Chickens

Please don't buy me chicken figurines for my birthday. 

I know I'm a difficult person to buy gifts for, but I really hate to dust or find space for things. I like socks and hugs and beer. Probably in that order, but nothing cute that sits around looking cute.

Truthfully, I don't like chickens in an all-embracing sense. Chickens are dirty, stinky and loud. 

But, I love my chickens. 

I love that Ptari comes at the sound of my voice and squats in front of me so I can pick her up. 
I love that Buttercup runs back and forth in her enclosure looking for the exit long after the other chickens have wandered off (she's not the brightest of the bunch). 
I love that Pepper will stand on the edge of the snow refusing to step onto it, but screaming at the other chickens.
And I love that Chipmunk is always trying to break open the beer bottles on the porch. I think she has a problem.

I love in the particular not general sense. Rarely will I make sweeping statements on issues or people (unless it's cell phone usage in a public bathroom - always wrong). I'm not sure I even believe in a Christian perspective on issues. 

Our call is to love and that is always in the particular.

Here's my problem with some of the current stuff going on with the new administration. I worry the likeliness of encountering those I need in my life to know the abundance of life will decrease.

I need Muslims in my life (along with Sikhs, Unitarian Universalists, Mormons, Buddhists, and all the other folks who gather at Interfaith). My "daughter by another mother" was a Muslim exchange student from Bethlehem. We did not always agree or share the same perspective, but that's what makes relationships so rich. We could sit at the table and roll grape leaves together telling stories, laughing, and arguing.

I need friends of color, GLBTQ folks, Native Alaskans and Latinos so they can call me on my blind spots and share what life looks like for them.

I need people who are struggling with poverty, mental illness, and prison so I'm not adding burdens to their lives but walking with them. 

These are all people I have in my life and I love them as individuals and at times we make each other a little zany and at times we open whole new worlds. But we are not ideas to each other, we are flesh and blood. That makes all the difference.

When policies are put into place that further divide and insulate our neighborhoods and nation then it is harder to be in these relationships and keep a reality check. 

If we only hang out with those who think and look like we do, then we are cheated of abundance and that pisses me off.

BUT, the worst part of some of these policies, especially the Syrian and Iraqi refugee resettlement, is how angry I am and I'm finding it hard to keep that anger from bubbling into relationships where it doesn't belong.  

I'm blessed by every relationship and authentic encounter I have with folks whether we agree politically or not. I need conservative, white men and women to keep me honest about our need for security and hard work. I don't want to miss out on those chances to love because I'm blaming them for what breaks my heart. There are many valid points that have gone unheard, but it is hard to hear them in the current cacophony of callousness.

It is not our call as Christians to be right; it is our call to be in right relationship. We can only be in right relationship when we sit together, listen and respect each other. 

One of my favorite camp songs works well here:
If God can love turkeys, then God can love you
For you are a turkey and I am one, too.
So when you're lonely, remember the truth
If God can love turkeys, then God can love you.

I think chicken could work there too.