Unraveling 2.0

Making Space for What’s Coming

When I was working in churches, designing and leading weekly worship services, I intentionally tried to make space for life. Life doesn’t stop once bulletins are printed or sermons finalized. Whether it is local occurrences impacting the congregation, like a flooded sanctuary or death of a member; or national, like natural disasters or presidential elections; or global, like an act of terror or another attempt at a ceasefire, I strived to lift up these significant events. Depending on the service and the situation, it might be part of the announcements or prayer time. Or if it was a Sunday I was preaching, wrapped into my sermon. Or the reason for a total rewrite of the message.

One Sunday, after weaving yet another incident of a police officer killing an unarmed black man during a traffic stop into the prayer time, I received a lot of feedback. Some appreciated my making space for this. Others did not. One voice said, “I like your prayers better when they’re spiritual and not political.”

Christianity, broadly speaking, has done a disservice to its followers (and a dishonor to Jesus) in teaching that there is no place for politics in the pulpit or for the intersectional relationship between the spiritual and political in the living of our faith. This is further magnified by conflation of politics and partisanship. Yes, they are certainly linked, but are not one in the same. Much of where we find ourselves today is because of this mis-entanglement.

Today is an exciting day for me and 10 Camels! It’s a day I’ve been waiting for and building energy around. Today is the launch of Unraveling 2.0 and the reveal of a much-anticipated new video.

And.

Today much of the United States is under an extreme freeze warning. Organizations and municipalities are making space for warming centers and more shelter beds. Hospitals and clinics making space to treat the frost bit flesh of society’s most vulnerable citizens.

Today the most recent devastating wildfires in Los Angeles are still not completely contained. The winds continue to threaten as people are making space for the magnitude of their loss and the long recovery ahead.

Today the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds, families anxiously making space for the expectation of another round of freed hostages and prisoners. People in Gaza are sifting through the ruins of fifteen months of bombs for signs of their loved ones’ remains.

Today is two days after the US Presidential Inauguration. Billionaires are making space for amassing more wealth and power. The Trans community, immigrants, and asylum seekers are making space for safety and survival.

Today I’m reminded of philosophers, poets, prophets, and other creative people who have long said everything is political. The personal. The spiritual. And as Audre Lorde spoke, self-care and self-preservation. All political.

Unraveling began as a poem, scribbled on the back of a church bulletin, about a piece of fabric left over from my deconstructed clergy robe resting in my pocket. That poem gave life to a process I didn’t fully realize I was engaged in until those words made their way from my spirit to the page.

Unraveling was initially a very personal journey. Committing to self-care and at times self-preservation. Coming Out. Living into who I am and am created to be. Navigating the challenges and possibilities birthed from a difficult and liberating choice that was all at once spiritual, religious, and political.

Unraveling expanded from one poem to a collection of poems. Last April that poetry collection was published. When I entered that publishing pathway, my goal was simple; to get that story out of my heart and into the atmosphere. Looking back through old journals, I found these words,

I’m releasing Unraveling to make space for what is coming.

I never imagined the life and the work now filling the space that was made from hope and mortar. With the support and encouragement of so many, including readers like you, a poem made space for a book. A book a sermon. A sermon a poetry show. A poetry show a bible study. A bible study a workshop. A workshop a vision for classes and retreats.

What I thought was but a patch is part of an eternal and universal circle, making space to live into my calling. A calling that includes making space for the spiritual and political work of unraveling.

The fabric of this country has been unraveling since its inception. Our current reality is deeply frightening. For some the risks are more imminent and severe. This second inauguration more frigid and ominous than the first. Like the shocking and awing all around us, our unraveling has increased in speed and force.

We can understand unraveling as the beginning of the end. Or the beginning of something new. I’m choosing the latter. This choice isn’t denial or naive optimism. It’s stitched with tenacious hope and a bold belief that what tries to kill us doesn’t have to succeed.

The hands that tie us in knots also want to tear us apart. We don’t have to let them. We can choose another pattern. Those of us with needles and thread can join with those who have shelves full of fabric and cloth. We can start piecing ideas together. We can teach others who’ve never sown or knitted how to start this craft. We can sing and dream and cry and grieve as we work. We can cook and feast and fill our bodies and beings with nourishing bread and love. We can be gentle with one another. We can soften edges and redesign borders. We can build safe spaces for the most vulnerable, while the most privileged advocate and agitate on the front lines and lawns.

Unraveling 2.0 is where the spiritual and political blend, like the ink colors on hand-dyed wools drying on lines of sweetgrass. Where the individual and the communal are not separate and unequal, but laboring together to unravel the powers that seek to divide and conquer.

With all this, I proudly share with you the first of many videos to come, a reading of Unraveling, the poem that started this movement of making space.

Listen. Watch. Take it in. Allow the words to fill you. Like water let them flow into the empty or restless or grieving or angry or anxious wells in your spirit. Imagine releasing all that keeps you from making space for what’s to come.

And keep coming to the Well. Your presence stirs and sustains the community that is forming here.

And if you’re part of a community that wants to dive deeper into the work of unraveling, send us a message to schedule a conversation about partnering together.

Unraveling 2.0 is not a sequel. Or an upgrade. Or a remodel. It is making space for what is already here and what is coming. It is inviting others in.

Water-fully Yours,
Rebecca & 10 Camels