To the editor:
With all that is happening right here on Marblehead soil, perhaps we are ready to embrace some new news. I see that we are living in perilous times, a time that is not like any other we have seen, and this is not meant to put fear in us — just a response that will take care of us, take care of those we love and be a light in the dark. If we want peace, if we want love, and if we want joy, we are going to need to cross over from the negativity and fear that threatens to overcome us with each passing day.
Attraversiamo means “let’s cross over” or “let’s go through” in Italian. The phrase became popularized from the movie “Eat, Pray, Love.” It can refer to a physical space, like a bridge, and then it can be something more: spiritual movement, transition, coming out of one phase of life experience and moving into another. The thing about not talking about our spiritual lives makes it seem as if the things of the spirit do not matter or are not real.
The movies tell us to trust our hearts, but sometimes our hearts deceive us. I think it is a good time to guard our hearts and to search for ourselves what might be true and to cross over from taking sides and blaming, to taking responsibility for our own lives: our own thoughts, our own ideas and words — and our own actions. If there is life beyond this life and an accountability factor, I know that I am going to have to face the movie of my life, alone.
I sense that the some of the old ways of doing this life are not going to be enough to cross over into something more than fear, more than division and more than strife. Perhaps we can take some much needed time to sit and to be still, holding our tongues, listening to hear and to understand rather than listening to respond so that we can be a part of the healing rather than the harm.
There is a time to speak, but we can offend with many words: I know, I learned the hard way. I am a writer, not by skill (I know, I know) but by purpose. Each one of us has to cross over for ourselves, to search for our own answers. We can be fearful, hateful, and judging, or we can judge among ourselves. We are being invited to write our own story (Marblehead Weekly News, The Sober Widow, Lisa Fama) and to make it as simple as giving what we have been given to steward in the earth. Crossing over can be as simple as being patient rather than being in a hurry, being kind even when kindness is hard to find, and being present to the good that we have been given.
Brendalee Baughman
Marblehead
