Towards the end of each year, I spend time in meditation and prayer considering the daily spiritual themes - or touchstones - to focus on in the next calendar year ahead. In 2018, I had settled into making way for refugees, attending to climate change, appreciating and welcoming migrants, addressing racism with healing justice, then turning to the Sabbath, centering in applied Universalism with no exceptions calls, and living with wonder to nourish our hearts and help us get through the week ahead. None of these issues have gone away for me after another year with so much hate, vitriol, violence and suffering.
I kept coming back to the central question: what does a more loving world look, feel, sound, taste, and act like? As we seek greater justice, equity, and compassion, as we care for and protect the vulnerable, as we meet the challenge of climate change how do we put love into practice? Love is more than hate or the opposite of apathy. As the days of reflection continued, I realized I wanted a year to explore how love is more than that and challenges us to be more.
Around the world, humanity tends to be moved to save, protect, nurture, support, and show up for who, where, and what we love. Caring deeply, gratefully, abundantly, generously, and abidingly draws me back into dangerous spaces, helps me keep going when weary or afraid, revives my spirit and blesses me with joy, and reminds me always why I'm taking faithful risks and challenges.
In 2019, the daily spiritual touchstones will be practices of loving: this earth, one another, the stranger as ourselves, mercy and compassion, boldly and with thanks, with forgiveness, with generosity, with kindness, in words and deeds, joyfully, heartfully, persistently, and fabulously. In a time of hate mongering, sorrow and anger and fear and exhaustion, may we take time to cultivate more love in our world, breathing and being a little more of what we and our world so very much needs.
