There is a tribe in Africa called Masai whose traditional greeting to each other is “Casserian Engeri.” It means, “And how are the children?” They ask about the next generation. The Masai, like many tribes across the earth, believe that the well-being of their children is the best way to determine the future of their whole society.
What would it be like if all the children really were well, beloved? If all our children were well?
The children are not well, darling
Yesterday, in my own home, we started off in the not-so-foreign land of mental un-wellness. Shocked by the magnitude of the earthquake, I felt myself sink beneath the floor that held me up. Rose back up with a primal rage on behalf of all the unseen mothers and caregivers across the earth. Threw an empty water bottle into an empty room. Shouted an obscenity. Just one, though two would have been acceptable.
Caregiving can be complicated.
But this is something I am absolutely certain of…
We are allowed to feel what we feel. All of it. Let it bubble up and (safely) erupt so that it might pass. Imagine what would happen if we capped a volcano? Sewed shut a fault line? The entire mass of land just might implode.
Please, do not allow yourself to implode.
You are needed here! Instead, let the fire out that it might create change…
To Mother -
to mother is
to hold the hurting
in our hearts and hands
to know
it is all our responsibility
racism
and gun violence
and mental illness
and trauma and Trauma
and mostly, separation -
and also to know,
our first responsibility is
to ourselves
that we feel the love
we wish to create
because we cannot feign it
cannot pretend to know
the wild, holy experience of it
must allow it
to enter into our cells
pour out through our pores
spread light
where there is none.
I wish it were only my own child’s struggles that hurt my heart; and yet, I know I’m not alone.
There is a mother fighting for her life because a store clerk thought that she might be shoplifting. There is the mother of a Black teen whose worst fears just came true; he was shot simply in the act of picking up his siblings - accidentally ringing the wrong doorbell. And there are countless other mothers wondering “where did I go wrong?” as their child’s name headlines as the assailant on the news report.
While I cannot tell them if they did slip up, perhaps forgot to bring enough cupcakes to the school function - or worse, sent their child to practice with the wrong brand of shoes… I can tell them they aren’t alone.
That there are hundreds of thousands of us begging one another to say “All the children are well.” For it to be true.
Until the whole world is safe
Since the statement “all the children are well” is not true (yet) this is what I want to end with…
Until the whole world is safe… until every child is safe… we will meet here in prayer and lament and grief to lift up the beauty we still behold to the light. To take nonviolent action. To push one another toward compassion and peace.
Today, if you personally mother or give care - you can make an impact by feeling what you feel. And then, doing what only you can do. Joining a peaceful protest, writing songs and poems that change hearts, voting for what is right, teaching your child to sit with the lonely one - to love others unconditionally and out loud - and to raise their voices for them when need be. You can heal yourself, grant the folks around you opportunities to heal, too. Offer free services and scholarships. Gift books to those who cannot afford them. Feed those who remain unfed and shelter the unsheltered. The ways in which we can re-shape this earth… our kids… are unlimited.
Precious soul, we can tend to one another’s grief and grow blossoms on a fault line…
until the whole world is safe.
How will you make the whole world safe right now?
I love you.
Squeezes,
J. 🌻 @thebarefootpreacher
New here? Reclamation is a newsletter and conversation-starter. We are a safe, inclusive and progressive Christian space honoring all people all the time. Here we meet caregivers of all kinds - from parents to pastors - to question complicated lives and also, claim & claim again supernatural peace here on earth. I’m so glad to spend more time together!