Broken in all the Right Places

“The broken spots are where the light shines through”, my gifted friend, Nerissa Nields, wrote in her lullaby to mothers, “Our House is Strong”. Those words are like a beacon right now, as there are so many broken spots and I refuse to choose despair. Despair would pull me down deep into a dark hole of self pity and immobility. I need the light that is shining through these broken spots, illuminating the ways this will change us all in ways we needed to be changed.

I recently read a blog by Gretchen Schmelzer called, This Can Be Our Finest Hour, that called us to be our best selves in this moment in history. Gretchen describes how we all can be heroes and helpers in this crisis. How we can all rise up to meet the call and fight this battle. These are the voices I must listen to right now. It doesn’t suit my radical optimism to get pulled down by the voices that tell stories of a decimated future or words that tell us this will not be a wake up call. Right now I need to believe that things can get better. That this crisis will change us in ways that we need to be changed and that we will come out the other side broken and healed stronger. When we break a bone and it heals, the broken place is made stronger in the process of healing.

I also need to feel like I am part of that healing. I need to know my radical optimism, is a revolutionary act and I can use it as a tool to help other heal and be stronger because of the break, not in spite of it. We don’t have a choice in this one. The virus is here and it is killing people, decimating our economy, and leaving the underserved and underprivileged in an even more precarious place. This is fact and it guts me. But I don’t want that gutting to immobilize me, I want it to inspire me to take action.

When I feel denial or rationalization begin to creep in and draw me back into my safe little world, the part of me that has been changed by this crisis will put up her little hand and say, “stop! you have a hand in the change. You can be part of the shift. You can know that this is your finest hour.”