Smuggling Grace

Wealth is not synonymous with worth.

Likewise,

Productivity is not synonymous with worth.

Productivity has never been the full measure of our lives, nor what it means to be human. But I think it’s quite possible to internalize the opposite.

Our culture conveys that productivity is the highest good, yet if we chase after it — I don’t merely mean working well in a meaningful way, but if we chase after it– we are rarely satisfied.

When it becomes the totality of our time or our self-understanding, we soon find that it is chasing us. In this mindset, no matter how much time we put into our labor, it is never enough.

It’s easy to internalize cultural beliefs around productivity. Yet truly, productivity is not synonymous with worth.

We do not need to reach a certain benchmark to be worthy of love, care, and belonging. We do not need an enormous salary to convey that we matter.

Yet as human beings, we need wholeness and fullness. Sometimes, this means that we need different experiences — rest, renewal, rejuvenation. Sometimes, this means that we need different parts of our brain to be active — the creative, the playful, the intuitive. These add to our own lives, and they also add to our communities.

Productivity is neither worth nor fullness.

We can choose peace over productivity.

In fact, there may be a number of situations and contexts where we need to hear such freedom.

We really can choose peace over productivity.

We have constructed our culture in such a way to value productivity above much else — including our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of our neighbors.

When we are hurting, or when something in the news cycle hits close to home, how often do internalized messages bubble up to the surface, conveying. . . ?

“Come on. Get on with it.”

“This isn’t as bad as what ________ experienced. Why can’t I get anything done?”

“I don’t have time to think about this. I have so much to do.”

“Look competent.”

“Get it together.”

These are self-critical messages in contexts where our productivity and our constructed image are viewed more highly than our true selves and our need for wholeness.

Well, guess what matters more?

You — the real you — and your wholeness.

We can choose peace over productivity.

So what space do you need today?

– Renee Roederer

-Photos by Renee Roederer

I’m a musician, and these days, I find a particular musical technique to be a helpful metaphor for personal and community sustainability. I want to offer a quote from Michael Moore about this:

“This morning I have been pondering a nearly forgotten lesson I learned in high school music. Sometimes in band or choir, music requires players or singers to hold a note longer than they actually can hold a note. In those cases, we were taught to mindfully stagger when we took a breath so the sound appeared uninterrupted. Everyone got to breathe, and the music stayed strong and vibrant… [In] “protest fatigue” – we will literally lose our will to continue the fight in the face of the onslaught of negative action. Let’s remember MUSIC. Take a breath. The rest of the chorus will sing. The rest of the band will play. Rejoin so others can breathe. Together, we can sustain a very long, beautiful song for a very, very long time. You don’t have to do it all, but you must add your voice to the song. With special love to all the musicians and music teachers in my life.”

We go through rhythms of action, rest, play, showing up, taking space away, living in solidarity, honoring the Sabbath… practicing presence with one another and our own bodies and minds, we rest within and act upon deepest values that undergird our lives.

We all take turns.
Our rest is beneficial for our community.
Our action is beneficial for our community.

–Renee Roederer

We can become so task-oriented that we neglect being relationship-oriented.

We can become so busy with work that we neglect time for care, tending, and growing.

We can become so convinced our worth is wrapped up in productivity that we (temporarily) forget our worth is intrinsic to who we are and unmeasurable.

Our worth is not measured by our productivity.

That has simply never been the case. But we’ve internalized this somewhere.

Somewheres…?

capitalism,
the Protestant work ethic,
ableism,
scarcity-thinking,
urgency-thinking,
greed,
school culture,
family culture,
workplace culture,
any kind of competition culture.

But I’m convinced of this: When we seek — however imperfectly — to ground ourselves in the truth of our own intrinsic worth, and when we seek to view our neighbors in the same ways, we make space for people to do the same. After all, aren’t so many of us longing to hear this? That our lives were never meant solely for productivity or measured by productivity? That there is much more to who we are? And that who we are matters in and of itself?

—Renee Roederer

We have never once —
not even one time! —
charted a path that has been taken previously.
Nope, never.
Not even one time!

In the history of our lives,
In the history of humanity,
In the history of the earth as we know it, and
In the history of our solar system,
We have never repeated the same rotational pathway.
Not even once.

We have never resided in the exact same physical space we inhabited
two minutes ago,
two years ago,
two millennia ago, or
two zillion millennia ago.

Why?
Our universe is expanding.

The earth is not traveling the exact same path,
year by year, around a static sun.
We are charting new pathways on February 15, 2023
which are entirely different
from the pathways of movement and physical space
we forged collectively on February 15, 2022.

BECAUSE
The sun is not standing still.
It has never done so.
It is shooting forward
(as if we could know in the cosmos which way is forward?)
through the Galaxy,
in an ever-expanding universe!

So tell me again. . .

. . .why do we think our lives cannot change and adapt?

. . .why do we think we have to stay in the same rut?

. . .why do we think “But we’ve always done it that way!” is an accurate or appropriate argument?

Perhaps, grounded to this very earth,
with our eyes to the skies, and
with our feet firmly planted,
we might just accept that our personal universe
Can
EXPAND
Too.

–Renee Roederer

❤️ You’re loved as you are. ❤️

You’re
worth it.
fabulous.

Not when you,
Not if you.
You, right now.

Loved presently.
Loved thoroughly,
Loved wholeheartedly.
Worth it.
Fabulous.

-Photos by Renee Roederer

Life is too short not to prioritize joy and delight. And sometimes, thankfully, it just finds us.

From time to time, I like to share this poem from Mary Oliver:

Don’t Hesitate
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

-Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems

Tweet by Benjamin Perry reads, “What to hear something amazing about crying? Emotional tears have higher protein concentration that irritant tears, which makes them fall down your cheeks more slowly — increasing the chance that they’ll be seen and solicit care. In literal ways, your body is built for community.”