When the choir first introduced this song, apparently there was quite some opposition to it. Because this song is not just a beautiful song. It’s a statement to honor Black lives.

Once a week we would stand along MLK street, holding our signs and taking a short “march” from one traffic light to the other and back.

Do you know this feeling of tiredness after a Zoom meeting?

I didn’t know anything about the history of this movement, the ignorant European I was. The black sign looked like trouble to me. What about me? Or at least what about other marginalized people?

Fast forward to June 2020. There is a BlackLivesMatter sign in our front yard. And one in our kitchen window.

Taking a stand by kneeling is one of the highly symbolic images we are seeing these days. It’s a simple, yet strong gesture. A humble acknowledgment that there is still lots to learn, lots to talk about, lots to reconcile, lots to heal, lots to change in this country.

“When we go back to normal” has become a figure of speech during these last 3 months of our COVID-19 reality. Normal to me meant “good, regular, safe, free” – you name it.

When I was a child, my grandmother used to do this odd thing. We would walk through a forest and she would suddenly stop and say: “Do you smell it?”

Masks are the new must-have. And they are about to become the new fashion accessory. They tell us something about the wearer.

“When do the kids go to bed? When can I drink a glass of wine? It’s only 3 pm? I am so tired. It’s Wednesday, again.”

When laying in my bed at night, I find myself praying much more intentionally and more intensive right now than just a couple of months ago. Has my faith grown? I am not sure.

I just googled “differences in rye flour for sourdough bread”. Because, sure enough, we too have started baking our own bread. Like basically everyone I know in my neighborhood.

For the last 3 nights, I have done something, I wouldn’t have dreamed about doing just six weeks ago. I howled.

Which day is today? No, don’t look at the calendar. Would you have known it?

I would have never thought that I once in my life had to beg people to stay at home – even during Holy Week. The (church-)world has turned upside down.

What’s the funniest way you were ever fooled on April 1st? Or how did you fool someone?

What are the burdens you have been carrying during the last weeks? Whose burdens are you taking upon yourself?

How is your spirit today? What were your first thoughts when you woke up this morning?