Author: gracesmuggler

“I wonder, what can I share from my walk?” I asked myself.

Questions shape what we experience. We often see and perceive what’s before us in particular ways because we’ve asked asked a specific question.

While walking alone, I looked for beauty in my very-familiar-to-me neighborhood. Because I asked that question, I noticed new things. I wanted to take a photo of something beautiful and share it.

I saw some sunflowers. I’ve never walked in their direction before, even though they are in view from the route I travel nearly every time I walk through my neighborhood. I snapped a lovely image and shared it with several people.

Sometimes, we need small glimpses of beauty, and we shouldn’t underestimate the ways they can lift people’s spirits or help us feel connected to each other. I had not thought of this in a long time, but years ago, my friend called me and left a really lovely voicemail. With her permission, I shared it on my blog. I’m going to share it again.

She said,

“I feel so happy every time I have to drive this way because sunflowers are in full bloom now. We have these huge fields and fields and fields of sunflowers being grown as crops, and they’re just so pretty. Unfortunately, they’re not ever in a place where I can pull over and take a picture because they’re on the freeway, and there’s not much of a shoulder. But I wanted to tell you about that, because I thought that is something that would also bring you joy like it does me.”

Let’s share our little glimpses of beauty.

–Renee Roederer

A few years ago, a video about Prince’s 2007 Super Bowl performance made a resurgence. (See above). People passed it around social media and remembered his great life and presence. And I love this video.

I cannot get enough of it as a moment.

What I mean is that some elements of the experience happened apart from anyone’s decision or control. Namely, lots and lots of rain. But Prince and his team also embraced those elements to synergize a moment of creativity, connection, and electrifying energy. At Super Bowl XLI, Prince sang ‘Purple Rain’ in an absolute downpour. It was magical.

Along with sections of the performance itself, the video above includes interviews with Half Time Show designers and managers. They agree this performance was truly  a remarkable moment. In their own words, they share what made them so impressed:

Prince embraced a situation of potential inconvenience,
and completely transformed it.

Prince demonstrated confidence on the stage,
and performed music written by others.

Prince rolled with a great deal of spontaneity,
and launched it into the world as if this is exactly what should happen.

It all leads to the finale. As Prince wraps up “The Best of You” by Foo Fighters, he flashes this foreshadowing look across his face that something special is about to happen. And then it does. Fireworks explode, and standing in the downpour, Prince captivates the stage even more as he starts to sing, “Purple Rain.” The crowd goes wild.

Then he pulls the crowd into the creation of the experience too. They sing along with him, and suddenly, everyone is participating in this strange yet magical moment. They are drenched but connected with wonderful energy.

It’s beautiful.

There’s an ancient Greek word for moments like these: Kairos.

Kairos is a type of time. It’s different the most common conception of time, which more clearly matches the Greek word chronos – time which marks things linearly i.e. one event leading naturally to the next, as the past leads to the present, etc.

But Kairos is a form of time which marks a significant moment.
Some might even call it a sacred moment.

Kairos is not measured by length in seconds, minutes, days, or years.
It isn’t about length or anything linear at all.
It’s about an experience.

Kairos an opportune moment where everything comes together.
It isn’t a measurement, but a recognition,
a realization that a moment is to be embraced and savored.
Kairos is a moment to be fully alive.

In those moments, what can else can we do but take it all in and say thank you?

That’s what one of the interviewees says in the video: “When he did do ‘Purple Rain,’ that was one of those times where things just work magically, and there’s nothing you can do but say, ‘Thank you.’”

–Renee Roederer

I’m pondering timescales and the ways that change is connected to time. If we want to participate in the creation of lasting change, we might…

. . . work for seven generations beyond ourselves, as the Haudenosaunee nations have taught us.

. . . feel through one day, for as Jesus says,”Do not worry about tomorrow. . . Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

. . . live fully in the present, as this time has been given to us for significant impact and enjoyment.

. . . expect that today’s work ripples meaningfully into the future, perhaps in valuable directions we cannot even anticipate.

. . . recognize that our liberation is bound up in the liberation of others, and our lives are intimately connected to the devastation and deliverance of the past and future.

. . . trust that collective intentions toward justice are truly moving in the direction of justice, even if we cannot see this at its completion, and that future expressions of justice call forward our work for today.

– Renee Roederer

I had the most incredible walk in my neighborhood.

I have hardly ever seen so many different, beautiful scenes in the sky in one night. If I looked in one direction, I saw a deep, glowing, gorgeous orange. Around a corner, I discovered swirling pinks and purples.

We also had a light rain. So my favorite moment happened when I turned a different corner. I suddenly saw a full rainbow. I wasn’t expecting it at all, and it was breathtaking.

I stood there and enjoyed it. Rather ephemeral, it only lasted about two minutes before fading away. Suddenly, the sky looked typical, as if it hadn’t even happened.

