Troubling the Waters: The Revolutionary Power of Creative Love
As we dive into this week’s reflection, I’d like to take just a moment to tell you a little bit more about myself and where I’m writing to you from.
I have an unusually interfaith background. I was raised Roman Catholic and was as involved in my church as I could have been, up until I was about 16 or 17. I left my church for a number of reasons, and shortly after began exploring Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, through family connections. That was in 2001, shortly before 9/11. At the time, I was a junior in a fairly small public high school in an overwhelmingly white suburb in New Jersey. I will forever remember watching the hijacked planes fly into the Towers on live TV in my American History class.
I remember watching pillars of smoke billowing upwards on the horizon for days afterwards. And, I will always remember the many ways Americans responded to that unthinkable tragedy. Communities came together in solidarity, embodying the greater love and compassion we all know we are capable of. First responders, like my cousin Danny, became heroes who literally put their lives on the line in unimaginable conditions. And, while so many of us rose to the occasion as our better selves, there were those of us who did not, and moments where we fell short of the great love that we are called to embody in this world.
