Beloved Friends,
Many of you know of my fondness for the writings of poet Mary Oliver. Today, she comes to mind again as I remember this line from one of my favorite poems titled “Summer Day”:
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
For a few days this month and all of August I will be stepping away in hopes of remembering once again, to breathe deeply and slow down into the rhythm of Sabbath time. Lately, the beauty of Sabbath time has seemed allusive amidst our exciting, if not somewhat frenetic pace with all the amazing changes happening at Trinity including: finishing both the 2030 Vision and our Feasibility Study, welcoming our Curate, Deacon Megan and our new Director of Music & the Arts, Dr. Jerry Custer as well as shifting all our offices to make better ways of working together as a growing team. All of these changes feel like a gift from God and needs to be balanced with a time of equal parts silence and solace. This past year and a half of ministry together has also reminded me throughout it all we are called to recognize both the wildness and preciousness of each and every moment. I remain so grateful for our bonds and growing connections.
Each of our lives is a brief moment on the continuum of eternity. The speed of life can’t be controlled, but recently, I have found myself feeling so grateful for the brilliant companionship we are discovering together along the way. I am giving thanks today for the wideness of God’s love and mercy. Each of you make me better, kinder, wilder, wiser, and I pray I might be able to do some of the same for you. I had a moment at our all staff retreat day this past week when I looked around the table at the 6 faces of God staring back at me and realized we are indeed touching them hem of a garment that gives us power, purpose and presence when we pay attention.
As I step away for a brief respite, I have handed a baton of sorts to Deacon Megan asking her to carve out a little time each week to write to you from her “Curate’s Corner” in place of my Friday blog. The content will be of her choosing and I have encouraged her to share what she feels and sees and hears as one of the newer members of our Beloved Community. I can’t wait to read all she chooses to share in the coming weeks.
So, as we continue to move through these beautiful summer days, I invite you to join me in paying close attention to God’s work in our lives as we ask “…what is it WE plan to do with OUR one wild and precious life?”
May you never forget that you are loved.
Lisa
The Summer Day – Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?