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Hello, kin. If you are just joining our network: welcome! Kinship Plot is a community of learning and practice that imagines and embodies resonant relationships of every kind. We do that through collaborative learning, formative artistry, contemplative activism, slow cultivation, and liberatory welcome, and you can learn more on our website.
Every day contains infinite reasons to be thankful to God. It could be, as E. E. Cummings writes in his famous poem, "the leaping greenly spirits of trees" or simply "everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes." [Take a moment and listen to Cummings read the whole poem here.]
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Spiritual Time-Keeping
If you observe (even tangentially) the Christian liturgical calendar, then you may know that your year is about to come to an end. November 27th, the first Sunday of Advent, the season of waiting, marks the beginning of the new, fresh year. There is no better way to begin a year than with waiting and expectation. There is no better way to end a year than with gratitude.
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So, we give thanks, especially as we pull the last Fall vegetables from the garden and give them away. We also acknowledge the many ways this season carries grief. We feel the gratitude bearing the weight of all that is gift, life, loss, and love from the Creator. Gratitude, says David Whyte, is a way of paying attention, so we practice paying attention to it all.
Speaking of seasons and time, you may know that we are reading How to Inhabit Time by James K. A. Smith and discussing it with others here. Here are a few salient quotes:
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“Despite pretending to prioritize faithfulness, the spiritual dyschronometria of nowhen Christianities actually generates unfaithful responses to the present.”
“God does not want us to undo our pasts; nor does he want us to nostalgically dwell in our pasts; God’s grace goes back to fetch our pasts for the sake of the future."
“Shame is a nefarious enemy of grace that thrives on the backward glance…Grace is the good news of unfathomable possibility.”
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Conferencing and Creating
It was a deep joy to join with almost 2,000 Christians from around the country at the national CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) Conference in Charlotte with the theme of Wellbeing. In addition to connecting with friends old and new, Wes led a “go-and-see” session in Uptown, engaging with murals as a tool for social justice and reimagining wellbeing. Steph co-facilitated a workshop with Terre Lucas on leveraging the gift of resilience for community leaders, practitioners, and ministers.
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In a reflection circle following the conference, we concluded by asking everyone to write down a risk they could take to advance justice and wholeness in their communities. There were so many good ones, including “make good art.” Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann says that artists are like the prophets of our age, keeping alive the ministry of imagination.
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Perhaps this is why every totalitarian regime has been afraid of the artist, since they experiment and show how things need to break and be broken in order for New Creation to emerge. What small creative experiment or enlivening risk might you take today for the kin-dom of God?
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As you muse about your own creative experiments, perhaps Stephanie’s poem, “There Are Other justices,” published over at EcoTheo, can inspire you.
May your own search keep leading you home-
Wes and Steph, for the whole Kinship Plot team
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