wide. Wide enough to hold the people you’re tempted to exile too.
Amen / Awomen / Aho❗️
Your words are part of my daily or almost daily "sustained assistance". I recommend your substack to everyone I know. Thanks for your faith, your exquisite writing and the inspiration I get from the reflection questions, prayers, and. practices. With gratitude to you and your team, Maureen
“So the question before us is not whether we grieve. It is whether we will let grief close us or keep us open. Whether we will let this moment teach us to harden — to decide certain people deserve our indifference, to mirror the exclusion back toward those who practice it — or whether we will refuse that transformation, even when it costs us.” Brilliant insight and prompt… I am struggling with this and find this very heart and gut wrenching
the scapegoat mechanism in full view..
Beautiful
I turn on the news in the morning and five minutes later have to turn off...the feelings of sadness and fear already setting in. What keeps me from losing hope is knowing that we do belong to each other and to God and that looking for goodness in people or acting out of goodness will make a difference. I keep playing a short hymn by John Bell (Scotland):y "Don't be afraid, my love is stronger than your fear and I have promised always to be near "
Dear Rev. Cameron,
I'm a fairly new follower of your daily meditations and I just wanted to say "thanks". They've become a spiritual lifeline in these incredibly challenging times!
Thank you, I resonate very much with this - "The grief we carry is not weakness. It is evidence of connection. It is belonging refusing to die." I would add that it may well be the gateway to compassion and the gift of life itself.
We, they, it belongs...
everyone, everything, all.
Exclusion hurts, harms.
...
Life/love hardens not...
grueling grief notwithstanding.
Connection/care costs.