When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

I am contemplating the moral arc of the universe this week. I am thinking about service, justice, and peace. I am recommitting to the idea that we all must do something to leave the world better than we found it. It’s individual and communal. It’s urgent and eternal. Its past, present, and future. 

Service shaped in my childhood. My parents taught me about tithing at an early age. We are all called to give our communities time, talent, and treasure. That was what I learned and understood. It has shaped my worldview and actions. The older I get, the belief that the arc of the moral universe is long and that big ideas like justice and peace require forces — like courage and love — makes more and more sense. 

MLK Day serves as a reminder and inspiration. It encourages me to examine how I serve others in my everyday. It takes my service temperature. That allows me to gauge what role service plays in my life. Service has played an enormous role in my personal history. It’s helpful to remember the lessons of those experiences and let them guide my steps today as I seek to live a service-centered life. The higher my service temperature, the more connected and on fire I am about the work I am doing in the world. Service is like breathing. Over time, I have learned some years are more exhale — high octane, hands in the mud, mind-blowing, heartbreaking work. Some years, the work is about inhaling — deep in the body, mirror to the soul, delving into personal strength and health, building muscles for the coming exhale work. Sometimes, the breaths happen quickly, and that is when we must understand we never work alone. Service is better done together. Like breath, service happens in perfect rhythm and time. 

Trusting that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice is both complex and vital. Ultimately, it is a question of faith. As King suggests, faith is a creative force in the universe with the power to build, move, inspire, imagine, guide, comfort, instruct, and heal. The notion that justice takes a long time is also helpful in tempering your steel, choosing your battles, measuring twice and cutting once kind of way. Urgency, in this frame, looks like heart, persistence, fire, stillness, poetry, and knowing.

What I Learned This Week

Moving Toward Discomfort

I attended a dinner focused on talking about race this week. I have been intentional about talking about race for most of my adult life. I have continuously examined my privilege and prejudice. I have put myself in positions of discomfort that have allowed me to understand our common humanity, shared experiences, and unique joys and sorrows. Self-examination is critical work. Self examination grows from fierce love. The safety and comfort to examine privilege and prejudice is a privileged position. 

The dinner reawakened creative energy and fierce love. It reawakened the questions that have moved to the corners of my vision and imagination, as service has become an afterthought under the weight of life. The dinner was incredibly uncomfortable. I worried if I talked too much, did not listen enough to the people around my table, and told stories that laid bare blind spots and unhealed wounds. The last question was how we commit to action toward racial equity. I did not answer. I needed to take a deep breath. What is the relationship between service and racial equity? How can/does racial equity figure into the habits I am trying to build? How can racial equity be fundamental to the work I create and accomplish?

Looking Inward and Reaching Out

I am taking a writing course. I started the course this summer. This month focuses on crafting compelling pitches. Distilling our unique knowledge and skills and explaining what we bring to our potential clients is the first step in pitching. Last week, I spent hours writing about my work experience, drilling down to the foundation of my unique selling proposition. This week, I focused on building a pitch list of organizations and companies to approach for freelance and contract work. Once created, the list becomes a guide for consistently reaching out to many companies of interest. My current list is a list of 70 organizations. I know the list will wax and wane as I meet the weekly goal of pitching 20 organizations.

My pitch list represents a different way to approach my job search. It feels more like an invitation than an apology. It feels more like a celebration than a punishment. It feels more like magic than drudgery. It feels big and expansive in an incredibly small and confining experience. We will see how doors open and clouds part. My list connects me with gratitude. I am grateful for the clarity around my work to do in the world. I am grateful for being made of the stuff that sees things through. I am grateful for my support system that makes this entire process possible. 

Tinkering Toward Urgency

In another week of tinkering toward urgency, I have done three yoga classes and two runs. (I continue to keep a food diary, too.) My health goal is urgent. It has been frigid outside. That is no excuse. The half marathon I am signed up for happens in 14 weeks. To meet my goal — finishing the race in 3 hours and feeling fantastic — I must make every single workout.

My journaling goal is as urgent as my health goal. The urgency of my journal directly relates to fostering mental health. The urgency of my journal directly relates to the clarity that comes from journaling. The urgency of my journal is simply the gentle discipline of daily practice. The urgency of my journal is the reward of memory. Journaling is urgent tinkering. 

Paying Attention

1. The Wisdom Project, Susan Sontag
2. Kindness, Naomi Shahib Nye
3. Read and listen to Shirley Chisholm’s speech at Howard University
4. Listen to Dolores Huerta’s TED talk.
5. Listen to Morgan Freeman read John Lewis’ last New York Times piece, “Together You Can Redeem the Soul of the Nation“