Synchroncity and Opportunity

I see

synchronicity

In

the shocking murder of

nine people

in a Bible class

at the AME Emmanuel Church

in Atlanta

by a young white supremacist ,

many retailers no longer

selling Confederate flags,

the decision in Georgia

and other states

to remove the

Confederate flag

from public display.

President Obama’s

moving eulogy,

words moving into

singing

Amazing Grace with

all joining in.

Conjecture, publicity

To Kill a Mockingbird

 Harper Lee’s beloved book and movie

told by young Scout

seeing her father Atticus

through a child’s eyes.

The much anticipated

release of the

old, discovered

first book

taking place twenty years later.

Go Set A Watchman,

portraying Atticus

in a segregated  town,

challenged by a

climate, calling, demanding

equal rights for blacks and white.

An Off Broadway show

Hamilton

moves to Broadway

full of hip hop

historical characters played by

multi-racial cast.

Another play

Amazing Grace 

opens on

Broadway,

its writer, leaving his job

compelled to write this story

and produce it.

Publisher of Between the World and Me

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

moves up release date

so we can read

his words written to

his fifteen year old son.

Growing up in Baltimore,

he feels the same

fear for his son

as week by week

there are

unnecessary murders

by police of young black men

barely adults.

Whatever events, words, books, musicals

might stir you,

move me,

the convergence

is an opportunity.

In the words of Amazing Grace

that forgiveness and redemption

are possible

regardless of sins committed,

“Amazing grace!

How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost,

but now am found,

Was blind,

but now I see.”

What can I see now

that I did not see before?

What do you see

that you did not see before?

“‘Twas grace that taught

my heart to fear,

And grace my fears

reliev’d;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!”

Listening- A Great Gift

Just the title

Someone To Tell It To

invites an opportunity to be heard,

to be listened to.

With the speed and brevity

of the internet,

social media,

and popular forms of communication,

there is

no substitute

for truly

listening ears

and an open,

non-judging heart.

The process of offering safety

to a person,

whatever they need

to say and share,

is the greatest gift

and can help a person

to heal,

no matter

how deep

the woundedness

he or she feels.

Ordained ministers

Michael Gingerich and Tom Kaden,

came together

to use their experience and skills

and offer what

so many crave,

sometimes

without even knowing,

what is making

life challenging,

even unbearable.

We live in a society

with too much information,

24 hour news cycle,

accessibility to

communicate

in letters

that don’t even fully

spell the word.

How can someone

be truly

heard and understood?

Michael and Tom share in their book

how they meet

someone

wherever they are

in their life’s journey.

Actually meeting with someone

in a non-threatening place,

not for counseling in an office,

but wherever the person

feels comfortable,

can help

open the person to the

possibility of saying

what they need to share,

finding that being heard

in a non-judgmental way,

their burdens are lifted,

a perspective formed

and body and soul

easing into breathing

in their life force

on the way to healing,

whatever it is.