Dear Ones,

Our Soul Matters theme for April is “Resistance,” and resistance might sound like hard work. Resist that fatty food (if you can!). Resist gloating over the news (if you can!). Resist despairing over the news (if you can!). Resist calling that person on the other side of the aisle an idiot (if you can!). Resist, if you dare. For the fatty food and the gloating and the despairing and the name-calling, these are all ways that we name who we are and what we hold dear. These are all things we feel sure about, and, in our surety, do not want to let go of. Our certainty gives us direction, but it does not necessarily give us knowledge or solace or wisdom.

But what if “resistance” was not a matter of hardening but of softening, of holding on to different things and feelings? Writer Kurt Vonnegut has this suggestion for us: “Be soft./ Do not let the world/ make you hard./ Do not let pain/ make you hate./ Do not let bitterness/ Steal your sweetness.” Through this softening, we might learn compassion even as we hold our values dear, we might feel compassion holding us in care, we might perceive that through open-heartedness we heal ourselves and each other, that we might heal the world.

May we move together in such tenderness, resisting the hard and the hurtful by holding close the softness and the sweetness. May we together resist letting go of the gentle and the loving, as you remember that you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. May you feel it so and may it be so.

Blessings and warm wishes, Rev. Rita