Blog
There is no change except through trembling.
My natural place is to be hopeful: holding fast to the faith that our work, though arduous, is rooted in a vision that a better world is possible.
“The arc of moral history is long, but it bends toward justice.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This faith is certainly being tested in this period of chaos and cruelty.
This is by design: the chaos is intended to disorient; the cruelty to dishearten. And it is working. I am finding myself out of sorts: disoriented and disheartened, wondering how I am supposed to “be” in the world where so much seems to be going so wrong for so many.
Faith and hope are counter-cultural in the best of times. At this moment, they can even feel dangerous. Add to this general feeling the fact that on May 25th, we marked the five-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of those who had sworn to protect and serve him. The grief of this anniversary is compounded for me as I reflect on the racial reckoning it inspired: that work is not merely unfinished, it has become significantly harder. The tide of justice would appear to be going out.
It may be easy to say that this is just the way the world works. In our rationalist, materialist world, it is easy to believe that there is something like a social change corollary to Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Or, worse yet, to adopt a cynic’s posture that for every step forward, we are bound to take two steps back.
I refuse. This moment is when faith and hope matter the most.
This was a take-away for me from last month’s Maine Philanthropy Center conference in Augusta. It was a day full of inspiration, wisdom, community, and love. It was a powerful reminder of how much we need each other. And how we need the wisdom of people like Prentis Hemphill, who opened the conference with a keynote address that electrified the audience. Responding to what is required of us in this moment, they spoke of courage, transformation, and community. On courage, they said:
“There is no change except through the trembling.” – Prentis Hemphill
Courage is not the absence of fear. It is proceeding despite being afraid.
On transformation, they acknowledged that if we are to achieve the the type of change that we seek in the world, that change will not only be out there in the world, it will require that we, ourselves, are changed as well:
“We will not get there the same people who we were.” – Prentis Hemphill
This is both daunting and inspiring. But we don’t have to go it alone. In fact, we cannot. On community, Prentis was clear that in this moment and in this work, we need each other.
Defining stress as “the perceived discrepancy between the challenges we face and the resources we have to meet them,” it is natural, they said, to feel at this moment that “I don’t have enough.” The truth is, we cannot succeed in isolation. We must resource each other. They asked:
“How do we keep reaching for each other instead of turning away?” – Prentis Hemphill
As I reflect on their words of wisdom and on our work, I am inspired by so many of you who are reaching out and reaching for each other here in Maine. Keep reading to learn more about some of the inspiring ways our community is reaching for each other this month, including:
OEF Grantmaking Retreat: This past weekend, we convened 30+ community leaders for a two-day grantmaking retreat and will be announcing the third cohort of Outdoor Equity Fund grantees later this month. Read more below…
ILO Readers: Right now, more than 160 volunteers are in the process of reading and evaluating applications to the Immigrant-Led Organizations Fund as part of our community-led grantmaking to select the next cohort of immigrant-led organizations to receive grants totaling $450,000 this year.
I hope you can take inspiration, like I have, from Prentis’ words. And from the fact that so many folks in our community are reaching out and reaching for each other. This is how we will help each other get through this moment, together. This is where I choose to put my hope and faith.
In peace and love,Phil
