solidarity
After spending much of the morning preparing and cooking a pot chili, I trekked to collect some drinking water from a stream this afternoon with a very kind neighbor/ new friend named Bridget. Bridget is a relatively small woman, but she managed to heft about a 5-gallon bucket of water onto her head and trek uphill for half a mile to our compound.
I don't know that I can fully articulate my thoughts and feelings about this, but I feel such a strong sense of solidarity with the earth - with creation - in the daily, raw chores (e.g., trekking for water, cooking chili) of life. Even more, I felt a soothing solidarity and rightness/goodness with Bridget as we collected water and trekked together this afternoon. (Granted, my picture-taking and inability to carry nearly the amount of water that she carried put a certain damper on the solidarity of the moment, but it didn't completely quench it.)
That is the thing about humanity - no matter what our differences, we all need water to live. We all need to eat, drink, sleep, and poop. No one is above it. And that is what attracts me to the simple or monastic lifestyle - I am beginning to believe that my salvation exists in solidarity with all of human and non-human creation and that such solidarity lies in the daily tasks of trekking for water and cooking soup. It is in the doing of these daily tasks that I find myself and begin to understand both the created and Creator.
I don't know that I can fully articulate my thoughts and feelings about this, but I feel such a strong sense of solidarity with the earth - with creation - in the daily, raw chores (e.g., trekking for water, cooking chili) of life. Even more, I felt a soothing solidarity and rightness/goodness with Bridget as we collected water and trekked together this afternoon. (Granted, my picture-taking and inability to carry nearly the amount of water that she carried put a certain damper on the solidarity of the moment, but it didn't completely quench it.)
That is the thing about humanity - no matter what our differences, we all need water to live. We all need to eat, drink, sleep, and poop. No one is above it. And that is what attracts me to the simple or monastic lifestyle - I am beginning to believe that my salvation exists in solidarity with all of human and non-human creation and that such solidarity lies in the daily tasks of trekking for water and cooking soup. It is in the doing of these daily tasks that I find myself and begin to understand both the created and Creator.
We are so happy to see your smile! And to hear you are safe.
ReplyDeleteOf course as I read you post I couldn't help but sing a little "poop goes in the potty" and laugh at the soup making, that antonio is in love with doing. In my internal voice you are so much a part of him and I hear him when I read your blog.
More seriously, enjoy the moments that remind you that we are all in this life together somehow. They are humbling times.