In the wake of the tragedies and atrocities happening to our brothers and sisters, our fellow human beings right now at Standing Rock in North Dakota, it is especially hard to partake in the federal holiday that, although filled with good intention and works, has roots that come from anything but that.

So today, on this day, I am grateful that I have a choice.

I have the choice to choose to be informed.

I have the choice to choose to extend grace.

I have the choice to choose to listen.

I have the choice to choose to look in-between the lines and through the angry words and find the root. The why.

The choice to not be offended and retaliate in anger and hate.

The choice to stand in solidarity.

The choice to act.

The choice to choose grace.

To choose love.

To choose forgiveness.

To choose to ask for forgiveness.

To choose to forget.

To choose to not forget.

The choice to lament.

The choice to look for beauty in ashes.

The choice to be grateful and thankful yet mindful and aware of my own privilege.

I have a choice.

May I make my decisions wisely, and always choose the choice of grace and love and understanding, even when others don’t.

This is my prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me bring love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Love,

E