Short wave

We now pause for station identification. Required by government authorities of most over-the-air transmitters, the term broadly means taking regular opportunities to remind listeners of who and what you are.

I created Chicken Scratch to transmit personal stories, essays to serve as waymarks on a path toward lightness of being. Getting thoughts down was a way to simultaneously neaten up my mental mess and fling open a window to let in some fresh birdsong. I hoped the results might, on occasion, allow others to do the same.

Photo by Jan Koetsier

This world is too often tangled and terrible. Never is that more evident than when another tormented soul misdirects his pain, taking innocent lives. So many lives. That level of personal anguish is incomprehensible to most of us, and my heart hurts thinking of those who grieve for the dear ones lost.

These writings are not equipped to tend wounds so deep. My meditations drift off, pleas for peace resound without resolution. Faith is delicate, darkness strong. What good is storytelling in the face of so much sorrow?

Researchers find that those who perpetrate school shootings have some characteristics and experiences in common, but they caution against the dangers of profiling. Still, a feeling of rejection is one of the more obvious threads and seems, from the lens of a layperson like me, to be something most of us have ability to address.

Before the news, I’d planned to forgo this week’s essay in exchange for a recipe. I wanted to share the steps for using backyard plants, like dandelions, to make a healing salve. Not that we couldn’t use a whole book of recipes designed to promote healing right now. (God, could we ever!) But, under the circumstances, I’ve decided to share that post next week instead.

I am going on record, though, with a commitment to generosity. That’s the place from which I want these communications to originate. Being liberal with kindness doesn’t cost me anything more than the divestment of myopic tendencies. Once a day seems like a realistic goal for a word, a note, a touch, a prayer - something intentional, something practiced. Surely I can manage at least that in gratitude for the gift of being alive.

Who am I? Right now, I think that matters less than who I hope to become. I believe in the power of community and compassion to mend and regenerate, and I’m going to continue to try and create that here.

This is Chicken Scratch signing off…for now.

~Elizabeth