Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen
With the verdict which found a police officer guilty of murder in the death of George Floyd, we are offered a collective moment to contemplate both the many cracks in our crazy world and the light that may yet be possible. Wise voices are reminding us that this is just one early step in the big work of deconstructing racism and rebuilding our social institutions on level ground. The pain and shock of witnessing that cruel murder served as a catalyst that cracked open the hearts of millions around the world. And maybe there is indeed a chance for the light to begin to shine through that crack and illuminate for us a way forward into a different kind of country, a different kind of world.
And yet that kind of change feels so daunting, so big. It’s almost too much to imagine; it’s almost too much to hope.
In times like this, it is faith in the unknown that whispers assurances that we can indeed make it across the “too much” bridge to the other side.
During a recent women’s circle, we were talking about how the events of 2020 have left us floating about in a sea of ‘not knowing’. COVID brought with it so much uncertainty, grief and fear. That feeling of having no solid ground beneath our feet was exacerbated by the polarizing political rhetoric in our country and the realization that our democracy was so fragile, so easily manipulated and undermined.
We spoke in that circle of the skills we have developed by living with not knowing, the most important of which is trusting our own inner spiritual wisdom. As one of us said on that Zoom call: “We are in the time of the new ‘not knowing’ knowing.”
When women come together in sacred circle, they create islands of knowing in this vast sea of mystery. Each woman carries a fractal of sacred wisdom and when we bring them together, we begin to glimpse pieces of holy ground large enough for us to stand on together to do the big work. It is the spiritual work that women are being called to do now. Nothing is more important.
What fractal are you carrying? What new knowing has been whispering to you?
Photo: Patrick Hendry on Unsplash.com
