Saturday, August 10, 2019

Rejoice in the...


Hallelujah Moments

The world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can...reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'”
Leonard Cohen

I love the truth of these words from Mary Oliver's poem, “Invitation,” that I posted yesterday:

it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in this broken world.”

It's easy to lose track of all the Hallelujah moments that are happening right now because they sit side-by-side with some terrible scenes—not just in America, but in all the war-torn places around the world. It's easy to believe that all is lost and the whole world is going down the proverbial tubes. It may come to that, because we humans are a stubborn lot and don't like inconvenient truths—especially ones that mean we have to change what we're doing or give something up. But, on the way down those tubes, let us not forget the wonder, and beauty, and love, and kindness that also surrounds us.

We all bear scars (and blame) for creating a climate of extreme heat and extreme weather, and for trashing up our oceans. Leonard Cohen wrote, “A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.” Let us bravely bear our scars, and allow them to move us past recriminations and on to solutions. We didn't know we were making this mess until relatively recently, but now that we know, we must take steps to resolve the problem. Each of us individually, and all of us together, have roles to play in that resolution. Our coming together will truly be a hallelujah moment.

This world, this creation, these people with these hands and hearts, are still filled with the potential for great good. In the midst of mayhem and madness, let's not lose sight of that truth. We can allow the hallelujah to fill us; we can solve the conflicts and reconcile the problems because we are the word made flesh. And so it is.

                                                            In the Spirit,
                                                               Jane


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