A picture of Reverend Christine at the pulpit during her installation ceremony

I am writing this on a Tuesday evening, just after returning from seeing Sweet Honey In The Rock at the Musical Instrument Museum. As they broke into Ella’s song, which we have sung at UUCP, tears started running down my cheek. Written about the Civil Rights activist Ella Baker, the words are:

  • We who believe in freedom cannot rest;
  • We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

I swear it has been 2 months since the election, not just 7 days, and I am still mad, sad, disappointed, fearful and motivated to act. And, clearly, I’m not over it yet.  

Between the letter I wrote last Wednesday, the vigils on both Tuesday and Wednesday and the service on Sunday, I’ve said a lot of words about how I am feeling–and how it seems that many of us are feeling. Yet, I still don’t feel like I have the words, I think words are not adequate for the multitude of emotions that this moment elicits.  

I will repeat that you should feel what you feel for as long as you feel it. Don’t bypass it as grief is a necessary step in the resistance that is to come. We are already seeing terrifying signs of what is to come, just as they threatened.  

Since I am still trying to find the words, here are some excellent words by UU poet, Jan Richardson:

Let us agree
for now
that we will not say
the breaking
makes us stronger
or that it is better
to have this pain
than to have done
without this love.
 
Let us promise
we will not
tell ourselves
time will heal
the wound,
when every day
our waking
opens it anew.
 
Perhaps for now
it can be enough
to simply marvel
at the mystery
of how a heart
so broken
can go on beating,
as if it were made
for precisely this—
 
as if it knows
the only cure for love
is more of it,
 
as if it sees
the heart’s sole remedy
for breaking
is to love still,
 
as if it trusts
that its own
persistent pulse
is the rhythm
of a blessing
we cannot
begin to fathom
but will save us
nonetheless.

Take care of your precious hearts and know you are not alone.

Notes From Your Dance Partner