The end of the church year is in sight, and with that, the end of my time as your intern minister approaches...
While the ball keeps rolling ahead as usual, it begins to collect reflections in its path. Reflections on the moments of joy and exploration, trying and learning so many new things, on the uphills and downhills, and mountains expected and not, on the curiosity and questions that arose and guided so much of what I have begun to understand.
Then, last Sunday, I spoke about rest in my sermon. About Tricia Hersey’s Nap Ministry and how she brilliantly empowers rest as a form of resistance. And I couldn't help but interrogate my own practices of rest in this time of reflection and “wrapping it up.” So I looked to my Rest Deck, a deck of cards published by Hersey, each of which calls you into a practice of rest, and I pulled a card.
“I will sit down and daydream.”
So, I did. And I remembered…
Yesterday
I saw a blue jay as I walked
beneath a tree, crossing paths
with a fellow trail wanderer. “Is that a blue jay?”
I pointed. The brilliant cerulean feathers
seemed to glow. He looked up
and offered an attentive “Huh!”
I was delighted.
There are so many important things that we do in our lives, in this community, and we had a glimpse of that at the Committee Fair on Sunday. I am struck by how what we do and the things that keep us busy are sometimes the things that also tap into possibility, hope, and imagination. They tap into our daydreaming selves.
And now, as the months I have at First Church dwindle, I consider all the seeds that I have planted this year for myself; I think of the seeds I have seen planted by others for themselves and for this church, by the committees and the staff and each person who offers their voice here, and I dream of the flowers that may bloom forth. I hope you dream of them, too. I hope most of all that you point to them as they blossom, that someone responds with an attentive "Huh!" and that you are delighted.
With love & gratitude,
Sophia