We again find ourselves in a time when we look around this Earth and see some of our worst of humanity. We have renewed violence in the Middle East, the ongoing war in Ukraine, coups in Africa, and natural disasters on multiple continents. We see threats to democracy, increases in antisemitism and Islamaphobia, continued violence against BIPoC and LGBTQ+ people, and threats and violence against justice advocates.

In times like these it's hard to keep up. It's easy to despair. It's difficult to keep yourself centered and continue with every day life while the world is in so much turmoil.

So today we offer you a space to take a pause and just breathe.

In whatever way you find best to recenter yourself, please do that. Listen to a song, write in your journal, laugh with small children, walk in nature, meditate, dance, be in community. Take care of yourselves, beloveds. You are not alone. You are never alone.

(We offer this musical piece, Tomorrow (YouTube), from the GA 2020 Sunday Service as one centering option.)