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Week of Giving | Bertha Rocray
Week of Giving | Dudas-Haight-Westhelle Families
Week of Giving | Reginald Baird
Week of Giving | Anna Kay Vorsteg
Week of Giving | A letter from the senior wardens
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
The strange and surreal events of the last six months have impacted all of us leaving many of us with feelings of uncertainty, anxiety and fatigue and genuinely needing support, but also needing to give support to feel good. I often invoke Rob’s message about his mom who told him when he was feeling grumpy to go out and do something nice for someone else. It works. Especially in these crazy times we need to feel connected, to support and be supported.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Sometimes it is the meer fact of knowing that support is available if needed. The current pandemic is a prime example. Several people have contacted us to see if we needed anything done such as shopping. Phil and I went into isolation early on. Thus far we have been fine (other than nearly running out of reading books). We have not needed to be in quarantine. The thought that there is support if needed is reassuring.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Retirement was chosen for me just over a year ago. I feared I would lose my purpose. However, I have come to realize, there is no retirement from parenting. I find purpose in supporting my young adult daughters, not in the financial sense, but as an advocate. Don't lose courage. This too will pass. This time of social, political, economic and medical turmoil is so much more difficult for our young people who are trying to find their place in the world, than for us retired oldsters. I try to be a peaceful home to which they can always return...a foundation.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Having created that space I then turn to the writings of Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot, Parker Palmer but most importantly Margaret Wheatley. In her writings, Margaret Wheatley calls us to become warriors of the human spirit who strive to create “Islands of Sanity”. This striving is not to be an arduous task but rather a calling to join others who are doing what they can during this “Age of decadence”.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
In this strange time, when many of our usual practices are upended or unavailable, I invite you to join me in reimagining former practices or trying new practices that might help place us in the light of God’s grace, that we might grow and flourish, and draw others into the light that they might grow and flourish.
* Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
And now, all these months have come and gone, but I miss being in church. I listen to the virtual Sunday church and I began to email them to my mother. We talk about the services and as we did this I realized that I am growing in my faith. I pray that the pandemic will not become a second wave of the novel coronavirus and that we may have vaccines to create immunity. And as I see chaos and division around our country I pray that the future will be better and that we will grow in strength and community.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
My dear mom, who recently turned 99 years young, has always been an advocate of "growing old gracefully". She should know.......she set the bar high and lives each day to the fullest. I love the Bible verse in Peter which states: "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen!"
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Here is my invitation to you: Let yourself be present in each moment, battle and celebration. Let yourself try and let yourself fail. Let yourself celebrate and let yourself mourn. Let yourself be in the darkness and grow towards the light. Growth is here to be your teacher, friend and lifelong companion. It is not stagnant, but it is here to stay.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
I still disinfect everything and remind them to wash hands, distance, and wear a mask when needed. It is now done with laughter and the wise words of two seven-year old girls who often say to me, “Nana, you worry too much about us, we will be fine.” As I watch them grow in love, I see they are right. We will be fine.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Saturday, September 12, 2020
The Rev. Robert E. Stevens, Jr.
Seek
The poet David Whyte continues to be a light in the darkness for me. I commend his poetry to you and also his Ted talk found at this link https://youtu.be/u9Lu85L111Y or simply search Youtube for David Whyte Ted Talk. I cannot help but think of our beloved community of SJC during this challenging time when I read his poem “Santiago” and watch his Ted Talk. I pray it provides you with hope as well.
Santiago by David Whyte
The road seen, then not seen, the hillside
hiding then revealing the way you should take,
the road dropping away from you as if leaving you
to walk on thin air, then catching you, holding you up,
when you thought you would fall,
and the way forward always in the end
the way that you followed, the way that carried you
into your future, that brought you to this place,
no matter that it sometimes took your promise from you,
no matter that it had to break your heart along the way:
the sense of having walked from far inside yourself
out into the revelation, to have risked yourself
for something that seemed to stand both inside you
and far beyond you, that called you back
to the only road in the end you could follow, walking
as you did, in your rags of love and speaking in the voice
that by night became a prayer for safe arrival,
so that one day you realized that what you wanted
had already happened long ago and in the dwelling place
you had lived in before you began,
and that every step along the way, you had carried
the heart and the mind and the promise
that first set you off and drew you on and that you were
more marvelous in your simple wish to find a way
than the gilded roofs of any destination you could reach:
as if, all along, you had thought the end point might be a city
with golden towers, and cheering crowds,
and turning the corner at what you thought was the end
of the road, you found just a simple reflection,
and a clear revelation beneath the face looking back
and beneath it another invitation, all in one glimpse:
like a person and a place you had sought forever,
like a broad field of freedom that beckoned you beyond;
like another life, and the road still stretching on.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
But our work together is a union, a joining together that involves intense, sacred moments of vulnerability, trust, emotional intimacy, and even love. In helping clients reach their goal for protection – sanctuary – in the U.S., my work is as much about fortifying them for battle as it is about gathering evidence and preparing legal arguments.