Don't Just Do Something. Stand There.

I was offered these words from my mentor while in ceremony last week and I have been sitting with them ever since. She credited it to Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzburg, but a quick google leads a long and windy road to who might have originally uttered these profound - and inverted - words.

DON’T JUST DO SOMETHING. STAND THERE.

I have also been curious recently about the idea of radical responsibility. Of the idea that I need to truly look in the mirror first before I attempt to solve the problem, any problem. The idea of my own personal responsibility to a thing before I virtue signal, protest, rage, post, repost, fight, wave a sign a flag a dollar bill, or react. The idea of personal accountability when I want to blame “the collective” or “them” as the problem without standing with and in my own actions.

In divisive, chaotic and painful times such as these (and this goes for personal seasons of pain too) it is common to ask, “How did we get here?”

I would like to offer a new question:

“How have I contributed to arriving at this moment? Where can I hold myself accountable to how we got here?”

And then with these potent words: stand there.

THEN, and only then, go do something.

So let me go first in taking accountability for not standing there when I should have been listening and watching myself, my country, my heart, my community:

I’ve closed my heart and let politics think for me.

I’ve closed my heart and kept scrolling.

I’ve closed my heart and let reactivity think for me.

I’ve looked the other way.

I’ve tuned out.

I’ve felt like I knew more than “them.”

I figured someone else would take care of it.

I’ve felt entitled to comfort while others were suffering.

I’ve felt righteous in my suffering thinking showing pain was doing something.

I’ve felt righteous in protest, not humble in the work.

I didn’t let my heart learn history, only my mind.

I treated the idea of war and violence as something that would never affect me.

I’ve held violence in my heart.

I traded empathy for nobility and curiosity for cynicism.

I was judgmental of others based solely on my perceptions.

I’ve been judgmental a lot.

This is what’s come through this week. I’m certain the list will grow much longer.

If this triggers you: stand there.

If you think I’m wrong and you’re right: stand there.

If you want to argue: stand there.

If you know exactly what to do about XXX: stand there.

If you have fingers to point: stand there.

If you feel vindicated: stand there.

If you think I’m being hypocritical: stand there.

If you feel nothing: stand there.

Stand there.

Pray there.

Cry there.

Grieve there.

Look there.

Stand there and listen. Hold it. Get quiet. Get honest. Find that truth that only comes from stillness and accountability and forgiveness. Then stand there longer and ask Love about what to do.

Yes, by all means, go ahead and do something. Do it in the flavor and resonance of what’s in your highest and best capabilities, however that looks for you. I invite you to do it with Love in your heart. And consider doing it with in the understanding that you aided in the making of the thing you’d like to un-do.

But don’t do it until you stand there.

If you’d like to stand in quiet contemplation to help call in a new way for this chaotic and divisive time, please join us Jan 26-29 for Prayers For Peace.

No preaching, no agenda, no pitch. Just gathering in community to pray and contemplate to music. To stand there.

CLICK HERE to read more and have the zoom links emailed to you.