Lindsay L. O'Connor

 **Please note: This IS a political post, because politics affect people. This post is for my friends in the margins and the privileged folks who are standing with them. To anyone else, I’m open to civil discussions offline.**

When I began listening to people in the margins, one of the most important refrains I heard and then began to feel deep in my spirit was the call to personal and communal lament. My therapist helped me learn to grieve personally, but my friends in the margins have been teaching me how to grieve corporately. 

As I’ve been learning this spiritual practice, I did not realize that communal lament also allows for a deep communal joy that only comes after lament. 

Yesterday I heard Aaron Edwards talk about his work in the recovery community and say, “We have seen that healing from our wounds is actually more beautiful than never having had wounds, and resurrection is even better than life without death.” 

We must grieve the dying before we can fully celebrate the rising in a deep and meaningful way. Fullness of grief paves the way for fullness of joy, and no joy is fuller and more complete than communal joy that follows communal grief. 

We have much work to do, but for now, I am thinking of so many who are pausing to take a breath after four long years of, “I can’t breathe.” I see you, I stand with you, and I remain committed to working alongside you for justice for all.