Braid Mission
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Addressing Chaos
It has been my routine over many years to begin each day by reading two publications.
The first is a piece or pieces of scripture. It is in these words that I am provided an anchor for the day, helping me remember that I am connected to the divine even when – and this is often – I may not see or experience that connection. The second publication is a newspaper, and my paper of choice the eleven years I have been in California is The Los Angles Times.
This week The LA Times has had one running theme, the seeming chaos created during the first week of the Trump administration.
Article after article described in detail the chaos created by the executive orders being signed. And, often, somewhere in the article the question was asked, “What are we to do?” or, “What is the solution to this chaos?”
When I saw that question asked in any number of different ways, I found myself almost immediately thinking of you! Yes! You! Braid mentors and facilitators.
If The LA Times wants to witness chaos on a daily basis, it only needed to spend a month working within the foster system. As we all are aware, there is very little that is stable on a day-to-day basis. All seems to be in flux. It is fluid, with little anchoring the lives within. It is chaotic.
And yet, there you all are. Week after week. Your presence. Your patience. Your kindness. Your humility in the face of chaos.
You are providing a young life, and perhaps even the family system surrounding that young life, with a fix on the week. Some stability underfoot. An anchor in the river of chaos. If a reporter could come and observe your work, she or he would find an answer to their question of how one addresses chaos. Ask a Braid mentor. They are doing the hard work of addressing chaos.
In the Jewish tradition there is a spiritual teacher, Micah, who was asked about how to address the chaos of his day. His response was short; what is required is “…to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
