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Dear Mary, Today I visited the George Floyd Memorial in Minneapolis, MN. George died under the choke hold of a law enforcement officer at the intersection of 38th and Chicago on May 25, 2020.
photos of George Floyd Memorial. Click HERE
The song May the Circle Be Unbroken came to me as I approached the place where a ring of dried flowers and notes and other offerings (oranges and cigarettes) surround a fist rising from a plywood platform. Around the platform the asphalt has been removed and earth was poured in from wheelbarrows where sod was to be laid and planted with live flowers.
I had intended to record a video for the St James Episcopal Church Community in Pewee Valley, KY as a kind of spiritual souvenir. Instead I fell on my knees on the road and wept.
I pulled the prayer I had written from my journal and pinned it to the orange St James cross our Sr Warden Teresa Cheatham had crocheted for me (I’d taken it on all my travels). I laid it next to the sparkly dolly someone laid a the mural painted by Xena Goldman, Greta McLain, and Cadex Herrera.
I felt the power of hope combined with sorrow – the heartbeat of a mother – which no recording could capture. So instead of taking a video I left a piece of St James there along with a bucket of my tears. And this prayer.
I join you in praying for healing in all places of strife, especially the black community and the law enforcement community. You of all people know the power God wields over the impossible.
Phew God. Here is Kentucky praying in Minnesota: Holy Holy Holy Behold this impossible place where so many things went wrong and so many thirst for righteousness. Water this dry ground with your holiness, cleanse the blood shed, heal the wounds, bind up the brokenhearted, guard and tend those who plant new seeds of hope. Bless Esther, Rick, and Greg, back home in Kentucky and all law enforcement officers and the communities they serve. Bless leaders who make decisions into laws requiring enforcement. Comfort all who mourn. Fulfill Isaiah’s promise that everyone will get to drink the water of your righteousness freely in Jesus Christ, source of living water whose name I praise from this place of suffering. Make your power perfect in this impossible place. Amen. May George rest in peace and may his memory be a heart beat which heals the nations.
