I try to keep things light and hopeful on here. But I don’t feel light. And despite my name (Hope, for those of you who don’t already know me), I’m struggling with hope today, too.
So I thought I’d share some photos of beautiful colors from nature with you today. Maybe sharing them and sparking a conversation with you might help lift the pit in my stomach and maybe the pit in your stomach, too?
There is such tremendous beauty in color. We appreciate and celebrate diverse color in nature: in animals and in flowers and in the changing color of water and clouds and leaves. We look at nature’s colors with awe and wonder. Why, then, is it so difficult to appreciate and honor it in each other?
What can I do?
I am whiter than the Crayola “flesh” crayon I grew up coloring with. I feel there is nothing I can say right now that would be right or helpful. I also believe my silence would be worse.
So here’s what I am doing:
I am using my voice to say to anyone who wanders by these pages: Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter.
I am reading through the list of 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice and deciding where and how I will act, and I encourage you to read through it and act on it where you will.
I am reading The Color of Law. There are certain books I’ve read in life that, almost from page one, I think to myself, “This should be required reading for everyone.” This is one of those books that every single American should read. If you read it, or have read it, I’d love to discuss it with you as I go along.
I am crying out to God in my prayers.
I am looking forward to making my voice heard at the ballot box in November.
I am embracing the gifts and lessons of nature, a place of healing and hope and renewal in the face of some very tough truths about how harsh this world can be. (This is the time of year I wonder how any baby bird survives to adulthood, but then I see one learning to fly. As a country, we’re being asked to decide whether we’re okay with a lot of young people not surviving to adulthood, and a lot of other people not surviving to old or even middle age. If I have so much compassion for a baby bird, how can I not have so much more for a human being?)
What are you doing? How are you doing?
The Flourishing Tree 
The Color of Law is powerful — for me, it took getting beyond the initial generalizations and into the details to understand how explicit government policies and private lending practices in the early and mid-20th century have created much of the inequity that we see in America today. (thanks to JDL for giving me his copy!)
“And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” -Micah 6:8
When I taught A Raisin in the Sun as a high school English teacher, I had no idea how systemic these practices were. I could see this play and the book going hand in hand as a way to reach high school students and create important conversations.
Thank you for the verse. It points the way toward healing so many rifts.