Rockwall, TX (August 21, 2024) – This past weekend, I had the honor and pleasure of emceeing the Greater Rockwall-area Youth Symphony and Rockwall Art League annual luncheon and auction. As I stood on the side of the stage waiting to kick off the fun, I thought of a phrase I have said for years, one I shared with the attendees of the event just after I stepped on stage, “There are just four ways to save a person—through music, art, books, and Jesus.” After some applause and “Hallelujahs!” from the audience, I pointed out some other truths. In that room of over 200 people, right here from our Rockwall-Heath lakeside community, we had at least three of those in the room. Music, art and some good, old fashioned church folks doing their best to shine their light. The second truth is this: In this incredibly harsh reality, this strife-filled political season, and this new tumultuous era we find ourselves in, we hold the power to preserve the harmony, peace and beauty of our community.
In Franklin Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, they tell the story of an inner-city school principal who spent an entire weekend in every bathroom on her high-school grounds, hand-scrubbing away the urine and mold smells with bleach and disinfectant. When students returned the next Monday, they found restrooms that honored them. They were clean, presentable, and no longer carried the stench of the students from the years prior. She knew that beauty, or a return to something better, was the key to the change. When we see our community starting to struggle, it is in our hands to retain our beauty. We need to bring peace to our homes, safety to our streets, color to our gardens, kindness to our speech, and gentleness to our decisions.
Our world may be falling apart. It may be bleak and, at times, even dangerous but we have the power to focus on growing what sustains the soul. Lower taxes, bigger police departments, safer schools, more restaurants —those won’t do anything if our community does not remember that we, too, have the power to transform our community above all the rest. We don’t need more money; we need more grace. We don’t need more business; we need more sharing. We don’t need more power; we need more compassion. We don’t need more success; we need more connection. Not that these things are negative—they are not. I am all about economic growth and success, but if we don’t grow what is most important, then we will be lost in the shuffle of all that expansion until one day we look up and don’t recognize ourselves at all.
Whether you sustain the arts in fundraising events, like the one I was privileged to be a part of, or you bring beauty to your home and neighborhood in some other way doesn’t matter, as long as you are doing your part to grow beauty, safety, kindness, compassion, empathy and calm. When we all commit to these endeavors, we all rise together.
PHOTOS BY GIOVANNA PSOLKA.
Guest column by Erin Kincaid, Founder and Clinical Director of Rockwall Heath Counseling. She holds a host of degrees in Psychology, Christian Counseling, Anthropology and is working toward her PhD in Clinical Counseling. Erin lives in Rockwall with her husband and son. Look for more of her guest columns on Blue Ribbon News.
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