We often in our lives hear about people who have vocations. We hear about teachers and doctors. We hear about living saints like Mother Theresa and Mother Amma in India.
But we also remember ancestors like Minister Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford who in 1877 may have been the first openly lesbian minister in the US. And we acknowledge all the counselors, churches and clergy who, having opened their hearts, minds and doors, are clearly acting as healers. And we ask ourselves, where have we opened ourselves to helping, healing and caring for those in need?
We read James Baldwin and we can just perceive how he opened up his soul and let it all come tumbling out. We gaze in wonder at the art of Frida Kahlo and we understand the sheer energy, focus and passion that it must have taken to create it. But when we look in the mirror, do we see that same passion, that same focus or that same energy? Can we find a way to tap into the deep reservoirs of our own soul?
We remember heroes like Jack Nichols who in 1961 founded the Mattachine Society. We pour libations for brave warriors like Audre Lourdre who inspired women, black women and black lesbians the world over. We remember pioneers like Harry Hay one of the fathers of radical gay spirituality. Can we be so bold, so brave and so daring? Can we not?
We remember with deep gratitude people like Minister Troy Perry who in 1968 started what became MCC. And we look around at all the people here in this room, who have labored to build an interfaith coalition. And tonight we in this room are the fruit of their labors. This is vocation. This is what I am talking about as answering the call of the divine.
And so I as I look out at all of you here tonight, I have a question or two for you. What are the ways you are answering the call of the divine in your own heart, in your own life and in your own community? What roles do you play? Are you an artist? Are you taking the time to manifest your dreams? Are called to heal? Have you found a way to apply a balm to the suffering souls around you? Is advocacy and activism, the path you feel called to walk? Is their something you need to fight for not just against? Do you feel the urge to build something? Where are you nurturing new growth and tending to the needs of the future? And if you hear this call, feel this call in your very bones … what are you doing about it?
I invite you to join me, to join us. There is a great big world out there that needs all of us awake, aware and ready to act on our dreams, our hopes and our core values. And we need every single one of you. None of you are expendable; we each have our unique contribution, our unique gift to share. C’mon, the phone is ringing. Answer the call!
Thank you.
©2006 Katrina Messenger
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Wish I could be there. Very well spoken.
Katrina,
I wish you all the blessings and power you need on your journey. Thank you for these words. It is good to remember that returning to work (and thus returning to grace) bring a chance for us all to rest and have joy.
Wishing you joy in the Work.
David
Dear Katrina- Thorn reposted your blog and happy am I. Your passion, always so immense, comes blowing out in these words. So akin to my own heart and soul that it makes me have a bittersweet smile.
The Storm is only now coming to the edges of our universe and yet it will sweep and consume all that is. In the end, our beautiful universe will be so much...more? Different? Complete? Who knows?
All I do know is my soul came here to witness and be part in this period. I cannot shrink from the work. I am here with you, fae sister!
Thought-provoking piece, Katrina. Thanks.
I don't know what to call myself either. In Pagandom, I've taken to referring to myself as a Witch at Large. In the interfaith world where I'm active, I call myself a Pagan. Sometimes I call myself an uppity woman or a Second Wave Feminist. I've never really thought to publicly identify myself by my sexuality, het woman, which is very "white bread" and old-fashioned. Not only het, but serially monogamous for the most part. It seems almost a liability these days to say you're het, but I am proudly and happily so. I tend towards intellectualism but only have a BA, which doesn't carry much weight, at least in public and professional worlds, no matter how much you've studied, trained, and can articulate, even teach.
My biological heritage is Irish, Dutch, French Huguenot, Euro-mongrel. My social heritage is Roman Catholic on one side and conservative Methodist, temperance-crusading, women's rights and education on the other, with distinct East Coast sensibilities, now mellowed by more than half a century living on the Left Coast. My maternal political heritage is conservative Republican (altho what my relatives might think of current trends in the GOP I cannot imagine, since they did have brains and they did think and they did have a social conscience), yet I am much farther left in my outlook than any elected official I know. My paternal political heritage is blue collar Democratic, except that my dad broke with his family on politics and allied with my mother's family's conservatism.
I'm a former hippie, a home-birth advocate, a home death and green burial advocate, an opponent of capital punishment and resorting to warfare to resolve humankind's differences. I support the right to conscious self-deliverance. I rejoice in any and all consensual expressions of love and eros. I'm a lover and a mom.
I have never missed voting in an election and I disrespect those who don't avail themselves of this hard-won right. (I have ancestors who fought the Brits in the American Revolution.) I support workers' rights. I recognize our interdependence on this planet, so could be called a greenie. I'm a committed environmentalist in my day-to-day life (in terms of eating locally grown food, expanding public transit, recycling, preserving open space and wildlife, opposing exploitation of natural resources [strip mining, oil-drilling, nuclear facilities, agribusiness, monocultures, clear-cutting timber, overuse of pesticides, genetic modification, etc.]) I want to make the city streets "safe for dancing," as my old friend Tony Serra said when he ran for mayor of SF on the Platypus Party ticket.
Well, you got me going there, my friend. Thought-provoking read, as I said. ;-)
xo,
Macha
Lovely azaleas!
[cough][gag][snort][sneeze]
Just lovely...
I know what you mean.
I feel you. There is too much bs- particularly when people decide that their temperament is tantamount to truthful and ignore everyone else.
I get irked by immature extroverts or closet introverts who ignore you REPEATEDLY and then pretend you're out of line for being upset by the time they can't pretend you didn't say anything anymore. I find that the same people will ignore you if you blow up right away, too, and that it's because they just don't think that honoring what you value is important to maintaining a relationship, or even worse: that you don't know what you value at all and that it's all a mind game for their pleasure or annoyance. Then they call you passive-aggressive, aggressive, moody, touchy and temperamental. I call them "not listening".