Every time we turn our attention to the news, we hear of one crisis on top of another – rising food prices, cost of gas, gun shootings in several cities in the U.S. and war in Ukraine. Each of these events alone present new challenges, but when they all seem to be happening at the same time, we can feel overwhelmed as we try to emerge from COVID 19. And I have heard several people say they feel depressed and helpless as they we live this reality in one way or the other.
Image: Unsplash/Louis Reed
However, one of the messages coming from the Climate Movement is to remind us that all life is interdependent. When one part of our Beautiful Blue Home thrives, we are all better. The reverse is also true. We also experience the pain and sadness of the effects of climate change, war, and sickness. We are all interconnected and what happens to one also impacts others.
In the past few weeks, I have been working with some wonderful people who have just arrived in Canada after fleeing conflict in their home in the Congo and then living several years in a refugee camp hoping to come to Canada. Their life has not been easy, and they are people filled with hope, gratitude, and love. They are eager to settle, improve their English and find work. Their positive outlook has been a blessing - a kind of visitation from God.
“Sometimes God shows up in our lives in human form and visits us in a way we do not expect.”
Sometimes God shows up in our lives in human form and visits us in a way we do not expect. If we open our minds and hearts to welcome the human face of God, not as I expect it, but as God choses to visit we might discover more wholeness and hope.
Rumi, the poet expresses this so well in the poem called The Guest House. I will offer a few lines…
…This being human is a guest house,
Every morning a new arrival, a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected guest …
Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond…
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of furniture, still treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight… (by Rumi)
-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