Spirit of Love,
I move into my own time of transition after being with people in theirs. So many feelings are alive in my heart. I feel the sadness that comes with having to let go – relationships that touched my heart are coming to an end… among people who honored me by opening their homes and hearts and lives. I grieved with them in their losses. I rejoiced in their blessings. I waited in the anxious moments, learned their histories and heard their hopes. The way their feelings mirror my own helps me feel the blessing of being with my people. Earnest. Kindred in purpose. Sometimes sensitive. Sometimes bold.
I have watched them face losses, feel pain, and respond to problems in creative and caring ways. I have been surprised by their spirit, their resilience, their commitment. And I have rarely seen communities able to have as much fun while doing what needs to be done. Sometimes I think they surprise themselves. There is much within the way they have shown me that reflects a holy purpose. The way people are meant to be together.
I have seen their impatient and contemptuous sides too. I’ve seen how they are sometimes timid in approaching conflict or afraid to speak their mind. I’ve seen how they can sometimes be stubborn and prideful. And I have seen myself in all of these things and I know they are my people. Help me to share my regrets and shed my smallness where I have failed to offer the kindness and generosity of spirit they might have needed from me.
Please, Love, be with them. Embolden them. Strengthen them. Make them flexible and resilient to walk into a future that will ask all of us to adapt and change in ways none of us can expect. When they are unsure, let grace abound. Share sensitivity with the bold and bring boldness to the sensitive; and help them find that which they need most in each other. Allow them to fashion coherence and vision from all the individual wisdom. Lift their hearts, which are already large enough, in the moments where courage is needed. And should they ever doubt, remind them that they are beloved in their own right, and always part of the beloved community of all souls.
And help us all to see, that although we will walk into the future on separate paths, we are headed to the same place.
To the Glory of Life.
