Father Gregory Boyle says, “Beware of hopscotching over your wounds to get on with it”. He reasons that the “hopscotching” is just another way to avoid the discomfort and difficulty of healing and awakening. Changes happen from below. There is no other way. Boyle urges us to head to the margins and to the people right in front of us (ourselves included). Stand by one another because we are one. We are for each other and we are one consciousness. The moment we have is the present moment for creating a culture of being and belonging.

Stand in the margins with those whose dignity has been denied and let tenderness be the connective tissue. I love the actions and ways of being that Boyle’s metaphors reinforce. Welcome your own wounds. Go to the margins. Love the sight and voice of other people. Feel the soul’s worth. Walk in your own footsteps. Scale all walls with tenderness. Become allies with each other.

Be determined to see.