Show Up, Pray, Organize, Dig,
In this time we must show up and get organized.
And we must make it our practice. Our contemplative practice.
We practice showing up and getting organized.
We practice showing up-
in grounded, compassionate witness to being made in the image of God
We practice getting organized-
realizing the truth that our being exists in webs of mutual interdependence.
We show up and get organized in order to exercise power-
energy for good and life given to us by God,
justice and compassion at work in, thru and beyond us.
We practice saying no to wickedness, cruelty, brutality, lies and greed.
We practice saying yes, tending the grounds of life-more- abundant.
In this time, John and I bid you to show up, get organized, and also to pray, nor neglect to dig in the garden. Find a place within and without re-connects you to the grace of heaven and earth. A garden, a green space, a vast reassuring silence deeper than chaos, that stills confusion and fear within a place of sanctuary, breathes life that is good, right, compassionate.
And in touch with the contemplative grace of heaven and earth, we practice to show up, and get organized. Politics is not all that different from other ways you know how to pray and get things done. Just like you were planting a garden or a tree with neighbors you want to get to know better, just like you were building a house to shelter, warm and welcome life for friends, neighbors and strangers in community, solidarity and mutual care. We show up and get organized, connected to the ground of life you share with others on earth.
Contemplation might be described as a renewing contact with the truth of your being made like others in the image of God. The fruits of it carry you into work and action that witnesses, protects, and seeks this truth with and for others. We bid you to make room for such in these times.
Show up for God the maker of true peace, and allow their presence to further organize your heart, mind and body in the likeness of love, wisdom and justice.
Find your ground of courage to show up somehow, and get more organized than you are, or help others to do so...make it a practice, step by step, not alone, do it again and again, pace yourself, rest, press on, pray, dig in, listen, with a deeper and clearer sense of God’s presence and life guiding you.
How?
Here are some ways and resources we offer humbly, knowing there is more, and trusting you will find what you need better where you are.
Get connected: Who can help you get better connected? A few organizations who provide good information, education, training, schedules, events and actions include these below. Just a start, so see what else you find that is solid and fits where you are.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Learn, Prepare, Train:
We’ll add links here for trainings for individuals and congregations about immigrant rights, interacting with law enforcement, de-escalation. But don’t wait for us, see what you find.
Offer Care and Help:
What might it be? mutual aid in you neighborhood, reaching out, setting up ways to stay in touch and communicate, volunteer with a local feeding program or food bank, assist with events. Shovel snow, offer rides, offer shelter, what else?
Advocate:
Write, call, meet with elected representatives, coordinate actions protests, witness, mass refusal, strike!
Follow, Lead and Accompany:
This takes courage, so go with someone else, and be prudent. Find a friend or someone you trust who knows the way better, if that will help you show up and get you act better together. Look for leaders, and trust your own mind too. Safety is not guaranteed, so as the scouts say, ‘be prepared.’ And dare we say, stay in touch with the deep peace of God and en-joy!
“Build houses and plant gardens:”
The biblical prophets have that to offer.
There is a war on the people and earth by the trump admin, racist reactionaries, and tech, oil and media billionaires. So we need to be in this for the long haul, and as we dig in, find life and delight for ourselves and others along the way.
So think with others about how you are able to build strong homes, churches, networks, neighborhoods, places of welcome, protection, care and life for yourselves and others for the coming days. Think about how the trees and gardens you will plant this year will feed and give life in the months ahead. And put what you think and hear into action.
For we know the truth that we are made in the image of God, and the divine life has placed us hear to tend the life of plants and soil, animals, forests, plains and oceans. (Genesis 1-2) To attend to the well-being and needs of the weak and poor, to neighbors and strangers, migrants and the unhoused, the younger and older, the afflicted. (The Bible Folks!) To seek our life with them and all the creation. (The Bible Again, Cover to Cover!) With them we “build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat of their fruits.” (Jeremiah 29:5)
In wilder, tended and human-built places of devotion, we renew in the breath of life and the image of God. And in living contact with this our divine center, we practice showing up and getting organized.
Woman Digging, Vincent Van Gogh