That was the theme for a two conference over the first weekend of February. The sub-themes for the sessions that included everyone were Holding…Beginning, Grief, Space and What’s Next. Last year’s theme, Practice Not Perfect, and this year’s seem to meld into each other. And the year in-between spoke so well to both.
Last year we gathered in Anaheim, CA, within walking distance of Disneyland to which some of us planned and arranged to visit. Little did we know what life would be like 6-7 weeks later. Nor that we would learn new practices and spend time practicing new ways of gathering, celebrating, working, learning, and caring and tending to one another from six feet away or more, much more oftentimes.
Long before this year’s theme of Holding Loosely, we learned to hold many things loosely…vacation plans, senior year milestones, expectations, the counting of days, rollercoaster emotions, the old way of doing things, new ways of doing things.
We’re almost at a year of collectively holding things loosely with and for each other. We know that Beginnings don’t always start when originally planned or in the ways we had hoped. We’ve experienced Grief in countless small ways and so many have experienced the hardest grief, the grief of loved ones gone, from a distance and through screens rather than in shared physical community and through hugs and holding each other’s hands. We have given each other physical space on jogging trails and in grocery stores, during outdoor gatherings and when we dared to gathering indoors. We also gave each other emotional space to be tired, to cry, to mourn, to let go, to laugh when there was nothing else to do, and to just be.
Holding Loosely offers flexibility, freedom, allows for experimenting, changing course, and relieves pressure…pressure to be perfect maybe. But, hold something too loosely and it may drop, break even, or escape. Hold something too tightly and you may break it too; or keep it from growing or being free. Yet there are things we hold onto tightly…family and friends, dreams, hope, and ideals such as freedom, equality, and justice.
To say that life is crazy and messy sometimes is an understatement. So much has been turned upside down in this past year. So many things have needed to be released altogether or at least held loosely. Many of us have spent time this past year reflecting on what we value and deem important. Ways of doing things and material items have been released or held loosely. For many, basic material items such as food and clothing have been released as ways of working and earning a paycheck have evaporated.
Are we re-orienting ourselves and re-evaluating what it means to have a quality life? Are we holding on tightly to ideals that all people have the right to live in dignity, have their lives be of value regardless of creed, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, skin color; and that we need to be good stewards of our planet and its resources?
We need to hold our ideals tightly and loosely. Freedom, equality, hope, and justice that brings peace need to be held with a tight grip that we should always be striving for these things, while we loosely hold how we do that work allowing for change, creativity, and new ways of reaching these goals.
Coloring sheet designed by Nathan Maxwell-Doherty.
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