A Prayer for Connection
AfA joins others who mourn the loss this week of members of our creative community to gun violence and alt right terrorism. May we recognize what connects us and release even the seeds of fear and judgement that bring about such destruction. Let the mustard seed of love be nurtured in our hearts instead. Let us hold one another in grace through dark times and forgive one another our flaws that we may flourish in the light.
Creativity is connection:
- To our voice and our power;
- To others in our lives, whatever may seek to divide us;
- To our community, that we may grow in our respect for one another.
If the past two years have shown us anything, it is the importance of maintaining our connectedness. It is therefore no surprise that connection has become the battleground—that those who seek control are doing so by whispering judgements in our ears that cause us to turn away from one another. Because there is both power and vulnerability in connection. It is a holy work and fraught with pain and discomfort.
We have lost so many already, and those breaks are like the snapping of bones: whether they have snapped of their own fragility due to illness or age, whether we have broken them across our knees in rage, whether relentless impatience has put too much pressure on a fracture, or our always justifiable decisions to step on one another’s ankles has severed our joy. The cacophony of bones has been deafening, as if the ground were crackling fire at our feet.
Let us remove our hands from our ears, defy the whispering, and let the flames around us die down, as we prepare for the inevitable and unenviable work of rebuilding. Let us reach down and with ash-blackened fingers sift through the devastation still fraught with embers, and find each other’s hands.
