{"id":1766,"date":"2013-04-23T07:34:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T11:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/?p=1766"},"modified":"2013-04-23T07:34:18","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T11:34:18","slug":"mending-the-world-within-our-reach-and-a-video-to-inspire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/mending-the-world-within-our-reach-and-a-video-to-inspire\/","title":{"rendered":"Mending the world within our reach — and a video to inspire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"http:\/\/www.dreamstime.com\/royalty-free-stock-images-free-heart-image28627969\"<\/a>I suspect I\u2019m not the only one feeling a little wary and vulnerable in my skin these days.\u00a0 A week after the Boston bombings, as people across the nation paused yesterday afternoon to observe a moment of silence at 2:50, I stood alone in my own quiet kitchen, sad and somewhat at a loss for what to do next.<\/p>\n

There is so much in my life to be grateful for. No one I know was injured last week.\u00a0 All my loved ones are fine.\u00a0 Nothing visible in my world has changed. And yet, I find myself blinking back tears at the slightest provocation or criticism or harsh word.\u00a0 There is too much violence in the world.\u00a0 Let us not add to it, not even with one more negative word or gesture.<\/i><\/p>\n

The headlines in the newspaper are both an accounting and a measure of our collective sorrow: the suffering that spills across the pages in articles and images, the anger and confusion still searching for an outlet, the grief still so fresh and raw.\u00a0 Looking at the photos of two brothers, one dead and one facing death or life imprisonment, I search in vain for some clue that would explain such calculated, senseless evil.\u00a0 And then, because I am myself a mother of two boys, I can\u2019t help but think: these boys are also someone\u2019s sons.<\/p>\n

At the same time, photos from the funerals remind us of all the other parents who are mourning.\u00a0 The losses, and the ripples from those losses, are unfathomable. Yet in the midst of loss, there is extraordinary grace, too, and resilience. On TV, a composed young dancer\u2019s face lights up as she tells Anderson Cooper how glad she is to be alive, even as she envisions her new life without her left foot.\u00a0 She will dance again, she insists, leaning into her husband\u2019s arms and gazing down at the bright pink bandage that wraps her stump.\u00a0 And then she makes a promise: somehow, though she\u2019s never been a runner herself, she intends to return to the Marathon next year \u2013 as a participant, even if it means she walks or crawls across the finish line.<\/p>\n

There is more than one path toward healing, no one right way to grieve or to recover. \u00a0But after a week of monitoring the unfolding developments in Boston, after listening to this courageous young woman try to articulate why she is choosing not to look back in anger but to move forward with hope, I sense it\u2019s time for a break from the relentless onslaught of news.\u00a0 Time to find my own still center and embrace the texture of life as it is \u2013 not an easy task in the best of times, perhaps even more challenging today.<\/p>\n

The sight of my welcoming house at the end of a long car ride Sunday night filled my heart to overflowing.\u00a0 Hugging my husband and son after a weekend on the road, receiving a sweet text just now from a friend, bending down to the floor to snuggle my aging dog, reading a poem I love, watching the sun slip behind a cloud, just being<\/i> \u2013 alive and aware and fully present in my own ordinary life \u2013 feels emotionally demanding, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if everything has become heightened, both the fragility of my own brief presence here, and the exquisite, complicated beauty of our interconnected human existence on this earth.<\/p>\n

Maybe, for a time, we are meant to be this raw and tender.\u00a0 Forced to acknowledge the dark shadow side of human nature and to feel the full brunt of that knowing, we have to face the truth:\u00a0 People hurt each other.\u00a0 Violence and suffering are intertwined, one giving rise to the other.\u00a0 And somehow, it is up to each one of us to do better, to soften our hearts, to sing our songs even in the midst of sorrow, to take better care of ourselves and of one another.<\/p>\n

I think of how many opportunities I have each day to be brave and vulnerable, to offer a hand, to make love visible \u2013 and how many of those opportunities I squander, because I\u2019m too annoyed to be expansive, too scared to reach out, too distracted to notice, or too busy to bother.\u00a0 And then I\u2019m reminded of words I turn to again and again by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, words that guide me home when I stray away from the person I aspire to be:<\/p>\n

Be brave…<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

“Anything you do from the soulful self will help lighten the burdens of the world. Anything. You have no idea what the smallest word, the tiniest generosity can cause to be set in motion. Be outrageous in forgiving. Be dramatic in reconciling. Mistakes? Back up and make them as right as you can, then move on. Be off the charts in kindness. In whatever you are called to, strive to be devoted to it in all aspects large and small. Fall short? Try again. Mastery is made in increments, not in leaps. Be brave, be fierce, be visionary. Mend the parts of the world that are within your reach. To strive to live this way is the most dramatic gift you can ever give to the world.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0Inspiration. . .<\/h3>\n

I first met Carrie Carriello three years ago, when she attended a reading of The Gift of an Ordinary Day<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 She told me she was thinking about writing a book herself, and asked if I would read a few of her essays.\u00a0 Her humor and \u00a0courage were evident in every paragraph.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t imagine how this busy young mother could possibly take care of five rambunctious children, including an autistic son, and find time to write a book, too.\u00a0 And yet I also had a feeling nothing was going to stop her; she was that determined to tell her family\u2019s story and to share her special little boy with the rest of us. Today, What Color is Monday?<\/strong><\/a> is published.<\/p>\n

It’s my pleasure\u00a0to share Carrie\u2019s video with you, in which she recalls the moment she knew for certain her special son would find his way in the world, thanks to a stranger\u2019s generosity \u2013 a beautiful example of the way one small act of kindness can transform a life. Listening to Carrie, I\u2019m inspired to reach a little higher myself — to love more, to be better, to be braver, to be kinder.\u00a0 \u201cYou have no idea what the smallest word, the tiniest generosity can cause to be set in motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to watch.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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I suspect I\u2019m not the only one feeling a little wary and vulnerable in my skin these days.\u00a0 A week after the Boston bombings, as people across the nation paused yesterday afternoon to observe a moment of silence at 2:50, I stood alone in my own quiet kitchen, sad and somewhat at a loss for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,32,8,14,15],"tags":[57,77,113,121,254,422,468],"class_list":{"0":"post-1766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books-for-parents","8":"category-healing","9":"category-parenting","10":"category-soul-work","11":"category-writing-and-reading","12":"tag-acceptance-2","13":"tag-autisum","14":"tag-carrie-carriello","15":"tag-clarissa-pinkola-estes","16":"tag-kindness-2","17":"tag-the-gift-of-an-ordinary-day-2","18":"tag-what-color-is-monday","19":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/600x600.png?fit=600%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}