There it Is

[Affirmations - V]

Can you see it in them? Or is their BLM shirt all you see?

Are you able to pick it up? Or is their screaming all you can hear?

What about underneath? Or is it too hard to get past the MAGA hat?

Do you witness it and hold it? Or are your conclusions already inhibiting your consideration?

Do you feel it? Or are your emotions triggered, and now all you see is the person they represent.

There it is.
Underneath.
Beyond.
Within.

It’s on the surface, too, but you’ve already overlaid your stereotype, your projection, your judgement.

I plead with you to look deeper. Where your judgement doesn’t go. Where your stereotype doesn’t reach. The part of them that doesn’t come up for breath or show itself, in fear of the ridicule and wounding.

I ask that you pause, listen, and wait—as long as it takes!—to hear behind the sound bite, the anger, the platitude. . . the hat, the sign, the tattoo . . . the color, the weight, the mannerisms.

There it is.
Did you pick it up?

At their center.

It’s the image of the Holy.
The image of the Sacred.
The image of God.

They bear it.
You bear it.
We bear it.