“1.

I don’t know who God is exactly.
But I’ll tell you this.
I was sitting in the river named Clarion, on a
water splashed stone
and all afternoon I listened to the voices
of the river talking.
Whenever the water struck the stone it had
something to say,
and the water itself, and even the mosses trailing
under the water.
And slowly, very slowly, it became clear to me
what they were saying.
Said the river: I am part of holiness.
And I, too, said the stone. And I, too, whispered
the moss beneath the water.”

— Mary Oliver, from At The River Clarion

I read at least one poem by Mary Oliver every day.

Her claim — that the river, and the stones in the river, and the voice of the river — is part of Holiness is a great comfort and a great challenge. If all created things are a part of the holy, how must we treat them? How must we honor them?

And: How must we honor ourselves, who are made from dust and energy, who are vessels of god and light? How must we honor, too, the holiness within each person we love, and hate? These are not simple questions.

How will you honor our Mother, earth, today? How will you honor your Self? How will you honor the song, like river over stone, that sings within you? How will you bend close and listen?

And how will you become part of the Collective of holiness, the connection we have to the Whole?

Happy Inauguration Day, everyone. May we all work together as a Collective to bring the holy into the world through action, through activities of justice, through hard conversations, through abolition of the darkness this country has perpetuated since it began.