But I knew it did. And I smiled with gratitude to have seen it.

For the rest of the rainy walk, I found myself reflecting upon that. There are probably so many moments each day where things line up in remarkably beautiful and surprising ways – not only in nature itself but also among human beings. Those moments rarely make the news, but people know about them. Perhaps they smile with gratitude to have experienced them.

Sometimes, solidarity is about being in the right place at the right time and choosing to add deep connection to the moment.

Let’s look for opportunities to discover it.

– Renee Roederer

We carry time within us.

Sometimes, a simple smell, sound, or sight can transport us to another time –
a time long ago, but a time we still carry within ourselves.

Somehow, the present moment can bring the past right into focus. In the midst of this, we feel connections to previous moments and people who were a part of them. We even experience this in our bodies. The past makes itself known in our feelings and physical sensations.

All of this is true
in our very best memories and connections,
in our relationship to grief and loss, and
in our experiences of trauma.

Time travels so easily because we carry time within us. This is part of being human.

But we are not solely passive agents in the midst of this. We can make some choices about how we bring time to ourselves. We can build connections between moments, and these connections can give us ahas of insight. We can make space to feel our emotions. We can honor people who have died. We can allow time to speak to us and make new meaning for the present.

And

We can be a Mediator. We can facilitate communication between past and present — toward healing, toward insight, toward laughter, toward joy.

Then speaks to Now,
Now speaks to Then,
Older and younger versions of ourselves are in communion.

–Renee Roederer

My friend and colleague Allen Brimer once said this phrase during a sermon:

“Insight is tied to urgency.”

Isn’t that true?

When insight comes —
when the fog lifts,
when the unknown reveals itself, or
when the possibility emerges —
there is urgency to
act,
make a change, and
(re)/align ourselves with particular priorities.

When we know differently, we are summoned to act differently.
And often, there is urgency to this.

And likewise, isn’t the reverse true as well?

“Urgency is tied to insight.”

Sometimes, insight is hidden until urgent conditions emerge.

Urgency arrives,
and we cannot stay in the same
frame of mind,
space of heart, or
orientation of action (or inaction).

We simply cannot stay where we are.
New insight comes.
It changes us.

These things are connected,
insight to urgency, and
urgency to insight.
They unfold layer upon layer with each other.

—Renee Roederer

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

Many years ago, while speaking on Psalm 23, one of my most formational people shared that this phrase can evoke imagery of sheep dogs — as if goodness and mercy continually guide us and lead us, not always in front of us, but often from behind us. We are followed by goodness and mercy in ways that shape our path.

They are behind us, following us.
I find this interesting because we don’t always choose to follow goodness and mercy.
Sometimes, we follow other instincts.
Perhaps we need them working behind the scenes.

Goodness and mercy can reveal
what is most true,
what is most needed,
what is necessary for change,
what is expansive for growth,
what is invited for healing, and
what is possible, even when it feels as if no pathway is possible.

Guilt and shame are never good guides.
We don’t need these to hem us in.

We need goodness and mercy.
These form us best and cultivate the best pathways.

Behind us,
Shaping what is before us.

–Renee Roederer

That moment when you awaken to the sound of geese flying over, and you think peacefully, ah, yes, Mary Oliver… That’s right… You don’t have to be good…

Then three minutes later, you hear giggidy jillion more fly over, and it sounds like an utter symphony of clown horns.

And you lose it with laughter.

Good morning, everyone.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE GOOD.

–Renee Roederer

I am referencing Mary Oliver’s poem, “Wild Geese,” which I shared yesterday.

Earlier this week, I was on a call when someone read aloud Mary Oliver’s poem, Wild Geese. I thought I would share that here if you could use any part of this message today.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees, 
the mountain and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things. 

Never underestimate the power of connections.

This is something I tell myself often. When I say this, I’m not talking about networking or schmoozing. I’m simply talking about the power of being connected in relationship.

I’m talking about building awareness of one another. Knowing names. Introducing people and deepening friendships. Living in kinship. Understanding the stories people carry. Engaging with the giftedness people have to offer. Living in awareness of needs.

Hugh Hollowell of Love Wins Ministries, a community of care and presence with people experiencing homelessness, often says, “The opposite of homelessness isn’t housing. The opposite of homelessness is community.” People often fall through the cracks because they do not have a community deep and wide enough to hold them up in a time of crisis.

So never underestimate the power of connections.

You never know how someone’s story might connect to someone’s story.

You never know how someone’s presence might connect to someone’s need.

You never know how someone’s awareness might increase empathy, solidarity, and action.

Introduce people. Cultivate community space. Learn more about people around you. See what commonalities you might find. Because when we do all of these things, we create the conditions that make support possible — sometimes in ways we haven’t yet imagined.

–Renee Roederer