We cannot have a healed society,

we cannot have change,

we cannot have justice,

if we do not reclaim and repair the human spirit.

~Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams

in the midst of real life…

inquiry for today~ how will you repair your hurt today?

many moons come and go…

In the French Pyrenees, an 18,000-year-old conch shell was found in a cave. The narrow tip had been broken off cleanly. It’s believed that this ancient shell is the oldest known horn instrument. And who was the tired hunter to break off that tip and blow through it? Ever since, horn instruments have carried the breath of Spirit through us into the world. And around 5500 BC in Neolithic China, what might be the oldest drum was crafted from a hollowed-out log and covered with the skin of an alligator. And what industrious soul carved the log and skinned the alligator to fashion something that would keep time with the beat of life?

And in Vietnam, about 2000 years ago, what we think was the first single-stringed instrument was made of a deer antler with a tough vine or braid of horse hair strung between its ends. And who had the insight that we can only find peace through the rub of being here? None of this was easy. All of it inevitable. Being here, and living here, and staying here. Each of us in need of any instrument that can remind us of where we come from and what we’re a part of.

~Mark Nepo