Living by separation— who we are not and how we are different— carves life into camps and collectives. Deluded degrees of division— skin tone, body shape, social standing, culture, politics, wealth, merit— invent false distinctions and invoke distance that allows us to alienate. So, we protect ourselves from the fundamental inclination to care and connect with the plight and potential presented in each encounter. And who would dare defy categories, reject the easy label, or bring outcasts to our table? Good News proclaims an unrestrainable Spirit, a connector with no respect for boundaries. Mystics bear witness to our deepest drive, for intimacy and communion universal. Spirituality affirms a deeper hunger for wholeness, an unquenchable thirst for unanimity. Within divine diversity and distinctiveness, we uncover a shared Source, the characteristics of a profound connection to every other part of the Whole. But how do we live by connection, and reweave the frayed filaments into a seamless whole? Prayerful living thwarts fickle selectivity and taking our bearings from compassion, we are ever on the lookout for links, not lack or likes. When gathered in mindful presence, we make room for the odd and the outsider. We cast a wide welcome to what seems lost, forsaken, afflicted, estranged. In our blessing power to consecrate— to acknowledge together what is sacred already— resides the potential to heal and transfigure the substance of life. Any time we extend a blessing, we affirm our deepest, shared connection to holiness.
—from the book Wandering and Welcome: Meditations for Finding Peace
by Joseph Grant
