Devotion 8/6/2021

A couple of months ago, anticipation was high for the coming summer. In-person services were about to resume, and services in the Park were finally coming back. Summer plans were taking shape and there was a cautious optimism about what we can all do together once again. While it has been a blessing for these things to be happening, there is now an added cloud of uncertainty back in our lives with the Delta variant and the reminder that we are not quite done with this pandemic as things surge all around the country.

This whiplash of emotions can be difficult. Many reactions arise at times like this: denial, anger, frustration, anxiety among them.

I am reminded of the benefits of improvisation. This is something we all have had to deal with in the last 18 months, with a constantly changing situation. It has remained a constant in my musical life as well. The ability to improvise has not only allowed me to adapt to some tricky situations, it has also propelled me into many areas (musically and otherwise) that I would not have experienced without it.

In times such as these, there can be a tendency to grasp for control, to force a situation into a shape with which we are more comfortable. This blocks out our ability to be in community with one another as we turn inward instead of outward.

In his book “The Fierce Urgency of Now,” Daniel Fischlin writes, “Improvisation promotes personal confidence and makes people accustomed to taking action, to activating their agency publicly and in relation to others. Improvisers have to be aware of the needs of others. They must recognize problems rapidly and invent solutions immediately: they must do so here and now. They need to prepare themselves for the inevitable conflicts, ruptures, obstacles, and disappointments that occur in human interactions, yet remain committed to working things through with others and solving problems together.”

That sounds like a good recipe for getting through these uncertain times. There will also be more uncertain times to come; however, instead of dreading their arrival, we can allow ourselves to be improvisers, gauging situations and adapting, remaining nimble in order to best serve those around us and not only ourselves.

Nature is constantly improvising. Even from the ashes of the tragic wildfires plaguing North America and other parts of the world, there are some seeds and plants that actually thrive. They take the difficulty of the situation and create beauty out of it.

There are challenges ahead, but there are also opportunities. Opportunities to think differently, to act differently, and to improve upon that which we know didn’t quite work before.