My parents’ back patio has been the home of my routine morning mindful meditation and prayer. At the start of today’s prayer, there was nothing unusual about the anointed spot until I opened my eyes and glanced down at my feet. I noticed a small colony of ants excavating dirt and dead blossoms from the crevices between the grey and charcoal-coloured bricks. What amazed me was the high volume of unearthed soil hidden between the narrow cracks. This colony had been diligently quarrying to create a new space called home.
Cracks and crevices are part and parcel of human existence and living.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic in China caused global economic cracks.
Natural disasters such as floods or social conflicts in Haiti, Yemen, and Venezuela cause emotional cracks.
Internal displacements such as forced migration cause social cracks in families and societies.
Religious cracks erupt in times of crises or the advancement of scientific exploration, raising questions about the seeming absence of God and the existence of God, respectively.
Cracks are accompanied by pain – emotional, spiritual, physical, or social.
The natural tendency is to fill them with unhealthy habits, thinking, and attitudes to relieve pain. For example, the social and emotional cracks of the COVID-19 pandemic were filled with the dirt of alcoholism; the emotional pain was too intense.
As with the colony of ants, the human family is invited to identify and excavate our respective dirt to create a new space called ‘home.’
Biological and extended families, nations, regional states, international communities, and religious communities have developed dirt-filled cracks. Together, we must drill and excavate, house clean and recreate a ‘home’ for our families, nations, regions, and international and religious space.
My dream is that
- Families broken and divided by differences,
- Opposing political parties,
- Isolated regional states,
- The global community, via the United Nations agencies, and
- Inter-faith and inter-denominational groups
. . . all intensify their efforts to excavate and recreate a new space called “Home” for everyone.
What are dirt-filled cracks evident within and around you? How are you planning to excavate?
Beloved Reflections 