. . . "On our farm in the winter, we put the cattle out on the mountains into the winterage. There the grass has been preserved all year. Even in the worst of weather, in frost and snow, the cattle still have fresh fodder. Because the landscape is bleak, there is little shelter. Every so often out there, one notices semicircular walls. The cattle know them well. These are the "sheltering walls" when winds and storms blow up. "*
Are we not in need of sheltering walls as the winds and storms blow up around us? A week ago our world was shaken up like kaleidoscope fragments falling into new forms that we do not recognize. Yet. None of us knows how things will actually look, but we have some sense of how we will feel because on November 6, we woke up with that feeling in our hearts. My eighteen year-old niece said many of her teachers were not in the classroom, my thirty-something daughter said the subway was silent, an eighty-year-old friend said she couldn't drag herself to yoga when she heard the news. We will each remember where we were and how we felt as the fragments of our country were shaken to the core. Nobody will be unscathed, no matter which fragment one belongs to. That is perhaps the ironic twist of fate yet to be revealed.
The image of a "sheltering wall" has been deepening in my psyche as we try to make sense out of nonsense. I Imagine those massive beasts of burden, snow-covered, standing still, side-by-side, behind a semicircular wall shielded from fierce winds and deep cold of an intolerable winter relentlessly bearing down on them. In my mind's eye I see us standing together, huddled against the bleakest winter of our lives. The sheltering wall holds the herd together while providing warmth to one another. The sheltering wall serves a special purpose for those who find their way there, one by one, to join the others.
The sheltering wall is there to serve as a gathering place not as a hiding place from the dark days of winter. This is no time for being out there, alone, on one's own. It is time for standing in solidarity. As I write on this otherwise ordinary Tuesday,
after 80 blog posts, I haved decided to change its name for the third time. I first began the blog:"Banned in Florida . . . Period" when the Florida legislature passed a six-week ban on abortion; I renamed it "Banned in Florida . . . and Beyond" when that ban spread across other states. Today, I am ready for a paradigm shift because old ways have failed us. The new blog will be "Sheltering Walls".
In the coming weeks, I hope that you will join in this semi-circular sheltering conversation in solidarity against the elements beyond ourselves. Last Spring when I led a pilgrimage to Julian of Norwich's anchorage, I learned about sisterhood. The "Pilgrim Sisters", had met as strangers only six months earlier. On the train from London, another woman said of us: "I thought you were a group of old friends". We are old soul friends. Our Pilgrim Sisterhood is bigger than us. It includes you, too. All of you.
As we move toward our Sheltering Walls I am reminded of that woman of the Dark Middle Ages who lived within a sheltering wall. She was hidden from view except for that one window to the street where ordinary people came to meet her. She was not an optimist looking through rose-colored glasses. She believed in something sustainable beyond her sheltering wall. She believed it through the Black Death plagues, through the reign of the oppressive, imperialistic Church when speaking up got you burned at the stake. She was the quintessential insider/outsider choosing her words while writing her manifesto that has outlived her by six centuries. Julian knew what the authorities did not see. Julian believed in Love. Julian of Norwich has become an old soul friend of mine and of many around the world.
I hope that you will add your thoughts in the comment section (anonymously if you prefer) and come together within these Sheltering Walls. As always, please share with your own circle, but do not post on social media.
*To Bless the Space Between Us, John O'Donohue
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