The news has been hard to hear this week - from wild fires in Southern Europe, to the earthquake and tropical storm in Haiti, and the situation in Afghanistan. This image from inside an American
military plane, taking off despite the extreme crowding inside, really struck me as an indication of peoples' desperation to get out of the country, fearful of what the Taliban will do if they stay.
The scale of these tragedies is quite overwhelming and inevitably one feels helpless - a desire to do something, knowing that there's nothing we can fix. And so it was with some relief that I read an article that framed this well. Nadia Bolz-Weber describes how her 'emotional circuit breaker keeps overloading because the hardware was built for an older time.' She continues:
'I try and remember, 1. We are still living through a global pandemic and that means the baseline of anxiety and grief is higher than ever and shared by everyone. 2. The world is on fire literally and metaphorically. But 3. I only have so much water in my bucket to help with the fires. The more exposure I have to the fires I have NO WATER to fight, the more likely I am to get so burned, and inhale so much smoke that I cannot help anymore with the fires close enough to fight once my bucket is full again. So I try and tell myself that It’s ok to focus on one fire.
It’s ok to do what is YOURS to do. Say what’s yours to say. Care about what’s yours to care about. That’s enough.'*
Doing nothing's not an option - so, what's yours to care about? Are you called to pray for Afghanistan? Encourage us at St Francis to fight climate change? Donate to Haiti? See page 2...
*I don't agree always agree with everything Bolz-Weber says, and she's very sweary. Thus advised, here's the article! https://thecorners.substack.co...
The rest of the newsletter is here: Newsletter 190821
