I Am Because We Are
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Find a quiet place to center down for a time of reflection and prayer. Take a deep breath. Check in with yourself. Allow yourself this moment to sit away from the stresses that surround you, and simply be present.
Remember for a moment how deeply connected you are to the world around you. Offer gratitude for the gift of this very moment, of this very breath.
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
- Lilla Watson
“It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”
- Gandalf the Grey, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Food for Thought
We are all connected. Our lives are dependent upon others from the moment we are born - for food and nourishment, for emotional health and wellbeing, for care when we are sick. We are truly dependent on one another.
Several African cultures have a word for this sense of the connectedness of life and humanity. The one I am most familiar with is the Zulu word, Ubuntu, meaning “I am because we are.” Our interconnectedness with other humans, with all of life, is tied to our very breath.
Each breath that we take is made possible by parts of our world that most of us will likely never see in person. The plankton of our oceans and global waters - so small yet so significant - are responsible for seventy percent of the oxygen we breathe. Rainforests on other continents account for nearly all of the remaining thirty percent. Our breath is a gift to the world as well. It offers carbon dioxide to the plants and trees. It has the power to scatter seeds, move water, and share with one another in song. It is the gauge, at times, of how we are doing - whether we are anxious, whether we are relaxed and calm, whether we are angry, whether we are alive. It carries forth our first cry. Down to our very breath, we are intimately connected to the world around us.
That our breath affects the things around us, and that we are also sustained by their breathing, is a humbling reminder that we are intricately woven into the fabric of creation by threads of connection. We share a world together and are dependent on one another for flourishing. It is not only our breath but also what we "breathe out" through our choices, our attitudes, our actions, our words, our policies, our priorities that affects the well-being of things. What we choose to offer or withhold is as crucial in determining the pulse of our communities as is our very breath.
My grandfather has often said, “If we have a statue of liberty on one coast, we should have a statue of responsibility on the other.” We have a choice, to a degree, about what we put out there. We have some liberties that allow us to choose how we will be in the world, but that freedom without the acknowledgment of our responsibility to one another can yield devastating outcomes. Understanding that we are deeply connected - that our actions and choices affect the very breath of another - is critical to our collective flourishing and to the flourishing of all of creation itself.
We can offer to the world the things that are life-giving and life-sustaining, or we can offer that which diminishes life, that crushes spirits, that deprives others of dignity.
What will we yield to each moment?
Kindness or disdain? Generosity or greed? Nourishment or harm?
We are granted some agency in how we will be toward one another and all of creation for the short time that we are a living part of all that is. Those choices can change the world for the better if we allow them - if we accept the responsibility of our connectedness to all things and breathe a bit of life-giving goodness into each moment.
Breathe deeply. Consider the parts of your own body that made that breath possible. Then consider all that is around you - the trees and plants - that made that breath possible.
There has been a movement in recent years to “pay it forward” - to yield small acts of unexpected kindness in the community in hopes that the chain of kindness will continue on. Find a moment this week to intentionally offer an act of kindness to someone else.
Blessing
God of goodness and life-giving breath,
help us to embody your spirit of creative liberation toward one another.
May we choose to offer in each moment - to our neighbors and our world - that which allows us all to breathe a little more easily.
A little Table Talk for your table...
Making a big difference happens one small act at a time. What is one small act you can do to make a difference in your home, in your workplace, in your community?
Have you ever experienced an act of unexpected kindness that changed your perspective or made your life better, if even in a small way?
Talk about the meaning of Ubuntu, “I am because we are.” Discuss the ways we are all interconnected and how we can honor this responsibility to one another.
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Being little doesn’t mean we can’t make a difference! Spend some time playing in the water, noticing how even just small movements can ripple out to have a bigger impact.
Take it one step further and learn about plankton. Discuss how something so small can have such a great effect on our world.
Go for a walk. Talk about the gift of oxygen we receive from plants and trees, and how our own breath gives life back to them.