the end of silence

Facebook memories remind me that this is a week I usually travel.

Each of those trips I’ve been on - I knew it was a gift - each one - I knew might be the last one.

Now, I can’t help but wonder if travel is a thing that will ever happen in my life again.

Will I ever sit in a restaurant again? Go to a gathering? Explore a new-to-me-place? Soak in the golden California sun?

At some point, there will be a vaccine, but surely you know me well enough to know I won’t be rushing out to be one of the first to get it.

I’m thinking about the pandemic.

I’m thinking about the evil that is the current administration and how for the past three years, I’ve remained largely silent about it because I didn’t think there was anything I could do - and I’m still not sure what I can do - but I know staying silent isn’t the answer.

I’m thinking about the protests and the protestors and the inherent racism in this country.

I’m thinking about how we do this collective shadow work - how we transform, atone, and heal.

Last weekend, I pledged to donate 50% of my sales from this site to the GoFundMe for Breonna Taylor’s family, and you responded. Thank you.

I voted by paper ballot this week.

I walked slowly around my neighborhood.

I spent some time in my back yard.

I am working a lot.

I’m grateful.

I also worry about how my turnaround time is not as fast as it used to be.

A wise woman priest I follow on Instagram posted this quote from Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, the first Black female Episcopal diocesan bishop:

We must be unequivocal and clear. When I go to the webpage of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, it is clear that they are about selling ice cream and dismantling white supremacy. I want our church to be that clear. Our being afraid of making white people upset makes us complicit in keeping white supremacy in place.

I want this for the church, and I want it for my own small corner of the world.

I want to be unequivocal and clear.

That’s what I’m thinking about this week.

I hope you have a good and restful weekend.

I am off now to take my boys to the groomer - their first time since Covid - to get a bath and their nails done - and I’m going to plan an outing for myself - somewhere deep into nature, where I can sit with the trees and breathe.

Please do take care of yourselves and one another.