​Almost a year ago, I hosted a retreat at my home here in North Carolina. One of the participants was my friend and fellow faith based life coach Nicole from Pennsylvania (you can meet her here). She invited me to share with you the story of her long drive south. When she arrived, she was clearly distressed. As conversations warmed up, she admitted she had been concerned about traveling to my home. Her family warned her the south might not be as welcoming as she hoped. As she drove past "the most gigantic confederate flags she'd ever seen" flagrantly on display along the highway, she wondered if maybe they had been right. I was mortified that a dear friend would be afraid to come to my home. I said I wanted things to be different. I said as a white woman of privilege I needed to make space for conversations with my peers on this topic. Today, a year later, those words convict me.
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I am writing this on Thursday, May 7, 2020. On Thursdays, I wear black and participate in the World Council of Churches #thursdaysinblack campaign toward a world free of gender and sexual based violence. Today I'm reflecting on the intersection of this and race and guns. Today, this black I’m wearing feels so heavy. Today, the news is full of the story of yet another young black man gunned down in the streets. Today the image I can’t get out of my head is the face of Ahmaud Arbery's mother as she mourns the loss of her son.

Welcome to the first Monday in May of 2020. It is crazy to think of how much weight there is in that statement. The first Monday in May is simply not the day we were envisioning mere weeks ago. We have been in the Covid-19 world altering reality long enough that we are beginning to try to look ahead. This first week of May is also the beginning of International Coaching week. How do those things fit together?

It has been one doozy of a week...wait, has it been a week? Maybe for you it is just starting, maybe you have been at it for awhile, but it seems like everyone is facing the reality of a new normal for the near future. The era of new terms like social distancing and flattening the curve is here. We are in wilderness territory. I appreciated the scripture my coach shared with me, 

These are challenging times. The news of the Corona virus is changing every hour and all of us are feeling the anxiety. Here in North Carolina, we have been asked to limit large gatherings and many, including my own congregation have made the choice to cancel in person worship services this Sunday and move them online. 

​Yesterday was Friday, July 5th. For many people, it was the second day of a long holiday weekend. For others, it was a normal Friday work day. Either way, it was disconcerting to have been out of routine on Thursday. I posted a comment on my facebook page about having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact it was Friday and it got more interaction than anything I have posted in a long time.

I know we are truly behind the times, but in the age of streaming, my husband and I have gone back to watch The Sopranos. In a recent episode, one of the characters is trying to write and states "I bought the computer and the software, but it's not getting done." Isn't that often the case?

Like many pivotal moments in history, I think most of us have an “I remember when I first heard Cathedral of Notre Dame  was on fire moment.” It simply was unfathomable to think something so historic, so iconic and so classic could go up in flames. People started sharing photos from trips with family and friends, expressing gladness for having visited or regrets for missing a chance. There was a universal commonality to our shock and sadness.
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When people started gathering in the streets and began to sing hymns, I was taken back to a moment from my college travels in what was then the Soviet Union.