A Reminder of What Matters...

                   "We are all just walking 
                     each other home."
                                                             -Ram Dass

It's hard to see the news these days. It seems as if much of my beloved America is in distress. Here, in Washington state, forest fires rage from every corner. The air quality registers as hazardous and children and adults are warned not to be outside without a mask on. The smoke is so thick that a house down the street seems engulfed in fog. School has started, yet the usual hustle and bustle of children outside is replaced with playgrounds that are absolutely quiet. 

While the fires haven't touched Spokane, they are eating up Montana and Oregon, our dear neighbors. Friends and students who are fire fighters and helpers are headed out of Spokane to lend a hand. 

These neighbors we do not know personally, mean something to us.

We are all part of the same neighborhood.

God's neighborhood.

Somehow it doesn't matter, in the midst of this crisis, if we are Republican, Democrat or Independent.

Somehow it doesn't matter if we are black or white, brown or yellow, or a beautiful mix of all the colors God designed for His children.

Somehow, in the midst of the tragedies, fire or water or wind,
what church or synagogue you attend, doesn't matter any more. 

Somehow it doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, your children are my children too.

Somehow, in the midst of all that is wrong and scary and hard,
God's message of "love one another as I have loved you" rings a bit more true.

Maybe not for everyone, but for many of us who were even a bit polarized in our deepest heart-of hearts. Maybe now what really matters becomes a bit more clear.

As I was watching the news about Houston, Texas, already tears streaming down my face, I saw a news clip that said it all.

Shameka Carter, an African-American, single-mom in Houston, had lost her home and all of her possessions. She went to a grocery store to get food for her three children and while in front of the cashier, ready to pay, realized that her wallet had also been lost. It was sort of like the last straw to her already ravaged spirit.

The gentleman standing next to her in line, without any fanfare, took out his credit card and payed for her groceries, all $300.00 dollars of them. She was shocked and overwhelmed with gratitude.

While she couldn't give back money, the next day she stood outside that same grocery store, the gentleman's generosity fresh in her mind, and she made a homemade sign. It said, "Hugs given out here." She stood there for hours hugging
old people, young people, children, blacks, whites, hispanics, 
police officers, pastors, everyone going into the grocery store.

Yet what was the most startling to me, is that she had her eyes covered with a blindfold. She couldn't see who she was hugging. She said that this would remind her, no matter who people were, that they were God's children.

And she said three words to each person. Words that matter.
Words that heal in the midst of a hurricane. With her house gone and life in tatters she said...

"God bless you!"

Powerful words that broke through race and economics and politics.

"God bless you!"

And people who didn't even know each other found comfort.
They knew, if just for a moment, that we are all part of the same neighborhood. God's neighborhood.

In closing, I am reminded this morning of a television show my children  saw when they were little, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.
In that neighborhood everyone was welcome. Everyone was helped, everyone was at home.

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, It's a beautiful day to be neighbors. Won't you be mine? Won't you be mine?"

A simple lesson, yet in the midst of all of this heartache, smoke and fire and wind and buckets of rain, I am clinging to God's love and His powerful message.

No matter what, "Love one another as I have loved you!"
After all, we are all just walking each other home. We are all neighbors.

God Bless!
Love,
Linda