“What do we do with our hearts, confronted daily as we are with so much suffering of our world?” I ask this question often as I listen to others speak about countless numbers of people and places battered by hurricanes, fires, floods, drought, and the unleashing of senseless violence, deadly prejudice and pervasive injustice. I hear in us a felt sense of compassion. I realize that we live in a time of great loss and chaos, and find myself grieving so much destruction by human hands. I feel deep angst about the dangerous planetary crisis we humans have already precipitated, and wonder what we might do next.
I’m remembering a movie I saw some years ago, “Life is Beautiful”, in which a Jewish father uses his loving imagination to keep life beautiful for his young son in the midst of the Nazi takeover of their lives.
This is a similar time for me, and I want to learn to take the angst I feel, and lift it to a place of transformation. Perhaps this is a time for us to find one another, a time to remember that we belong to each other and that together we can change the story in which we find ourselves living. It is a time to remember that we are surrounded by love and beauty, and can open our hearts to others and invite them in.
May we find one another and come together to share the work of our hearts–our fears and dreams, our needs and our visions. May we find hope and strength as we imagine together “the world we know is possible” and work together and encourage one another to build that world right now wherever we are. May we deeply know that each of us is beautiful and is created to enjoy beauty and create beauty. May we surrender to the beauty and wisdom of our generous Earth, and be strengthened in the joy and gratitude which will arise from living consciously within the embrace of our human/earth community.
Reflection and Artwork by Sr. Mary Southard, CSJ (used with permission)
Mary Southard Art www.marysouthardart.org