Avocado Stone – Defective? I think not.

I have decided that enough is enough with buying veggies in supermarkets covered in plastic.  Of course the process of changing habits is hard but I will try.  And the first thing I can think of doing is to begin growing some of my own vegetables.  And so I have an avocado stone sitting on my window sill with toothpicks skewered into it – not a pretty sight.  It has been there for a good few weeks now and although split there is no sign of any root.  Disappointed, I decided to go online and see how long I might have to wait or whether my green fingers were not up to scratch, or perhaps the stone itself was defective in some way…

Well I learnt that some stones can take a week or two and others a lot longer.  In fact I watched a video where someone in Australia waited patiently for 11 months before his avocado stone grew a root!  So not a defective stone then – just an impatient gardener!

I have discovered a very interesting author called Resmaa Menekem https://www.resmaa.com/about   who is a black lives counsellor and author working with trauma healing through body practices – so right up my street. (More on that later if you don’t know me well.)  One of his mantras for black lives healing is “You are not defective.”  We are beginning to see, hear and recognise for ourselves the true trauma facing black people day in day out especially in the USA.  So though this may seem shocking to hear out loud – many black people subconsciously or maybe even consciously feel they are defective in some way – less than normal or right or good.  

And perhaps you feel this too, no matter your colour.  Truthfully at times we may all feel that we are defective in some way and beat ourselves over the head with ‘not good enough’ or ‘failed again’ mantras…

Where have we gotten this message from?  Our society?  Our parents?  Our teachers?  Our religion?  Or from each other? 

Let’s remind ourselves what God says on the matter.

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1

The truth is that we are not defective – we are good – in fact we are very good – we are made in the image of God and God is calling us to Love – Love God, Love one another and Love ourselves.  All three are important but in my opinion and many others in the contemplative tradition – if we do not learn to love ourselves first and recognise that we are not defective but made very good and created out of Love for Love, then we can never begin to truly love others or love God. 

Body, mind and spirit – we are made in the image of God – so not defective after all…

And as for the avocado stone? Well I will just have to be more patient and one day soon I will truly see just how beautiful it can be!

Not so black and white after all…

There have been moments usually late at night during this lockdown where I have been wrestling with the messiness of the world and also the lives of those closer to home as well as my own messiness and struggles…

I look at the government we have here in the UK and one across the pond and despair.  
I think about the climate change needs that we have known about for decades but have still done so little about.

I wonder at why so many countries and people groups that are still operating with the false belief that they are right and their ‘enemy’ is wrong – causing the horrendous sufferings of war, genocide and torture.

I struggle with the knowledge that so many are poor or sick, depressed or starving and we still cannot seem to work together to solve these basic problems.

So I have been finding my way through the messiness to discover what my role in all this is…

Yes I want to be part of the solution in this messy world we live in not part of the problem... 

I want to be involved in a solution to climate change and be with Greta shaking people out of their stupor (including myself) warning folk to panic because the house is on fire... 

I want to stand with the black men and women of America and other countries including my own to challenge the status quo and the intolerable way our fellow human beings are still being treated.

I want to challenge the political forces at work in this country and others where power hungry leaders get away with ignoring the plight of the poor, with corruption, lies and more.

I want to have the courage that Jesus had in the garden of Gethsemane to pray and face the messy struggle ahead. He didn't pray please help me God get through the next few hours 'cos I know I will get resurrected in the end. No, he had to have deep hope, that even when there were no easy answers and all that lay ahead was unbelievable pain, suffering and the unknown, he could still say, not my will but yours... 

All I know is that Jesus in those hours of despair in the dead of night when his emotions were all over the place, got down on his knees and prayed. He knew where his courage and comfort would come.

So I do that too. I remember also the words of the song My Lighthouse.
“In my wrestling and in my doubt, 
In my failures you won't walk out. 
Your great love will see me through, 

You are the peace in my troubled sea.”

I pray that you and I will all know how to act to bring about... 

"Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

Wrestle and pray with me, please.