"We put our arms around each other
a pair of ordinary tax-paying human arms
not to rest them
but to harden them
a pair of ordinary concrete-accustomed
and marketed human arms
a pair of ordinarily needing
a par of ordinarily hugging
human arms
we put them around each other
they are health-insured and ordinarily dressed
a pair of ordinarily love-interpreting
human arms
how strong they are
sovereign, independent-
no matter where
no matter what the hour
no matter what the season
suddenly and for all time
human arms
without speculation
we put them around each other
as if to show that their powerlessness
doesn’t exist."
         ~ Marianne Larsen, poet

Human arms. While I was leafing through a book of prayers compiled for the year 2000 and the approach of the new millennium, I came across this poem. Marianne Larsen is a Danish poet and her words conjured up the beautiful image of arms interlinked and the power of that image. I recognized that the image itself caused my heart to slow, to soften and brought a sense of calm to my spirit.

You see, I have be listening and watching, as many have, the dire messages in our media. It is easy to go to the panic place, to react quickly, to isolate. It is a natural animal reaction to fear and danger. But there is a powerlessness in that. It is a reaction that gives over our power as a collective community of gifted, creative beings to an outside force.

Instead I want to be a part of a community that comes together to solve, to strategize, to dream of ways that can help us heal the wounds of where we find ourselves as individuals, as a country, as a world. Fear will not do that. Panic will not do that. Isolation will not do that.

Human arms, human hands, human hearts, human spirits, linked together is the only thing that has ever solved the world’s most difficult problems. These days I plan to surround myself with the brightest, the most compassionate, the most creative and wise, the most humble people I know. Together I pray we can eat together, pray together and look with hopeful eyes toward a future that is unknown but still held gently in the arms of the Holy.

I pray our leaders, in their own ways, can do something similar.