Open your Door to the Volcano

On the second webinar of the day I was reminded of a friend for whom I had been freightened. A volcano was literally exploding in front of her. No, really, it was May 2018 and Hawaii's Kiluauea Volcano was erupting. I reached out to her and she replied in the way I should've known she would reply. She said:

"Mahalo nui loa. We appreciate you checking in on us. For most of us, we welcome Tutu Pele, albeit she can appear frightening, she is magnificent. We feel blessed that she continues to provide us with new aina (land). Our kupuna would say "open the door and welcome Tutu Pele, as it is her domain."

That image - opening the door to welcome [an erupting volcano] - makes more sense now then it did in 2018. As I write in June 2020, wild fires burn and billow on the outskirts of town; the White House, Congress and the streets erupt consistently as a national election looms in the distance; and our hearts rage for peace and prosperity still too far out of reach for many in the U.S. and around the world.

In addition, we're all frightened or at least somewhat anxious about how the current pandemic may affect us if it hasn't already. It has revealed the fragility of our systems. It has also exposed the inconvenient truth that our economic, political, judicial, education, health and religious institutions, at best, leave and have left too many behind.

The webinars today were about how to find resilience in difficult times - oh, how I long for a webinar on a mundane topic such as recent revisions to some federal regulation. Nope, those topics are too easy. We've avoided the difficult topics long enough.

So what's your volcano? If you don't know, you can probably find her by identifying what you find frightening and yet, perhaps paradoxically, magnificent. When you find her, will you open the door and welcome her? If nothing else, this time reminds us we must recognize, acknowledge, appreciate and reconcile the volcanos in our lives and our world. I hope to work with many more of you as we work to open our doors and welcome what lies ahead.