Regardless of the outcomes of the elections this month, our body politic needs healing. No doubt this is why our collaborators at Soul Matters chose Repair for the November 2024 theme, and indeed our Community Team voted for this selection when asked for input last spring. But the small group packet we’re using this month doesn’t directly mention politics. It’s kind of a relief, honestly, when our nerves are already buzzing with collective fear, anguish, and hesitant hope as we lurch toward an uncertain transfer of power. Those of us in Chalice Circles or working through the activities on our own can treat them as a retreat. A retreat that restores, renews, and even repairs us. And then, as we’re able, we can re-engage with the political sphere.

If you’re like me, as a resident of Turtle Island, you may feel the transformation of our body politic very personally, in your own physical body. It feels like responsibility; but also powerlessness. Simply by being American these days, many of us experience what’s called moral injury: a sense that we’ve betrayed our core values. To heal moral injury, I’ve found it essential to reconnect with my physical body, finding agency to care and repair for the one node of our collective existence that is most mine. If I can give my own body care and compassion, then I’m more resilient. This is essential for collective resilience.

The exercise that most stood out to me in our packet is “An overdue letter to your body.” We’re encouraged to write a letter to our bodies, listing what we’re sorry for and also our gratitudes for our bodies. It resonated because I have found a linkage between amends and gratitude in my own (ongoing) recovery from physical and emotional wounds. When I open my heart honestly to the pain I’ve caused, then I feel the deepest gratitude for the strength that rises up to meet and mitigate pain. Furthermore, this very personal dance of love and regret has been surprisingly interconnected with larger relational repair. I’ve learned the hard way that I can’t help anyone else until I have acknowledged and attended to my own pain (even if it’s not yet fully resolved). Indeed, so much moral injury and secondary trauma results when we’re asked to serve others when we do not have the wherewithal to care for ourselves. But when we’re fully resourced by our own progress in healing, we can experience a shocking surge of energy to offer healing and repair for others. Not in a heroic Superman-style way, but in an authentically personal way: apologizing for our role in any pain they’re experiencing and telling them directly, and specifically, how we love and appreciate them.

So this month’s theme, Living Love through the Practice of Repair, is well-timed. We can’t expect the election or the inauguration of whoever wins it to automatically end the endemic tearing-apart of our nation. Repairing the accumulated collective damage will take time and dedication. We must show up with a humble “overdue letter to the world,” saying “I’m sorry, I love you” and then asking, “What do you need from me?” You can begin right here in your own body, right here in your closest relationships, right here in this Fellowship.

     I’ll see you soon,

          Pastor Isabel