Do not be fooled by strife
In college biology, I looked at the stages of mitosis and understood the nature of separation: it’s necessary to get on with progress. It was exciting to me to watch as the mitochondria gathered together in the middle of the cell, then migrated to the far ends, and when the mass had been achieved, the cell split.
I don’t remember the terror and pain of that separation. But I can recount to you – as you could to me – the terror and pain of the many separations I have endured as an individuated being walking around on these two sturdy legs.
Fire fights in the Church of the Nativity? Parents rejoicing that their children martyr themselves? The violence of the separation tearing the wholeness out of the navel of the Western World is enough to send us scurrying to either end of our cell-awareness.
But we won’t fall for it. We will rejoice in the new day’s rising sun, in the burbling of our babies, in the victories of the heart and spirit in every way they come to us. If we can play a role as we watch others struggle in the midst of the fire, each of us will take the action we are guided to do. Each of us is a cell. The parts will rush to heal the wound. Everything is needed: singing, weeping, writing to our Congresspeople, meditating and praying, the making of powerful art, bringing medicine and support to our wounded brothers and sisters.
Rejoice. Sing. Pray. Hold each other closely and send messages of hope in every way possible. This virus is a hoax.
(c) Leiah Bowden 2005
