“Practice Repair” with Rev. Vicky Hanjian

A day or two before the election this quote appeared in a communication from Krista
Tippett, the energizing force behind On Being. It set me on the path to thinking about
the work of “repairing” which will be the theme of this week’s reflection:
“It has crystallized in my mind and moral imagination altogether that this is what I am
here for: the nourishing of those who insist on pursuing the highest qualities of being
human, and on being of service to healing and transformation on a long horizon of time.
I believe this is our longed-for state of being, but we are bombarded by so much that
primes us for its opposite, activates our primal fear of “the other” and a self-destructive
desire to wall ourselves away instead.
I’m orienting — and it is a spiritual and life discipline, moment to moment — to the
beyond of this election. For this is the only thing we can know for sure: On the day after
this election, whoever wins, my country will be as fractured as the day before. That is
where I am throwing my care, life force and social creativity. John Paul Lederach , my
teacher and companion in all of this, said to me the other day that the task in working
for long-term evolution in the world is to attend “not to what has arrived but to
what is being stitched.”
I’m holding fast to this wisdom, this challenge, this calling. Of being a stitcher, and
building up the stitchers.” —Krista Tippet

View our Order of Service here: https://www.uusmv.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/UUSMV-OOS-for-November-17-2024.pdf