Last summer, I started working out on a regular basis with a fitness coach at a local gym. I needed a way to motivate myself to be consistent, and a financial commitment was part of my incentive. To be honest, my body had taken quite a hit with chemo and radiation, and I needed to work on regaining strength and mobility, In the process of getting stronger, I have had every part of my body HURT. A few days later, the pain resolves, and I’m back to do it all over again. Leg days, upper body days, core days… getting out of bed was a real challenge at times. But I am seeing strength and mobility slowly return. “Mind over matter” is my mantra.

Learning how to take care of myself is a new routine now since cancer treatment and recovery. My body tends to overreact to pollen and insect bites. Not a full-on anaphylaxis, to be clear. But I spend a lot of time hacking and sneezing every spring and taking my lumps when a spider or mosquito decides to get a snack. I have an array of antihistamines, lotions, and potions to cope. It could be much worse!!

As I was dabbing on cortisone cream this morning after a particularly egregious bite from a spider, I knew that it was a systemic reaction to a toxin. I began to ponder the reality that in our society today, the toxins are many but the antidotes are few… and that our world hurts…
But what is the antidote for sexism, for instance?
Or racism?
Or ageism?
Or xenophobia?

What language do we use to soothe the hurt? To return power (and land) that was taken from its rightful owners? To accept our tendencies to take over space that is not ours? If only it were so easy as a medication.

I come back to a quote that speaks to me from author bel hook: “rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.” (All About Love)My last two-and-a-half years have confirmed this in more ways than I thought possible. Family, friends, church, former coworkers, neighbors… they all pitched in before and after our cancer diagnoses, and Ken’s death.

Pulling weeds this morning (a great time to meditate!) I found myself reflecting on the societal ills we are living through. When did it become normal to bully others? Why do we accept that it is OK to show off a macho image, posing as someone who is better and never makes mistakes? And why, for all that is holy, do we decide that we should vote into power candidates who have NO compassion, acceptance of the poor and stranger, or not demonstrate even a scrap of kindness?

I have no answer for this… except that I have observed that villainizing is easier for the power-hungry and prejudiced than listening, caring, and serving those who are different from us. Misinformation is an attempt at control over minds and bodies. Manipulation bends people to our way of thinking, even if it is based on a lie. All these strategies have been around a long, long time… but somehow now it seems that they are acceptable. And that idolizing a bully makes their followers feel more powerful, too.

I’ve seen this happen in our government, in our workplaces, in our homes, and in our churches. Yes. Churches. It is as though we have closed our minds to the concept that we are called to acts of compassion, not demanding blind obedience. As Jesus taught in the parable of the sheep and the goats, our actions now, today, matter.

⁴²…for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’  (Matthew 25)

What hurts? Our society, our world hurts! The disadvantaged and excluded hurt. The people who are unemployed, unhoused, and hungry hurt. The sick without adequate health insurance hurt. The victims of natural disasters hurt. The grieving and lonely hurt. The list goes on…

What hurts you is likely different than what hurts me. Even so, we are called to be a community to help one another. Until we acknowledge that our society has been shifted off of its foundations of mutual respect and compassion, we will not experience healing… here and all around our world.

This sounds like a huge task. Perhaps a God-sized task.
Let it be so.