Seeds Without Water

Each of us is experiencing the current moment in our own way. We are processing the events through our own filter.  Our minds are scattered. Our hearts are broken. Our collective sense of what is and what should become is being challenged. 

Hate for “the other” is an old and deep wound.

Race. Creed. Color. Gender. Shape. Or as Darwin so eloquently put it ”...endless forms most beautiful...“ These are the things that give life its sublime complexity and richness, yet all too often they pave a road to the worst of our destinations. 

We find ourselves at the end of this road again. Racism has led us here. 

If you and I work together now, or we have worked together in the past, I want there to be no misunderstanding of my stance.

I stand beside you.

I walk with you. 

I will meet you where you are.

But know that I am acutely aware this will not be enough. History has shown us that many have stood beside each other. Many have walked together. Many have met their friends and colleagues and even strangers, right where they are. Yet many are still in the same place, with the same pain. Living with the same fear and ambiguity of how their worth as a human doing is being perceived.  

Each one of us shares our own sense of [insert word of choice here] in these tense moments.

How should we act? How should we react? 

Being human is not an easy path. We all have our own gardens to tend.

My own garden is a collection of the seeds of those whose thoughts and ideals I have let inside. Love. Kindness and curiosity. Service, awareness, and gratitude. These are the words that I choose daily to grow and nurture in the garden of my soul. But words without action are seeds without water and trees without pruning yield fruit unworthy of the tongue. 

We are better for diversity. We are better for questioning. 

We are better together than apart. 

As idealistic as I know it may sound, the only path to a more just and sensible world is through education and the hard work of facing our own failings. 

Until every person has full and equal opportunity to the pursuit of happiness, the deeds of the past are trees in need of pruning. 

Until every person has full and equal access to the promise of a nation of equals, the words of the past are seeds without water.

With gratitude,

Kirk