From The Innkeepers

June 2020

My inspiration for this month’s words come from Jon Bon Jovi:

“If you can’t do what you do, do what you can.”  It is part of the lyrics of a new set of songs he is producing during this time of Covid when he no longer can perform live in concert.  He is living those words by doing virtual mini-performances on line, writing new music, and interviewing children to write rhymes that he is also putting to music for them.  He is also spending a lot of time washing dishes in his community restaurant called JBJ Soul Kitchen, where they feed people whether or not they can pay for a meal. 

Now more than ever the time is ripe “to do what we can”.  Heaped upon the outbreak of Covid-19 is the festering to the surface of the endemic of institutionalized racism in our culture.  In a time when we need to be for one another and support one another, divisiveness is all too alive and well, unfortunately stoked by those who proclaim themselves as leaders and those whose work it is to protect and defend our right to life.  So now we witness the rising of rage, a rage that is born out of the despair of helplessness in the face of massive amounts and hundreds of years of persistent injustice.  A rage that may be justified, but in the end what does it accomplish?  The sickness of Covid is compounded by the sickness of racism- the deliberate hating and keeping people down in a subservient position rather than the taking of action and the making of policies that would build up one another.

With losses being piled upon losses, what can we do?  We can wake up to the choices before us.  We can be kind rather than meanspirited.   We can refuse to hate.  We can reach out to our neighbors both near and far, rather than letting them dwell in loneliness and isolation.  We can be part of the solution of providing food security to those in need.  We can pray.  The bodies of many across the globe have suffered the illness and death from the disease caused by Corona.  But in addition to physical illness we suffer a type of soul sickness that promotes a mistaken and misguided righteousness of superiority.  Pray for the healing of America’s soul and our own souls so we can truly live by the ideal that all souls are created equal.

In parting, I leave you with this thought.  We are weavers of peace.  Peace is in our hands.

May it be so in our time.

Blessings to you as you embrace the call to be the threads of connection in our world.

Marcia, Pat, and Sharon

Keepers at the Rustic Gate

On another note, know that we continue to miss having you here.  As the governor is easing restrictions and slowly lifting some of the previous stay at home orders we are in the process of discussing what opening up our facility would look like.  Stay tuned.  We will let you know as our plans unfold.