Perspective

Santo Domingo Graveyard

Cool REALLY old family tomb

Yesterday, Rachel and I took a day off—it was a chance for us to relax a bit, get out in the sun and enjoy where we’re living without feeling so bogged down or tied to our jobs.  It was a welcome breath of fresh air, let me tell you.  As we walked to the bus stop, I spotted a cemetery in the distance and begged Rachel to spare a few minutes to go explore.  From eye to eye all I could take in were the above-ground graves of the departed, many adorned in statues of a humble Mary, a Risen Jesus, Mary and baby Jesus, a cross, or an angel.  In the center of the graveyard were large family tombs, mausoleums towering over the nearby graves, their Greek columns and arched windows stretching to the sky.  And everything was white—white statues, white tombs, white headstones, white plaques.  A literal sea of white washed tombs.  It was an impressive sight and I couldn’t help but remember Jesus giving a warning to all false believers: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs,which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matthew 23: 27-28). 

This past week, I was surprised by many joyous things amidst the trials and difficult times I trudged through.  Small things, at first glance, things that I might usually overlook or take for granted.  Things like harvesting arugula from our garden, having a small campfire, celebrating a birthday, playing a game with friends, listening to new music, cooking dinner, talking with my brother, visiting a church, or getting caught in the rain.  These are the little things that brought flashes of light into my otherwise storm-cloudy days.  And it was these moments that reminded me that there are good things going on outside of my little life bubble right now, and I can experience those too if I just open my eyes to them.

The storm clouds I refer to are issues I have needed to tackle this past week, both issues of my past, my present, and my future.  Luckily, these issues in the past have hit me at separate times, each devouring my attention and energy but nonetheless at separate times from each other.  This past week however they all threw a party in my name, a party that I could not not attend.  And so I’ve felt pulled in many directions at once and have found it difficult to find my feet on this slippery ground.  And what I’ve realized is that I have become bogged down by all the little decisions I need to face without focusing on the bigger goal ahead.  In community organizing we call this becoming too fixated on the tactics and forgetting about the overall strategy.  And I have fallen victim to this.  And not only have I in my personal life, but so has Bola Bola in the life of our campaign.  We have become so distracted (and by consequence bogged down) by the little activities, the small tactics, that we have lost sight of our campaign strategy.  And by doing so, we have forgotten to see how far we’ve come, what we’ve accomplished, and celebrate that.  Today, our goal is to get our focus back.  So what have we accomplished so far?  Well, we’ve stuck with this campaign for the past 7 months, we’ve played more soccer than we ever thought, we’ve coordinated and met with various community leaders, organizations, and politicians, we’ve gotten the community on board with our campaign, we’ve learned things like presenting in public and how formal meetings work, and we’ve gotten the donation for the fencing and the roof!  That is a HUGE accomplishment.  It’s time to recognize what we’ve done and to have a party already!  And then we can focus once again on what we still have to do (basically all we’re missing in the donation of a cement floor) but this time we’ll be energized enough to get there. 

So pray for us as we all learn about perspective today, to remember not only where we’ve been and to see how far we’ve come, but also to re-focus ourselves on where we want to go and how we’re going to get there.  Stay tuned!